This document provides an overview of ePortfolios and their uses for adult learners. EPortfolios can be used for both formal learning purposes, such as submitting assignments or applying for academic credit, as well as informal purposes like career development, tracking continuing education, and creating an online archive of personal documents and learning resources. The document discusses how ePortfolios have transformed from static resumes and CVs to dynamic personal learning environments that support lifelong, lifewide learning. It also presents examples of how ePortfolios are being implemented for adults in schools, colleges, and workforce training programs in Manitoba.

1. ePortfolios
for Adults
(and Other Humans)
Manitoba
Adult Secondary Education Council (ASEC)
October 25, 2013

2. Learning Agents
Accelerated learning systems
E-learning resources & services
Learning community support
Consulting
http://bit.ly/DonPresant_ePortfolio

3. Why are we talking about
ePortfolios?

4. http://blog.qmee.com/qmee-online-in-60-seconds/
The
Read-Write Web
has changed the
Internet from:
• a shopping mall
• an encyclopedia
• a television
To a place where we
personalize our
experience and leave
our footprints behind

5. Résumés and CVs on Job Boards
become…
Xelcise, Creative Commons/Flickr

6. Human Capital Management
eSourcing, Applicant Tracking, Talent Management

7. eSourcing is Social
Employers want to find you
techvibes.com

8. Digital Dirt…
Developing Digital Citizens Alex Couros 2012

9. Digital Identity

10. Sage on the Stage…
Photo Credit: US Mission Geneva via Compfight cc

11. Personalized Learning
Flipped Classroom and the Read/Write Web
YouTube and Facebook in Nursing Education by Laura Killam on Prezi

12. Digital Technology: the air we breathe
The New Essential Skill
Defining Essential Digital Skills in the Canadian Workplace

13. PIAAC: PS-TRE
Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments
• Digital technologies have
transformed the way we
communicate, learn and
work (and solve problems)
• Many of us lack the skills
to use them effectively
http://bit.ly/PS-TRE
• “Enabling technologies”
also become part of the
problems we have to solve

14. OK, but what IS
an ePortfolio?

15. ePortfolio = your Personal Space
For formal, non-formal and informal learning
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios

16. What is ePortfolio?
Process vs. Product
http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/Balancing.jpg

17. Key Message:
ePortfolios can be FOR and OF Learning
FOR Learning
OF Learning
focused on process
focused on product
supports learning
demonstrates learning
private workshop
public shop window
a learning environment
a showcase of learning
achievements
learning activities
learning outcomes
formative assessment
summative assessment
lower stakes
higher stakes

18. ePortfolio OF Learning
Submission for credit: Athabasca
Link to site

19. ePortfolio FOR Learning
High School project, New Zealand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpizeSoeNT0

20. Learner Ownership
Taking control of the story of your life
Helen Barrett http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/11873587

21. Virtual companion for 21C learning
http://www.slideshare.net/4nitsirk/mahara-open-source-eportfolio-application

22. Lifelong, lifewide
• K-12
– Primary, Middle, High School
• PSE and beyond
– College, university, professional development
• Workplace
– Sourcing, hiring, developing, grooming
• Community
– Volunteering
• Personal
– Interests, experiences

23. ePortfolio and ALFI
ePortfolios are Adult Learning “Friendly”
• Outreach
–
Overcome barriers in time, place, and tradition in order to create lifelong access
• Life & Career Planning
• Financing
• Assessment of Learning Outcomes
–
Knowledge, skills, and competencies – from the curriculum and life and work experience
• Teaching-Learning Process
–
Multiple methods to connect curriculum to useful knowledge and skills
• Student Support Systems
–
Enhance students’ capacities to become self-directed, lifelong learners
• Technology
–
Enhance the learning experience
• Strategic Partnerships
–
Employers and other organizations
• Transitions
–
Guided pathways

