This document discusses the use of ePortfolios in academia and design education. It proposes using WordPress as a blogging and portfolio tool for design students, with each student having their own blog/website URL. Benefits include helping with personal development planning, making student work accessible, and preparing students for digital practices in industry. Challenges addressed are engaging different types of students, maintaining the system, and ensuring student privacy and ownership of their work. The proposal is to trial the WordPress portfolio system with students in the coming academic year.

1. ePortfolios
by Design
What‟s the big idea?

2. Some definitions
Key terms and differences

3. ePortfolio in academia means:
PebblePad Blog

4. Portfolio in design land means:
A portfolio A website

5. PDP: International research
Australian e-Portfolio Project
Institution: Queensland University of Technology
Published: 2008
Conditions for summative portfolio assessement in medical education
Institution: Utrecht University
Published: 2006
e-Portfolio, Life Long Promises for Learning?!
Institution: Windesheim University
Making Student Learning Visible
Institution: Penn State University
Published: 2006

6. PDP and e-portfolio: UK
University of Hull Dissertation Direct: a PebblePad learning space for finalist stud
University of Central Lancashire
“we aim to produce easy-to-use guides for academic
staff, focussing on the embedding of reflection in the formal
curriculum, and for personal advisers, focussing on helping
students with personal reflection, self-awareness, skills
analysis, and career planning.”
Buckinghamshire New University
Effective implementation of PDP and ePortfolio across curricula
with a professional, employment and academic focus.
The Centre for Recording Achievement UK

7. e-portfolios can be used for:
• Integration of formal, informal and work-based
learning into a coherent whole.
• Accessibility – learning can be demonstrated in
the way most appropriate to an individual‟s
situation.
• Personal Development Plan
• Academic Tutorial
• Monitor and support
• Portability and ownership of personal learning.
• Behavioral management
• save students‟ time in assembling and presenting
work¨

8. Benefits for the teaching team:
• make students‟ work accessible from
anywhere
• easy to check on progress for individual
students for three years
• improve the monitoring of progress
(struggling students can be identified more
quickly)
• Assist team communication and speedy
responses.

9. Student use of
ePortfolios

10. ePortfolios are supposed
to be a process
Scrapbook / Ideas /
Collaboration
Submitted pieces
Final selections (CV)

11. And there are different
audiences for each stage
Scrapbook /
Ideas
Submitted
pieces
Final
selections

12. And the tools they may use
Blog > PebblePad > Website/Email
Scrapbook /
Ideas
Submitted
pieces
Final
selections

13. Case studies show that…
• Good use of web media empahsises the use of
interaction and commenting and can break down the
top down aspect of teaching
• Referencing & research is far better in those students
that use blogs vs paper based (Simply as it is so easy)
• Students are much more into this technology than we
realise (caveat is more mature students get left behind)
• We should embrace the mashup principle of the web 2.0
– the essence of research

14. Design students
simply use different
media

15. The real world equivalent
at Worcester Digital Arts
Learning Journal
(sketchbook)
Assessed artwork (eg. Poster)
and or text (Learning report)
Portfolio for big wide world

16. And the tools they may use
Private Blog > Blog > ePortfolio
Scrapbook /
Ideas
Submitted
pieces
Final
selections

17. Which is also what happens
in industry
Moodboard / Research - Pinterest Final Piece

18. Why are we not using such
a system?
• Students (such as me) find their own tools if the
provided ones are not good enough
• If the provided tools aren‟t intuitive
• If they serve different purposes to what is being asked
• If technology has moved on
• If the teaching of such tools is not in the cirriculum some
students will not explore the possibilities
• Tutors generally use blogs as do some students
• Should embrace the fact that they use different systems

19. So Why are these
needs not served?

20. Are designers that different?
• As far as we can tell there is no one product that design
students use.
• We think the reasons are:
• The stepped process of learning
• Web „things‟ move much too fast
• Tools out there, such as
blogger, tumblr, flickr, deviantArt do one thing and do it
very well
• Plus there is a new cool thing every year

21. The solution?
The Question mark is important

22. Wordpress
• Has reached a mature state and become many things to
different people
• IS the industry standard and looks like being for at least
a couple of years
• Has the ability to be a blogging collaboration tool as well
as a portfolio, and can switch by the flick of a theme

