NISOD 2008 - e-Portfolio + Reflective Writing = Enhnced Student Learning

This session was on a combination project between the Colorado department of Labor (e-Colorado), a writing instructor and an IT instructor, both from Pikes Peak Community College.

e-Colorado is a shared resources for workforce development and the instructors from Pikes peak used it as a repository for student portfolios - tying together reflective writing pieces with course work, the advantage was greater exposure of students to employers and students writing reflective pieces on their work, getting a better understanding of who they are and what they have done.

It was interesting to see how another institution, combined with a workforce development initiative used portfolio. I really liked the idea of having a site like e-Colorado to display student portfolios to industry. At my college we are much further developed in the use and integration of portfolio into our learning, but we do not have a "portal" for e-Portfolios like e-Colorado - I think it is something that we need to explore...

Subscription Learning - Sign Me Up!...

Like most institutions, the college I work at delivers its learning in the form of boxes - classes, courses, and programmes. Classes are regularly scheduled, course are offered by semester and programmes are anywhere from one to three tears in length. All are delivered on a regular schedule defined by the academic calendar. Learners fit their learning into this schedule.

But what if there were a different way to provide learning? One that is focussed on the convenience of learners, not the rules of institutions - what if a course had no actual end date, or start date, and it could be changed as needed while being offered and could accommodate different learning styles, then perhaps such a course could be "sold" by subscription. Learners would sign in and out of the course when they wanted to over the life of the subscription on a schedule that works for them fit. No different than how we read magazines, or watch cable channels or get RSS feeds - we subscribe to them and use them on our own time, at our convenience, not the convenience of the providers.

The design of a course delivered by subscription would have to be fully interactive and activity driven... a key would the evaluation of the activities and the artefacts they produce, for example, that can evaluate learner progress. A competency-based assessment system that allowed learners multiple opportunities to become successful and was both formative and summative would work best. A portfolio learning approach would also be a key element of subscription courses, giving the learner and the facilitators a clear picture of the capabilities of the learner.

This subscription model, which would give a learner a mostly indeterminate amount of time to complete a course would work very well in an online learning environment. It would allow people to learn at their own rate and in their own way... with support from other students and expert facilitators.

A subscription based course model would also require a curriculum that is not based on
weekly class schedules, fixed assignment times, and semesters. It would require an adjustment in thinking in that a facilitator could be assigned to a course with learners in many varying stages of completion, something we do not do a lot of yet. But it is a great way to model education without boundaries, learner and learning-centred education. Subscription based courses would also allow an institution to provide learning opportunities where formal outcomes may not be as important as skill development and community access. The community of community college. This model would work for both credit and non-credit courses.

So would subscription learning take over the current system of schedules, courses and semesters? Maybe not, but it would certainly provide one more learning-centred opportunity and truly be education without boundaries. I think it is something that needs further exploration...

(Photo - Cargo by Miskan)

STLHE 2007 - Conference Day Two - Enhancing Student Learning Through Project Portfolios

This presentation was given by Andre Oberle from the University of Scranton. he is a professor of German and has been using project portfolios for some time. This was the last presentation of the day on a Friday and the room was full to overflowing, indicating to me a high level of interest in the use of portfolios.

He gave a great presentation explaining portfolios, their creation, use, pros and cons, and gave several exampled or rubrics and tools that can be used to create and manage portfolios.

Andre recommended to the audience that they start slowly, using project portfolios for individual projects/assignments, then moving on to course/programme portfolios. I actually like his idea of small portfolios for individual pieces of work - they could quite easily become building blocks for larger programme-based portfolios.

When creating project portfolios, he gets learners to include all of their reserach, drafts, feedback, comments, and any other artifacts they have collected in their portfolios. I really like this idea - really helps with academic integrity issues if all sources, drafts etc. are included in the portfolio.

Portfolios are a great way to measure the achievement of learning outcomes and they also reinforce the need for critical self-reflection - answering the "why" question.

A great way to end the day on a high note. I am going to think about how I might implement project portfolios in my courses as smaller, more manageable portfolio "chunks" for my learners as a way of helping them build their larger, all encompassing programme portfolios. Hmmm...