24. More than paper: Benefits of “e”
The “Flexible Binder” for the 21st Century
• Information Management capabilities
–
–
–
–
Collecting, archiving, sharing, multiple versioning
Quick links to cross-reference evidence
Accessible multimedia with free Web 2.0 tools
Align to frameworks, rubrics, track learning over time
• Social learning, digital identity
– Building professional profile, Personal Learning network
• Digital technology skills, Internet literacy
– Demonstrated by and within the ePortfolio
• Learning and collaboration integration
– Online research: documents, networks
– Easy to add comments, edit, mentor, coach

25. My take on PIAAC: PS-TRE
How ePortfolios can help learners
Use technology, including the read-write web to:
• Create a Personal Learning Environment to set
goals and develop your knowledge and skills to
achieve those goals
• Connect with others to build your personal
learning network
• Develop a positive digital identity
• Solve problems, learn, work and live an
effective happy life

26. Multiple Media
For authentic assessment
Eportfolios as flexible learning spaces - Allison Miller 2012

27. ePortfolio for High Schools
Sample activities and projects
• Showcase, repository of artefacts and achievements
– Private/Shared/Public
• “Walled garden” for:
– Reflection, critical thinking
– Digital skill building, social skills and identity
• Assignment submission tool
– Multimedia inquiry-based projects, group projects
– Scaffolded knowledge construction
– Incremental, monitored, commented
• Experiential learning tool
– Work experience, community / volunteer
• Tool for transition
– University entrance, employment, career advancement

28. Early Steps with Learners
“Tell me about yourself” - Template
Our Lady’s Preston (UK)

29. Early Steps with Learners
“Tell me about yourself” – Real example
Our Lady’s Preston (UK)

30. ePortfolio FOR and OF Learning
Admission to post-secondary
Summary Portfolio
Workbook

31. More examples and commentary
From my own “assignment page”
• John Creighton video
– Class projects excerpt
• Teachers in training in the US:
– Ecosystems by Christina Rosario
– Differentiating Using 21st Century Tools by Kery
– Multi-Step Equations and Inequalities by Brian Johnson
• Articles from New Zealand:
– ePortfolios in High School English
– Inquiry Based Learning (Google Apps and Mahara)
– Constructivism in Year 11 Geography

32. Open Badges
Think: “online micro credential”
Richard Wyles, Totara LMS at MaharaUK12
http://maharauk.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=117
Video: Chicago Summer of Learning

33. But wasn’t this supposed
to be about
Career Portfolio Manitoba?

34. Career Portfolio Manitoba
Community-based ePortfolio
• Nonprofit partnerships of Government, Business
and Labour
• WEM: Workplace Education in Essential Skills
• WPLAR: Workplace Recognition of Prior Learning
wplar.ca
wem.mb.ca

35. Essential Skills ePortfolio
Program overview
• For Adults in Transition
– Based on paper program
• Leverage the “e” factor
• Accessible and authentic ICT
– Free software, accessible hardware
• “Lifelong”

36. Adults in Transition
Use cases
•
•
•
•
•
•
Immigrants
Twenty-somethings
Return to workers
Displaced workers
Career shifters
Mature workers

37. Building the ES portfolio
Extracting value from experience
1. Identify life experiences
2. Reflect to draw out human capital
•
“KSAs”: Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes
3. Write outcome statements for your KSAs
4. Group into areas of expertise
5. Put it all together in a portfolio
•
•
•
•
•
Title page, table of contents, introduction
Lists: skills, examples & outcomes statements
Evidence-demonstrations, documentation
Resumes and cover letters
Goals and plans (SMART goals)

38. Demonstration
• Content tabs tour
• ePortfolios for Employability
– Rommuel
– Carol
– David
• Course tour

39. Why did you choose
Mahara?

40. Why Mahara?
Personal Learning Environment
• Free Open Source Software (FOSS)
– Free (like a puppy)
– Controllable, predictable
– Extendable, “clusterable” (Mahoodle, Google Apps…)
• Designed for schools
– National school implementation in NZ: “MyPortfolio”
• Personalized
– Flexible to varied purposes, not a one-size-fits-all
“tick the box” form

