Mahara Presentation - Case Studies of eportfolio implementation: Challenges & Opportunities
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The document discusses case studies of e-portfolio implementation at Macquarie University. It provides context about two programs - an internship program and a postgraduate course - that trialed the use of e-portfolios for assessment. Findings from student surveys showed that the e-portfolio was more helpful for reflection and assessment submission for internship students compared to postgraduate students. Challenges included usability issues and the need for more support and training. Opportunities existed to improve integration of e-portfolios across the university.
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Mahara Presentation - Case Studies of eportfolio implementation: Challenges & Opportunities
- 1. 1 Case studies of e-portfolio implementation: challenges and opportunities Macquarie International Internship Program Macquarie University Amanda Parker Alex Thackray
- 2. 2 • University context • Trial background and aims • Methodology • Findings • Future challenges and opportunities Agenda
- 4. 4 • The Technologies in Learning and Teaching Plan (2009-2012) has identified e-portfolios as a priority for research and development. • Participation unit as part of PACE (Participation and Community Engagement) Program University Context
- 5. 5 Macquarie International Internship Program • Approximately 100 students in semester 1 trial • Undergraduate and postgraduate students • Majority international students • 20% of assessment mark from online reflective activities Adding a professional dimension to the university experience
- 6. 6 Higher Education postgraduate unit: Designing ICT-based Course and Learning Materials • Approximately 30 postgraduate students • Blackboard used to host unit content and Mahara provided as an option for storing and submitting assessment tasks
- 7. 7 To explore the potential of an e-portfolio tool to: • Enable students to store and share evidence of their learning • Encourage and document critical reflection on the learning journey • Streamline assessment and feedback processes Aims of the study
- 8. 8 Mahara Implementation Process • System design with Netspot • Staff training • Redesign assessment tasks • Design user guide and update unit outline • Student training session
- 9. 9 4 ‘Views’ completed during semester Assessment tasks in Mahara
- 11. 11 1. Profile 2. Forum Assessment tasks in Mahara
- 12. 12 3. Blog 4. Job Application Assessment tasks in Mahara
- 13. 13 • Case study approach • Online survey of staff and student perceptions • 112 students total • 82 Internship Program students • 30 Higher Education postgraduate students Methodology
- 14. 14 • Of the 112 students invited, 82 participated in the survey (73%) consisting of: - 20 of the 30 enrolled in the Higher Education program - 62 of the 82 enrolled in the Internships program Findings
- 15. 15 Internship program Higher education unit 50% 15% Students who strongly agreed or agreed that overall, the e-portfolio tool was helpful for their learning: Effectiveness • Higher education students had the option of using Mahara in addition to Blackboard •Internships training session at the start of semester
- 16. 16 Program Strongly Agree or Agree Neutral or Disagree Higher Education 25% (5) 75% (15) Internships 62% (38) 38% (24) The e-portfolio was helpful in collating my work for submission as part of the unit’s assessment Program Strongly Agree or Agree Neutral or Disagree Higher Education 10% (2) 90% (18) Internships 65% (40) 35% (22) The e-portfolio helped me reflect on what I have learned during the unit Effectiveness
- 17. 17 • Students commented on the benefits of the e- portfolio in supporting reflection • “I can see the benefits of e-portfolio in self- reflection...to review what I learnt, what I can improve, how the organisation could be improved and how to manage my time more efficiently” Reflection
- 18. 18 • Student feedback showed the value of communication and interaction but many resisted the social networking aspect: “In my opinion there are too many social networking sites around and further ones could be a burden for some people. Personally, I use three different social networks already and that is enough for me” Social Networking
- 19. 19 “Just because we are the Facebook generation does not mean that we need a Facebook for every part of our lives.” • Students expressed a desire for more face to face meetings Social Networking
- 20. 20 • Students identified the benefits of authentic assessment in building their confidence in future job applications • “E-portfolio provides several interesting job hunting skills and tips for us to use” Authentic Assessment
