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Electronic Student Assessment: The Power of Portfolio
9/18/2006
“Don’t think of this as a buffet for the masses, think of it as a Big Mac: substantial, portable, and cheap,” says Syverson, who notes that the project was originally funded in 1994 with a $200,000 grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. “I think of it as a small, elegant implementation that d'es one thing very well.”
Then there’s the University of Hawaii system. In Honolulu, educators at Kapi‘olani Community College have turned to ePortfolios to evaluate student learning with two different approaches launched this year: the Na Wa‘a portfolio, a Hawaiian cultural values ePortfolio; and a culinary program that centers on learning outcomes based on standards from the American Culinary Federation. Both efforts are partially supported by a five-year, $2.5 million grant the school received from the US Department of Education. According to Judith Kirkpatrick, a professor of English at Kapi‘olani, the programs have changed the learning process fundamentally.
While the culinary project is straightforward in the way it requires students to demonstrate how they meet ACF standards, the Na Wa‘a effort is more subjective and complex. The open source initiative is the subject of a research project the school is conducting as part of the National Coalition on ePortfolio Research, and is predicated on students being able to articulate their own values and then relate them to their academic experiences, career goals, and extracurricular pursuits. Kirkpatrick says that constructing an electronic portfolio also encourages students to explore their family history online, forming what is essentially a living sociology textbook that changes over time.
Kirkpatrick sees long-term benefits for students, and much growth and expansion of the ePortfolio effort itself: “We think this will give students a stronger start and get them better integrated into what’s going to be required of them down the road. Our ePortfolio program will grow dynamically as our student body continues to evolve.”
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