41. Why Mahara?
Private social media network

42. Multi Mahara Examples
So far, all educational…
• MyPortfolio Schools (Kineo Pacific)
– 1,211 institutions (201301), 85,575 users, 9,976 groups
• MyPortfolio Tertiary (Kineo Pacific)
– 14 institutions, 13,381 users,1160 groups
– Massey University: 9,000 users
• kyvyt.fi (Discendum)
– >100 institutions, 25,000 users, 1,000 groups
• CLEO (One Connect Limited)
– 154 institutions, 23,000 users, 874 groups
• Bute/Argyle Education Authority (EdICT)
– 92 institutions, 7,081 users, 50* groups

43. MyPortfolio Schools
The largest community so far
Jan 2013: 1,211 institutions, 85,575 users, 9,976 groups

44. Hang on, let me
reflect on this for a bit

45. Discussion
Applications for Adult Learning Centres?
•
•
•
•
RPL?
Learning portfolio for courses?
Work placement tracking?
Transition planning?
– Further education? Employment?
• Complementary strategies?
– Résumés and cover letters? Social media?
• Other alternatives?
• Are the students ready?
• What about the teachers?

46. Lifelong career development
Revisiting the vision
•
•
•
•
•
•
All Manitobans
Community-based, learner owned
Personal and public purposes
Lifewide: home, community, school, work...
Based on (not restricted to) Essential Skills
Not by WEM/WPLAR alone
– Built through partnerships of stakeholders

47. Co-working spaces…
Working side by side to co-inspire
uuushh.com
CC deskmag
CC deskmag
CC deskmag

48. Dojo spaces…
Building Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes
Photo Credit: :: shodan :: via Compfight cc

49. Career Portfolio MB -> co-dojo.ca
An inclusive co-working, co-learning space

50. A new ePortfolio environment
From standalone ePortfolio system to…

51. Space in the dojo
From one institutional space to…
co-dojo.ca

52. Many institutional spaces…
co-dojo.ca

53. In a learning community…
co-dojo.ca

54. Connected through the cloud…
co-dojo.ca

55. To the world outside
co-dojo.ca

56. co-dojo.ca
A learning community of communities
“Software as a Service” approach:
• While institutions kick the tires:
– easier to explore and pilot ePortfolios for learning,
alone and with others
• If institutions go forward:
– lower cost, effort and risk to implement and sustain
• Once an institution is up and running:
– participation in a broader learning community
– critical mass for employers and other stakeholders
– students keep their ePortfolios after graduation

57. OK, time’s up!
Can you put it all together now?

58. ePortfolio learning
Formal, non-formal and informal
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios

59. Personal Planning and Learning
Online Locker, Interactive Workbook
• Online archive
– Personal & downloaded documents, links
• Resources for self-directed learning
– Webinars, videos, self-assessment surveys
• Learning plans and tracking tools
– Set goals and track progress to them (Learning Plans)
– Keep records of learning activities over time (CPD)
• Personal journal
– Reflect on goals and alternative futures
– Keep ad hoc “notes to self”, prepare agendas, etc.

60. Employment & related purposes
Demonstrate, assess & improve Human Capital
• Qualification Recognition
– Initial, formative, summative assessment
• Academic recognition
– PLAR/RPL for courses and programs
• Career Development
– Gap analysis, exploration of alternatives, building pathways
• Employment (Web CV)
– Hiring, career advancement, team building tool for employers
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
– Tracking ongoing learning activities and reflection on practice
– Recertification

61. ePortfolios for credit?
Example: Douglas College, BC
Disability & Community Studies (DACS) Department
Draft 2013

62. Personal Learning Environments
Eportfolios as flexible learning spaces - Allison Miller 2012

63. PRESENTATION SUPPORT PAGE:
bit.ly/ep4adults
Don Presant
don@learningagents.ca
Twitter: donpresant
Skype: dpresant