23. The big idea
Design led
blogging tool
Portfolio of
pieces

24. The real world equivalent
at Worcester Digital Arts
Learning Journal (sketchbook)
Assessed artwork (eg. A Book
cover) and or text (Learning
report)
Portfolio for big wide world

25. An ecosystem of sites
Class of
‟14
portfolio
Student
1
Student
4
Student
5
Tutor
1
Tutor
2
Student
3
Student
2

26. Worcesterdegreeshows.co.uk
The first, simple, prototype portfolio site

27. Worcesterdegreeshows.co.uk
The first, simple, prototype portfolio site

28. FolioPress.me
Branding and name

29. A couple of
examples
How will this thing work

30. “LAURA”
Example of a less techy, more arty student

31. Laura3434.worcdigital.co.uk
• Gets a blog setup for her on the above address, with pre-
made module categories, links to tutor blogs and fellow
students
• First week, first module, she is shown in class how to.
• She is given some tasks
• Find an example graphic piece, write 100 words and post
article.
• Find a fellow student‟s blog, write a comment
Laura also gets a sketchbook decides that this blogging
stuff is not for her. She continues to use paper for the rest
of her time. Her blog remains waiting for her.

32. “DAVID”
Example of a digital learner

33. David3434.worcdigital.co.uk
• Gets the same blog and is given same tasks.
• Continues to use the blog as a learning tool, and expands
the use to other modules throughout his three years at
Uni.
• During his second year he needs to show his portfolio to
the wider world. He uses this tool to do so and sends the
link around to employers.
• He updates the look an content of his outward portfolio
throughout.
• He buys his own domain and uses the same blog.
• After university he gets a job but continues to use his
own webspace, domain and blog for his needs.

34. So what do we want
from this?
And who is we?

35. Learning
• Students well versed in digital with confidence
• Better referencing and research (Mashups)
• Different way of working more like industry and social
• Central took for their studies rather than modular
• Help with PDP for each student
• as the things they do are all in one place – a current problem
with the modular system

36. Tools
Scrapbook /
Ideas
Submitted
pieces
Portfolio

37. Marketing
Class of
‟13
portfolio
Student
1
Student
3
Student
2

38. Longevity
• Keep track of work, have digital copies – a university
portfolio
• URLs matter for Search, as does cross linking of content
• These will build up over time and be used again and again
• Students do some of the marketing for us, including a
network of Alumni.

39. The what
Our big plan

40. When is all this happening
• Degree show site was a prototype – May „13
• Trial with students September ‟13 – built into new
module map
• Iron out problems, create report and larger release Jan
‟14
• Productise and package with industry partnerships?

41. What will a student get?
• Webspace
• FTP access to their blog folder
• Domain name
• With instructions on how to mask their URL
• Wordpress blog with some default settings
• Categories for module codes
• Portfolio led themes
• Privacy settings
• Blogroll to fellow students and tutors
• Useful plugins already installed
• Some documentation

42. URLS = longevity
Studentname.worcesterarts.ac.uk
Studentcrazyname.com

43. Maintenence
• We see this as a multisite wordpress system
• http://codex.wordpress.org/User:Beltranrubo/BitNami
_Multisite
• Tutors and IT will have superadmin rights

44. Privacy – a big issue
• Posts should be marked as private, unpublished or
public
• Private posts can be seen by select folk including tutors
• This is not only because of privacy but also copyright
• Portfolios should be the public facing area

45. Legals
• Blogs need to be the responsibility of individual users
and not attributed to the University
• Flags should be put up for copyright etc.
• In the same way as Social sites

46. Official vs unofficial
• The joy of Facebook is that it is deemed to be
“uncontrolled”
• A university publication has the air of officialdom and of
top down that school kids are used to
• FB groups that evolve organically are more useful to
students in “Getting stuff done on time” and can be
academically useful.
• If we demand they do a blog and interact with peers and
tutors, will they lose this?
• In order to succeed our tools must engage and use their
existing ones – for example posting to FB wall and
Twitter

47. Thank You
Sam Collett / Ree Han
References and files can be found:
stage.phenotype.net/samcollett