By: Kellie Ferguson, Faculty Developer of Integrative and Experiential Learning, and Stephen Riley, Director of Academic Assessment
So, we’ve explored the use of ePortfolios and how they can be a powerful tool for both formative and summative assessments. Now, in the fourth and final installment of our “Connecting the Dots with ePortfolios” blog series, we are going to investigate the ways ePortfolios can be used to assess programmatic learning outcomes.
Programmatic Assessment
Programmatic assessment is the systemic process of inquiring about what students are learning across our academic programs. This assessment can take different forms, but it focuses on how courses and experiences help students achieve programmatic learning outcomes, which are generally broader than course level outcomes. To accomplish programmatic outcomes, there are often significant learning experiences students encounter at different points in the curriculum. These learning experiences are designed to help faculty assess student attainment of the programmatic outcomes. For example, some programs use capstone courses or internships to help students reflect on their major and develop some cumulative project that draws together their learning across the major. Other programs have important tests, papers, or projects that are designed to assess key learning outcomes at different points in a student’s journey.
Regardless of how a program decides to gather data for programmatic assessment, an ePortfolio, such as one created in Digication, could be an excellent way to feature student learning and assess their attainment of program outcomes.
The Benefits of ePortfolios
One benefit of using an ePortfolio for programmatic assessment could be the housing of evidence of student learning across the whole program. If the program had a template for program assessment created that linked to assignments in different courses, students could submit their artifacts with reflections at key moments in the curriculum. For example, if there is an important paper in an introductory course that assesses student learning of key concepts in the discipline, students could upload their papers to the program ePortfolio after the course instructor had graded them. Likewise, if there was a project that evaluated a student’s ability to apply those concepts to new situations, the student could upload their project to the ePortfolio and faculty could begin to see how well students were making connections between courses over time.
This type of direct evidence of student learning could be analyzed by faculty to see how student groups were progressing in the program and if there were any needed adjustments or interventions. As Enyon & Gambino (2017) point out, this process helps faculty “learn from this examination and consider the implications of the assessment for their own practice, making changes to improve student learning” (pp. 97). In essence, ePortfolios become a tool not only for students, but to help faculty evaluate their own teaching within the context of the program.
Leveraging Existing Assessments
Because ePortfolios can also be a useful tool for formative and summative assessment, there is a likelihood that some faculty might already be using ePortfolio assignments within their own courses. But don’t worry—using ePortfolios in this way doesn’t mean all faculty need to totally rethink their teaching practices to fit into an ePortfolio assignment. Instead, consider how you might leverage existing efforts to contribute to a larger, programmatic ePortfolio assignment.
One way to help think about what learning experiences you want to assess as part of the programmatic assessment process is to complete a program assessment map. This map can be as simple or complex as you want but the basic of the tool is to align course learning experiences with outcomes for all the required courses and experiences in your program. By asking faculty to complete an exercise such as this, everyone can begin to see where important connects should be occurring for students, where there might be overlap or gaps in the curriculum, and how one can explain to students how an assignment fits in the larger context of the major. Below is an example of a curriculum map that helps one group of faculty visualize their program:
Some other ways to help support faculty and leverage existing efforts include:
- Finding ways to align existing ePortfolio and assessment efforts with larger programmatic assessment efforts. Some ways to do this include collaborating with faculty on developing the ePortfolio assignment and the ways in which it can be woven through the different courses.
- Take time to inventory existing efforts. What artifacts are students already creating within these courses to demonstrate their learning? How do they fit into program learning outcomes? Can these be added to the program ePortfolio?
- Develop a shared rubric. The AAC&U has designed several of their VALUE rubrics to be adapted for ePortfolio assignments. Creating a shared rubric can help standardize assessments across courses, clarify what outcomes are being assessed, and eliminate redundant work for faculty.
- Design a template. We’ll get into this more below, but developing and sharing a template can help faculty understand where their course fits into a student’s larger learning experience and where their assignments fit into their larger ePortfolio, as well as create consistency across the program for students.
- Share findings with faculty! After working through this assessment, tell faculty what you found. Using ePortfolios can give you lots of data to help you understand where students are thriving and where they might need more support, which can in turn help faculty see their teaching successes and identify the places where they might need to provide additional support.
