Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Current News
Overcoming Obstacles to Authentic ePortfolio Assessment
3/14/2005
If a faculty member is a recipient of the full-value, full-fidelity student work, s/he can reasonably be entrusted to respect the student’s rights of ownership. However, how should a student’s work be protected when the faculty or institutional goal is to display student work in the context of institutional assessment? What if a student essay is used in an NCATE review as an example of “below target” performance? The likelihood of getting student sign-off as author of sub-par work is certainly lower than if a student is asked to share “exemplary” work.Most colleges and universities concerned with using ePortfolio for institutional assessment address the issue of student ownership in an upfront policy that requests that student’s sign-off to permit “anonymous” or “anonymous and aggregated” use of student work. In the “strong compliance” model, the student is required to authorize this anonymous and aggregated use as a condition of taking a course. The “soft” condition requires a student to explicitly share each individual instance of their work, even though this approach runs contrary to an institution’s wish to provide full-range profiles of student accomplishment. Until we have more history, institutional use of student work will continue to be a balancing act; one in which the student’s ownership rights must be pre-eminent. In any circumstance, an a priori policy understood by all partners to the contract is essential for full and ethical deployment of ePortfolio.
As to the second obstacle, faculty workload and a request for explicit feedback to aid a student’s reflection can be viewed as both an affront to academic freedom (mandatory critique of student work) and, if done using technology rather than a red pen, another new skill a faculty must develop to perform their duties. Because too many students understand a faculty critique as a roadmap to an improved grade rather than an opportunity for personal improvement, making the review process well managed invites grade challenges and time-consuming conversations about the grade rather than the work. ePortfolio allows students to easily share their assignment and feedback with other students, and perceived or real differences in evaluation likely will lead to an increased number of grade challenges.
Even more demanding, critiquing an ePortfolio requires faculty to be explicit and consistent in applying assessment criteria. Often, faculty have never clearly articulated these criteria, even for themselves. It is much easier to form gestalt impressions and offer vague comments for review—good, clear, engaging, provocative, poor, muddy, rambling, pedestrian—rather than individualized and specific comments that might promote learning--re-organize this paragraph. build this argument, use one of these substitute phrases to make your point.
While this level of feedback is hard enough in the conventional red pen critique model, to make general feedback explicit and actionable by the student in a technological environment currently requires more work on the part of the faculty. However, to the extent that the quality of the review correlates to improved student performance, an instructor should offer rich feedback. ePortfolio must provide tools to assist the faculty in providing this improved commentary on student work.
Recommended Reading
- News Update :: Tuesday, November 25, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Institute for Cyber Security at U Texas, San Antonio Opens Incubator
: ISO/IEC Publishes Office Open XML Standard
: Dynamics NAV 2009 ERP Coming Next Month
: Southwest Baptist U Adopts Angel LMS
: IE8 Release Candidate Coming on Q1 2009
: Hodges U Credits Lecture Capture for Online Enrollment Boost
: Mitsubishi Debuts WXGA Projectors for Education
: Slippery Rock U Applies SAS to Data Management and Reporting
: Moodle Gets SCORM Improvements, Security Fixes - IT Trends :: Thursday, November 20, 2008
:::::: CASE STUDY
:: DePaul Sets the Bar in Student Relationship Management
:::::: IT NEWS
:: Microsoft Unveils Exchange and SharePoint as Services
:: Penn State Pilots Proctored Online Testing System from Kryterion
:: State-wide New Mexico E-learning Program Adopts Wimba for Collaboration
:: IBM Launches 'Pass It Along' Social Networking, Knowledge Sharing Tool
:: MIR3 Adds Recorded Response Feature to Mass Notification Service
:: Northern New Mexico College Moves to Latest AVG Anti-Virus
:: Ubuntu ARMed for Mobile Expansion - SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
:::::: SPOTLIGHT
: 6 Ways Not To Become Rote Using Instructional Technology
:::::: NEWS and PRODUCT UPDATES
: CSU System Adopts Moodle LMS Services
: CourseCast Integrates Closed-Captioning Service
: Wimba Pronto 2.1 Adds Accessibility, Spanish Language Features
: Mitsubishi Debuts XD95U 'Pico' Projector
: InFocus Launches DisplayLink Projector for Education - Web 2.0 :: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
:::::: THE BUZZ
: Bringing Student Web "Stuff" to Campus Enterprise Systems
:::::: WEIGHING IN
: Tipping Point for "Content"--Dynamic Interaction, Not Static Stuff
:::::: PRODUCTS AND APPS
: Delta iTunes U Helps Meet Student Expectations for Web 2.0 Apps
: Penn State Pilots Proctored Online Testing System from Kryterion
: State-wide New Mexico E-learning Program Adopts Wimba for Collaboration
: CSU System Adopts Moodle LMS Services
: Office Web Apps Will Work on iPhones - News Update :: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Carnegie Mellon Validates Production Xirrus 802.11n Network
: Ave Maria U Deploys In-Building Cellular Gear
: ASU Campus Nixes Fiber; Chooses Gigabit Wireless for Network Connectivity
: Sun Unveils Family of Open Storage Appliances
: Office Web Apps Will Work on iPhones
: Sun To Cut More Than 15 Percent of Global Workforce
: Texas A&M Upgrades Supply Chain Lab Curriculum
: Texas Lutheran U Implementing Jenzabar EX for ERP
: Anna U Chennai Partners with Cypress on Embedded Systems Engineering - Campus Security :: November 14, 2008
:::::: SECURITY SPOTLIGHT
: Smart Phone Security: New Challenges for Road Warriors
:::::: CAMPUS SECURITY NEWS
: SMobile Releases Antivirus To Protect Google Android Phones
: Blue Coat Integrates Network Appliances
: e2Campus Provides Twitter Integration in Emergency Notification System
: Moodle Gets Student Verification Capabilities
: Rave Wireless Adding BlackBerry Devices to Notification Service
: U Miami Trades IPS for Top Layer Security System
: Cornell Hardens Campus Network with Gigabit Wireless Radio Links
: U Pittsburgh Turns to Verizon Business for Automated Notification Services