- 21. 21 Program Strongly Agree or Agree Neutral or Disagree Higher Education 35% (7) 65% (13) Internships 62% (39) 38% (23) I had sufficient support to use the e-portfolio tool Support
- 22. 22 Support used Response Percent Response Count Online instructions about the site e.g. user manual 64% (45) Individual guidance from unit convenor 36% (25) No support used – I just worked it out for myself 19% (13) Individual guidance from other students 14% (10) Online discussion with other users 11% (8) Which types of support did you utilise in learning how to use the tool? Support
- 23. 23 • Over half (55%) of students who utilised online instructions agreed or strongly agreed they were helpful • 57% of students who sought individual guidance from the unit convenor agreed or strongly agreed that it was helpful Support
- 24. 24 Program Strongly Agree or Agree Neutral or Disagree Higher Education 35% (7) 65% (13) Internships 40% (25) 60%(37) The e-portfolio was generally easy to use Usability
- 25. 25 Student comment: “The links were not clear as to where I needed to go – I had to keep flicking through to figure out where I needed to get to” Usability
- 26. 26 • Need to integrate e-portfolio into whole curriculum • Training and support • Time and workload • Scaffolding for students in self-reflection Challenges
- 27. 27 • Building of a supportive project team and collaborative network across campus • With improvements to design and usability of the system, the e-portfolio is a potentially valuable learning tool for students • Scope for use in other units across campus • Integration of Mahara with Moodle Opportunities
- 28. 28 Questions
- 29. 29 References • Butler, P. (2006) A review of the literature on portfolios and electronic portfolios (eCDF E-portfolio Project), October, Palmerston North, New Zealand, Massey University College of Education. Retrieved October 2009, from https://eduforge.org/docman/view.php/176/1111/ePortfolio%20Project%20Research%20Report.pdf • Gosper, M., Woo, K., Muir, H., Dudley, C., & Nakazawa, K. (2007). Selecting ICT based solutions for quality learning and sustainable practice. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 23(2), 227-247. • IMS Global Learning Consortium (2005) IMS ePortfolio best practice and implementation guide, Retrieved November 2009, from http://www.imsglobal.org/ep/epv1p0/imsep_bestv1p0.html. • JISC (2007) e-Portfolios: An overview of JISC activities. Bristol: JISC Development Group, University of Bristol, www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/eportfoliooverviewv2.aspx [viewed 4 June2010]. • Macquarie University (2008) Authentic Assessment, Assessment Toolkit, Learning and Teaching Centre, Retrieved November 2009. • McAllister, L. M., Hallam, G. C., & Harper, W. E. (2008). The ePortfolio as a tool for lifelong learning: Contextualising Australian practice. Paper presented at the International Lifelong Learning Conference 2008. from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/14061/ • McCowan, C., W. Harper and K. Hauville (2005) Student e-portfolio: The successful implementation of an e-portfolio across a major Australian University, Australian Journal of Career Development. 14(2), 40-52. • JISC (2007). e-Portfolios: An overview of JISC activities, Available from www.jisc.ac.uk/ publications/publications/eportfoliooverviewv2.aspx • Race, P. (2001). The Lecturer's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Learning, Teaching and Assessment. London: Kogan Page. • Woutersa, P., Paas, F., & van Merriënboerb, J. (2009). Observational learning from animated models: Effects of modality and reflection on transfer. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1), 1-8. • Yorke, J., & Croot, D. (2004, 5-8 December). Personalised records of lifelong learning in the UK: What do our learners want? Paper presented at the Beyond the comfort zone: 21st ASCILITE Conference, Perth.
- 30. 30 Case studies of e-portfolio implementation: challenges and opportunities Macquarie International Internship Program Macquarie University Amanda Parker Alex Thackray
Editor's Notes
- The University’s development of graduate capabilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, lifelong learning, creativity and effective communication, are now embedded in each program. E-portfolios provide opportunities to capture the development of these capabilities, which have typically been considered as difficult to assess. Traditionally EPs have been widely used in teacher education and medical courses, but there have been few studies on the use of EPs in work-integrated learning and volunteer programs.