Addressing Challenges
Though there are many benefits to using ePortfolios as a form of programmatic assessment, there are also some potential challenges. A key hurdle is ensuring faculty are equipped to use Digication, DU’s ePortfolio platform.
Another challenge lies in maintaining consistency across a student’s ePortfolio experience as they curate and integrate artifacts into their larger collection of work. This is where creating and sharing a template can again come in handy. Templates can be used to create new ePortfolios from scratch or can be added to existing ones. Templates are helpful for building new ePortfolios, adding content or structure to existing ones, and functioning as a framework for students to use to showcase all their program-related work. The guided flexibility that comes from creating a template allows faculty to offer clear guidance while still giving students and instructors space to personalize their work within the course. By providing a template at the program’s outset and encouraging faculty to prompt students for regular updates, you can ensure consistent assessment practices and build a comprehensive ePortfolio that highlights each student’s growth and helps them make connections throughout the program.
To address these challenges and any others, one strategy we highly recommend is to lean on your resources! The Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) provides training and support to build solid assessments and both a technical and pedagogical understanding of ePortfolios. If you have questions about program assessment or assessment in general, curriculum mapping, or using ePortfolios as a part of the assessment process, contact the OTL’s Director of Assessment, Stephen Riley (stephen.riley@du.edu). And if you are looking for support with Digication or ePortfolios, contact Kellie Ferguson (kellie.ferguson@du.edu), the OTL’s Faculty Developer of Integrative and Experiential Learning for department-level, group, and individual trainings for using Digication and ePortfolios, can collaborate on designing templates or incorporating them into existing work, and provides ongoing Digication support for faculty.
Examples at DU
To wrap up our series, let’s consider the ways ePortfolios are already being used at the programmatic level at DU.
- In the Master of Science in Marketing program at Daniels College of Business, Program Director Dr. Melissa Archpru Akaka recently spearheaded the switch to an ePortfolio project for students completing this program. For her, the ePortfolio project served multiple purposes. The primary goals, as Dr. Akaka explained, were to “provide a reflection opportunity for students to think about the work they did and what they learned,” and “to aid with assessment as it organizes the content along the program learning outcomes.” But she considered how the structure and function of the ePortfolio project has benefits that extended beyond just reflection. “I wanted students to have a site that was structured so that we can also use [student ePortfolios] to promote the program as well as the students themselves,” she said. Essentially, Dr. Akaka’s ePortfolio project in the MS Marketing program shows how this approach achieves multiple goals at the same time: it fosters reflection, simplifies assessment, and can be used as a tool to promote both students and the program itself to a wider audience.
- The ePortfolio is fully integrated into University College’s Communication Management program. As Program Director Dr. Cindy Cragg explains, “Students start their program with a 0 credit Portfolio Foundations course: COMM 4001. That course consists of 4 knowledge checks walking students through what a portfolio is, how it is used at UCOL, the value and rationale for engaging in the portfolio process, and a step-by-step guide for setting up the portfolio. Each course in the program has a Portfolio Assignment. Students are prompted to upload that assignment after final feedback has been received from the instructor (they are also welcome to make any edits to polish that assignment up, if they choose) into their portfolio. The final course in the program is COMM 4920 Portfolio Capstone. In that course they review and reflect on all their past work then identify a challenge or opportunity that they feel they are uniquely skilled at creating a solution for based on the competencies they have developed and the person they have become because of their experience. The final assignment is a Challenge Pitch where they present their identified opportunity and solution, all rooted in their research and discoveries as a graduate student, via a well-crafted video presentation. Students are asked to draw explicit connections between what they learned and their goals. The faculty member then checks the portfolios against program outcomes.”
For more technological or pedagogical support with ePortfolios and Digication, check out the OTL’s Digication and ePortfolio Resources page, or contact Kellie Ferguson, the Faculty Developer of Integrative and Experiential Learning, at kellie.ferguson@du.edu or book a 1:1 consultation. For more support with assessment, check the OTL’s Assessment@DU page, or contact Stephen Riley, the Director of Academic Assessment, at stephen.riley@du.edu or book a 1:1 consulation.
References:
Enyon, B., & Gambino, L. M. (2017). High-Impact ePortfolio Practice. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Massa, L. J., & Kasimatis, M. (2017). Meaningful and Manageable Program Assessment: A How-To Guide for Higher Education Faculty (1st edition). Routledge.
