Digication's New Vision for ePortfolio Technology
A Q&A with Jeffrey Yan
Almost exactly 5 years ago, CT talked with Digication CEO Jeffrey Yan about his company's commitment to making student lives better by improving pedagogy with ePortfolio technology. The conversation appeared in a 2017 Q&A article. Here's an update on what's relevant today as Digication continues its mission and principle of making learning visible.
"For the student, it's about being heard, being seen, and being recognized."
—Jeffrey Yan
Mary Grush: Leading Digication over the years, you've stayed true to your commitment to ePortfolio technology and your mission of making learning visible. But what has changed? What are the new pedagogical opportunities, or current environmental realities that you think about often as you guide your company?
Jeffrey Yan: I think that some of the things that have happened at our institutions and around our world, especially in the past couple of years, have ushered in a whole new context and way of thinking about pedagogy and how we use ePortfolios. Making learning visible has been at the core of Digication's philosophy for more than 20 years, and I think that's never going to go away. But we now recognize the tremendous importance of how ePortfolio technology is here to help students develop a sense of self, identity, and belonging.
We now recognize the tremendous importance of how ePortfolio technology is here to help students develop a sense of self, identity, and belonging.
What's front-of-mind today, about making learning visible, is that for the student, it's about being heard, being seen, and being recognized.
I do think that 5 years ago we had less of a stake in ePortfolio technology for opening up to this kind of development of sense of self for students. The technology was there; the urgency to use it in that way was much less understood.
Mary Grush: What are some of the environmental factors that are bringing out this sense of urgency?
Yan: I can name several — among them, the reinvigoration of thinking through our society's issues about race; the increasing concern about mental health on our campuses; the prevalence of questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in all our institutional cultures… These things are impacting students' lives to the point where it is truly urgent to have academic and co-curricular programs that address them.
All these things could be thought of either as drastically missing elements of our education programs or as inspiring new opportunities for program innovation. Either way, it's important to understand that the students need to be beneficiaries of a new awareness about the nature of how we make learning visible and relevant for them now.
It's important to understand that the students need to be beneficiaries of a new awareness about the nature of how we make learning visible and relevant for them now.
Grush: I would guess that it might be easy, though, for some observers to confuse these ideas about students being heard and recognized with a kind of self-consciousness and narrow introspection that would not promote growth and would in fact not be productive. Could you comment on that?
Yan: When I look at student ePortfolios today, generally I see an emphasis not on displaying a huge checklist of achievements, or pushing out a highly packed resume, but instead on showing the actual work and thinking along with the student's reflections on that work. So I think our students are not likely to slip into that limiting, self-centered process you might fear. They are much more likely to grow and expand their interests into new areas.
So this is where we are today: Students are thinking about their identity; they are making their work and stories of their experience available as opposed to presenting a profile of themselves or a checklist of skills achieved. It's about their work. It's about their story. That is what I've seen.
Grush: For the purposes of more closely defining your pedagogy, would you call this connected learning or social learning?
Yan: That's a good question. You could probably call it connected learning or social learning. But it's almost like a new brand or even an entirely new way of thinking about ePortfolio and making learning visible: It's about making identity and passion and purpose the core focus of one's learning.
Grush: So it is really something in a category by itself — something new — as you've called it here, a new brand. It's a new vision for ePortfolio technology.
Yan: Yes it is. And I think this is something that universities and colleges today will discover as a way to engage their students. A lack of student engagement is something for which institutions have, in fact, "felt the pain" and the urgency to employ this new brand. This is our opportunity to allow students to find out how they want to contribute to the world and forge their own identity. They will be able to respond to their own innate and intuitive desires and passions. This is the first big change in pedagogy in years, and it will create immense amounts of student engagement.
This is the first big change in pedagogy in years, and it will create immense amounts of student engagement.
Grush: So would you say that this is the one most important changes of direction you've seen in the past 5 years since we talked about making learning visible?
Yan: It is.
Grush: I think this might be a good place for a reminder that ePortfolio technology has been ready to do many of these things for a good many years — so this is more of a pedagogical change, rather than some new features or technology changes. The technology has been there and ready to do these things for some time.
Yan: I'd say that's fair.
Grush: We've heard a lot in recent years about ways to address the "whole student." Are ePortfolios poised to help students take on the long-term development of their own professional values by integrating personal passions early on in their academic careers?
Yan: One hundred percent. I think that ePortfolios have always had integrative learning as their backbone along with the reflective elements that are so central to the ePortfolio movement. And all along we've understood the potential for developing connections that can promote and carry professional development far into students' futures.
Grush: And are students making their own unique connections?
Yan: Yes, and I think it's particularly interesting to juxtapose that fact against the idea that it's an ongoing process — it's the journey, not the end product, that delivers the highest value from ePortfolios.
It's an ongoing process — it's the journey, not the end product, that delivers the highest value from ePortfolios.
Grush: It sounds like the ePortfolio process can ultimately deliver great value far down the road — well into students' future careers.
Yan: Yes, with benefits not only to the student, but to the student's eventual employer.
Grush: Are we looking at an ePortfolio market today that can handle the substantial changes like the ones we've just outlined?
Yan: Yes, and much of this is already being done — more than you might realize. The market is more than ready to engage with this new vision for ePortfolio technology.