- The university has initiated an investigation into e-portfolios by establishing a working party, and has identified EPs as a priority in the TILT plan. The University’s development of graduate capabilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, lifelong learning, creativity and effective communication, are now embedded in each program. E-portfolios provide opportunities to capture the development of these capabilities, which have typically been considered as difficult to assess. Traditionally EPs have been widely used in teacher education and medical courses, but there have been few studies on the use of EPs in work-integrated learning and volunteer programs. We saw this as a good opportunity to contribute to research on the use of EPs in a multidisciplinary internship program while at the same time exploring the scope for the use of this technology in assessing PACE units.
- We trialled the e-portfolio in two units: The internship units and a higher education unit.We are from the internship program and will mainly be discussing the trial from our perspective.Internship program:Semester long internships in a variety of different fields e.g. Marketing, business admin, finance, media, journalism, PR, biology psychology – potentially anything MQ offers as a field of study.Place approximately 250 students per year and work with around the same number of host organisations.The students: see slide
- Had to first choose an EP platform.We chose a system called Mahara. This is open source software, and we used funds from our grant to pay for managed hosting, training and support through a company called Netspot.Incorporating the EP into our curriculum was quite an in depth process consisting of these stage Slide
- Scaffolded tasks throughout semester for example the purpose of View 1 was to familiarise students with Mahara, set up their profile and introduce themselves students in their group. Each View required students to complete a blog entry, post on the forum and complete an activityThese are some examples of what the welcome page, list of activities (views) and View pages looked like...
- Example of View 3 - Instructions
- Examples of profile page set up by each student, and a forum task
- Examples of Mahara tasks – blog and job application activity – final view.
- The Blog tool was used by students a minimum of four times during the semester to keep a track of their hours, and record their tasks and key events/reflections on the learning process. The students were asked what they liked about the EP, but were not specifically asked to comment on the reflective process so it is interesting to read comments such as this one (see quote)
- Students were put into forum groups and asked to introduce themselves to each other in the first week of their internship. In subsequent weeks they were asked to participate in a discussion on various topics such as their cross cultural experiences.
- Unexpected findings/comments - This comment was from an internship student. This comment indicates that we can’t assume that students will be equally as excited about using social networking tools in their assessments as they are in their private lives – after all, EP is an assessment tool rather than just for fun like other social networks.In semester 2 - we encouraged students to use the forum to organise meetings with others in their group.
- Internship students were asked in View 2 to complete a project plan and identify the competencies they planned to develop during their internship.In View 4, they were asked to complete a job application activity where they searched for a job relevant to their field of study. They then had to identify three competencies from the job advertisement and demonstrate how they possessed these skills.The idea of this activity was to prompt students to consider what they learned from their international internship and how they could articulate this to potential employers in future job applications. The result was positive – student in this slide has identified how the skills gained in this assessment could assist them in real life Slide quote.
- We have not broken up the results here as they were similar for both units.Most students selected the online instructions (such as the user manual) or one on one help from unit convenors to familiarise themselves with the tool.
- Again - we have not broken up the results here as the responses were very similar in both unitsInternship students were talked through Mahara step by step in orientation session ImplicationsIndividual guidance was preferredby students but is not sustainable on a larger scale as it is very labour intensive.This is something that would need to be considered if the EP were to be adopted across the university.
- Students provided comments on the functionality of the e-portfolio tool e.g. Slide.There were some common themes in the comments about usability which revealed students consistently struggled with navigation and task submission.It was often only through repeated use that students became more familiar and confident with the tool. The e-portfolio was not immediately intuitive to navigate and use.Changes for Sem 2:Have not been able to redesign the system but implemented some small changes: e.g. Better training – more thorough, and higher rate of attendance than for Sem 1.Changes in forum topics to make them shorter and more conducive to student interaction (previously, students were just typing huge chunks of text which were too not reader friendly and did not encourage others to respond).- Encouraged F2F student interaction e.g. Use forum groups to organise informal meetings with other students. We have not organised ‘formal’ meetings run by internship staff but rather encouraged students to take their own initiative to interact, as students expressed a desire for informal interactions. They tend to resist formal meetings run by staff, as the internship unit is already demanding, and tend to seek out opportunities to have a coffee and get to know each other.