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Critical thinking and ePortfolios (with a Mahara focus)
Orna Farrell
Outline
• What is an eportfolio?• Pedagogy vs. technology• Eportfolio based learning• Critical thinking• Mahara• Assessment• What now? Where next?
About me
Orna FarrellAcademic Co-ordinator/Digital Learning Specialist- Humanities Programmes, Open Education Unit, NIDL, DCU
Phd candidate TCD- dissertation title “An exploration of criticality, reflective learning and eportfolios among third level learners”
[email protected]@orna_farrell
My first eportfolio-May 2009
What is an eportfolio?
• Port - to move • Folio - papers or artefacts • A portable collection of papers and/or
artefacts presented in a variety of formats• A place to assemble records and products of
learning and work to help an individual gain new work opportunities
• Old idea or new presentation method?
Definitions• “An e-portfolio is a purposeful
aggregation of digital artefacts created by the learner articulating and evidencing experiences, achievements and learning” (JISC, 2008)
• “eportfolios are student-owned dynamic digital workspaces wherein students can capture their learning and their ideas, access their collections of work, reflect on their learning, share it, set goals, seek feedback and showcase their learning achievements.” (EUFOLIO, 2015)
The Irish/HE context
• Slow pace of adoption of eportfolios in Irish Higher Education
• Horizon report (2015) “The global trend in higher education of the adoption and integration of technology into teaching and learning has gained pace over the last five years”
• among the top 10 key trends accelerating technology adoption identified by the Horizon report is the increase in eportfolios created by learners
• EUfolio- second level
Pedagogy vs. technology• It’s a whole curriculum approach not just a tool-
has to included in institutional strategies• “Learning is the desired outcome and technology
is the enabler or enhancer” (Kinash, Knight, McClean, 2015)
• “It is a fallacious deterministic notion to state that technology can enable learning” (Selwyn, 2012)
• If the e-portfolio is seen as “external to the core curriculum” the uptake by students may not be as extensive compared to an embedded approach (Simatele, 2014)
• “trying to create pedagogy anew- we should be in the business of locating the new technologies within proven practices and models of teaching.” (Beetham & Sharpe, 2014)
Eportfolio based learning• Eportfolio based learning is the “process of planning, compiling,
sharing, discussing, reflecting, giving and receiving feedback” (Hartnell-Young & Moriss, 2007)
• Process vs. product/ process and product?• An eportfolio as a product can provide learners with a personal
space to evidence their experiences, collect digital artefacts and articulate their learning
• An eportfolio as a process enables learners to move beyond what they have learned to thinking about how they learned (Hallam & Creagh, 2010)
• Reflection is a critical process which supports the creation of an e-portfolio
• Dialogic nature
Eportfolio based learning
(Jisc, 2008)
Critical thinking• My Phd project “An exploration of
criticality, reflective learning and eportfolios among third level learners”
• Follow (n=20) BA Humanities (online) students-mature flexible non traditional over one academic year for their final year project module
• Using the Facione & Facione (2008) & the Delphi models for critical thinking
• Tracking evidence (text analysis, audio/visual data from eportfolio) for features of development of criticality
critical thinking is a judgement process. Its goal is to decide what to believe and/or what to do in relation to the available evidence, using appropriate conceptualizations and methods and evaluated by the appropriate criteria.”(Facione & Facione, 2008)
Potential benefits• Engage and motivate learners• Personalise learning/ownership of learning• Promotes reflective practice• Make progress and attainment more obvious• Promote personal development planning• Support for learning and regular formative feedback• Retention • widening participation for non-traditional/flexible learners• Supports collaboration & collaborative learning • Capture the wider student experience-volunteering, clubs, societies(Grant, 2009) (JISC, 2008) (Beetham & Sharpe, 2014)(Hallam & Creagh, 2010) (O'Keeffe & Donnelly, 2013)
How can you use an eportfolio?
• Assessment: formative or summative• Personal development planning• Develop and evidence skills
(generic/key)• Work based learning• Career development & employability• Record progress & set goals• Giving feedback
“collect, select, reflect, publish” (Penn State)
About Mahara• Open source• Integrates with Moodle• Straight forward to use• Interactive • Visually pleasing• Similar to popular social media
websites• Can upload movies, files, photos• Blog• Resume builder• Major scope to personalise https://mahara.org/
My Mahara experiences
1. 2010 BA1 Business (n=7) PDP assessment2. 2010 Social Studies (n=25) Formative assessment3. 2011 US study Abroad (n=11) Learning journal4. 2011 Social Science & Social Studies (n=60) PDP
assessment5. 2013 MBA (n=50) PDP assessment6. 2013 Business School Employability modules
(n=500) Career development
Mahara examples
Learner perspectives“I thought I had an interesting story to tell, it was something different, everybody's will be different but I thought there was a fair bit of unique stuff in my little story.”
“It helped me analyse the type of learner that I am, it gave me new perspective on how to go about studying or doing assignments”
“It was a lot of fun, I learned as I was doing it and was amazed by the whole outcome.”
I love just tinkering with it (eportfolio) even when I wasn’t sitting down to do a specific job on it…I was thinking I wonder if I can do this?
Learner feedback
Yes87%
No13%
Did you enjoy the experi-ence of creating an eport -
folio?
38%
8%25%
17%
13%
Which areas did you improve?ITWritingPersonal developmentresearch skillsnone
Designing and assessing eportfolios• What is the purpose of the eportfolio?• what does it assess? • How does it align with the module learning outcomes?• What are we assessing – is it the product or the process?• How does it fit in with our existing approach to assessment?• Is an eportfolio the right assessment for this module?• How big/how many artefacts will it contain? • How long should audio/video be?• How should it be layed out and structured?
Race(2008) Values for assessment- valid, reliable, transparent, authentic, motivate learning, fair, timely, incremental, demanding, formative and summative, efficient
and manageable
PROs and CONs
Pros Cons
Tell more about students than exam results.
They take a lot of time to mark!
Reflect development & progression/other assessments are snapshots
They are difficult to mark objectively
Can reflect attitudes and values, as well as skills knowledge
Ownership of evidence
eportfolio activities/artefacts• Personal biography• Study schedule• Reflective writing piece• Summary of a journal article• First person video diary (vlog)• Infographic• Word cloud• Self assessment quiz• Photo diary/essay• Padlet- brainstorm• An annotated bibliography• A screen cast/ short film• CV• Reflect on a group project• Reflect on a work placement
Implementation questions??1. Are systems sufficiently robust to handle a large number of online
submissions of e-portfolios?2. How will Lecturers comment on online portfolios and return them to
students in line with current institutional assessment policies?3. Will all awarding bodies accept online e-portfolios? 4. Will external examiners, moderators be able to access the e-portfolio
online?5. How will Lecturers know if the digital evidence is authentic?6. Who is allowed access to the e-portfolio? (Security, data, copyright, legal)7. Does your system support anonymous marking?8. Do learners have the necessary ICT skills to produce an eportfolio?/Do
staff?
Implementation Toolkits: JISC, EUFOLIO, Australian eportfolio project, NZ MyPortfolio
Further reading/References• JISC (2008) Effective Practice with e-portfolios: Supporting
21st Century Learning. www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning • EUFOLIO. (2015). EU ePortfolio Pilot Project 2013-2015.
Summary Report Ireland. • Jonson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., &
Freeman, A. (2015). 2015 NMC Technology Outlook for Higher Education in Ireland: A Horizon Project Regional Report. Austin: The New Media Consortium.
• Simatele, M. (2015). Enhancing the portability of employability skills using eportfolios. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(6), 862-874.
