Transcript Electronic Portfolios: Tools for Learning and the Workplace

Electronic Portfolios:
Tools for Learning and the
Workplace
Tracy Penny Light, St. Jerome’s University
Bob Sproule, University of Waterloo
2017 The Workplace
October 13, 2007
Today’s Overview
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Electronic Portfolios for Learning
UW Competency Portfolio Project
Developing Competencies in Accounting and
Financial Management
Research in Co-op
What are Electronic Portfolios?
Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are
collections of digitally represented artifacts
that:
 document practice
 include reflection
 integrate experience
 map to goals and/or standards
 promote deep learning and knowledge
transfer
Characteristics of Deep Learning
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Deep Learning
– involves reflection
– is developmental
– is integrative
– is self-directive
– is lifelong
(Cambridge as quoted in Barrett, 2004):
Accounting and Financial Management
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Professional “soft-skills” - initially focused on
teamwork skills
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Brooke
Building on academic skills in the workplace
(co-op work terms)
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Thermani
Accounting and Financial Management
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Expanded to include community learning
(residence life)
Research focused on 2 areas:
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Reflection as a tool for developing competency
Making connections between learning
experiences (co-op to academic)
Research Project
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National Coalition on Electronic Portfolio
Research
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The University of Waterloo’s context
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The University of Waterloo’s research issues:
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How does engagement with ePortfolios map against other
engagement indicators (NSSE)?
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Do ePortfolios assist students to document their learning
in different contexts and promote transfer between them?
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Do ePortfolios transform how students view learning?
Research Project
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Reflection is what makes us learners; we need to
practice, assess and perfect it.
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Four criteria characterize the concept of reflection:
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Reflection is a meaning making process
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Reflection is systematic, rigorous and disciplined; with roots in
scientific inquiry
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Reflection needs to happen in community
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Reflection requires attitudes that value personal and intellectual
growth
From: Carol Rodgers, “Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective
Thinking,” Teachers College Record, 104, 4 (June 2002): 842-866
Initial Research Project
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Our study group – accounting students
starting their academic program in the fall of
2006
Their work to date – create an ePortfolio and
reflections / artifacts to date
Our pilot project group – accounting students
who started their academic program in the fall
of 2004
Contextual Comments
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University/College setting tends to focus on the academic
setting only.
Professional accounting organizations have developed
competencies for their profession.
Government funding for post secondary institutions is
increasingly focused on demonstrated learning outcomes.
Our program and curriculum mapping
ePortfolios support higher order thinking consistent with
Bloom’s taxonomy.
Changes in our world, as a result of technology and
globalization further support the need for integrative learning.
ePortfolios facilitate : connections, benchmark performance
and plan for the future.
Importance of feedback
Early Results – Initial Project
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Making connections by reflecting on one’s
experience is a learned skill, one that students need
to develop.
The opportunity to make connections will foster
development:
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“I would just like to say that I never knew just how important the
team reflections from AFM 131 would be, until I began preparing for
interviews for summer internships at accounting firms. I figured they
would ask about teaming [sic] experience (which they did) and I was
fully prepared to answer their questions because I referred to what I
had wrote [sic] in my team reflections. On a side note, I have
received an offer… and I owe a lot of that to the reflections!
Virtually all of their questions were about experiences in teams.”
Student email, February 25, 2007
Early Results – Initial Project
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In one-time contexts we need to scaffold
student learning.
Expected outcomes that reflections
address need to be clearly articulated.
Analysis of the first 3 reflections from the
pilot project group show progressive
demonstration of:
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Meaning making
Reflection in community
Attitudes that value personal and intellectual
growth
Early Results – Initial
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ePortfolios need to be program based.
ePortfolios provide context to one’s
learning.
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“I had a new perspective on learning, a new
appreciation on how my life was connected, and a
new tool to organize my thoughts with. I realize
now that my personal interests have value in my
education, and my education in the way I live my
life outside the classroom”
From a student, July 2007.
Workplace Research
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Can ePortfolios supplement or substitute work
term reports?
What is the connection between ePortfolios
and HR systems designed to track
competency/skill development?
How can ePortfolios be useful to employers
(before and after hiring)?
Conclusions
Electronic Portfolios are:
 an integrating tool for learning and knowledge
transfer
 a way to “close the loop” between the academic and
workplace (and community) contexts
 a tool to develop reflective thinking which promotes
life-long learning for the changing workplace
Questions?
Thank you!
Tracy Penny Light
[email protected]
Bob Sproule
[email protected]