ePortfolio Presentation for Summer TTI

1. ePortfolios and
Assessment with
Digication
Kathleen Norm Sutaria
Modrowski Instructional Designer
Assistant Dean Academic Affairs
LIU Global

2. History and Background
• Overview of LIU Global
• Quaker Philosophy of Journaling
and Bearing Witness
• Educational Philosophy of John Dewey
• Documentation of Experiential Learning

3. History and Background
• Portfolios at Global College from 1966-2006
• Overview of ePortfolios from ~2006 to present
• First Use of TaskStream ~2006
• Why ePortfolios?
• Space
• Archiving
• Uniformity
• Reference to prior learning
and experiences
• Presentation portfolio for the job market

4. Technology Selection
• Plaforms Considered
• Weebly
• LiveText
• Moodle
• TaskStream
• TaskStream selected for its support structure

5. Technology Rejection
• Why was TaskStream rejected?
• Students didn’t like the rigid framework; said it
looked like a corporate flyer
• Limitation on the use of photographs and graphics
• Limitation in archiving. Fees to maintain
archived portfolios and students would need to
pay for their portfolio

6. Technology Free-for-All
• A few years of no ePortfolio platform
• Students selected their own tool
• Difficult to coordinate archiving of portfolios
• Tools used: Weebly, Wordpress,
Google Sites and others.

7. Arriving at Digication
• Making Connections Mini-Grant
• Spring 2009-Summer 2011
• Small group of LIU Brooklyn Faculty meet
once a month at LaGuardia Community College
• Learned how to select and implement
ePortfolios
• ePortfolios used with PT, Core Seminar students
• Finding pockets of ePortfolio usage:
LIU Pharmacy and LIU Global

8. Arriving at Digication
• Why Digication?
• Easy to Use
• Flexible; supports multimedia artifacts
• Designed by RISD faculty members
• Occupies large market share, has
good user base
• Solid technical support
• Constant improvements; new features being
added in Fall 2012

9. Portfolio Uses
• What are portfolios used for?
• Tenure and Promotion
• Documentation of Learning and Growth
• Showcase Portfolio
• Career Portfolio
• Academic Portfolios

10. Portfolio Uses
• LIU Global students use portfolios for:
• Gaining insights about countries from other students
• Not “What did you learn?”, but
“What were your experiences?”
• Integration of multimedia
artifacts
• Journals and reflective essays
• Collecting their work over time to
present during the Senior Capstone Semester

11. Reflective Questions
• Where have I been?
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?

12. Pair and Share
• In your discipline, what is valued as evidence
and documentation of learning?
• What do you value in your own academic
life as evidence of learning?
• What does it look like?
• Describe work you are proud of.

13. Discussion
Sharing Our Insights

14. Exploring other types of evidence
Loren Diesi
LIU Global
Fall 2011

15. Exploring other types of evidence
What questions can you generate as you watch this video?
http://youtu.be/LwO1m5sQBNQ

16. Discussion
Sharing Our
Questions

17. Pair and Share
Pair and Share
How many of you listen to the radio
and/or podcasts?
Describe to each other a story you
heard in the last week.
What went into creating and
crafting that story?

18. Pair and Share
Sharing Our
Thoughts

19. Skills Used in
Portfolio Creation
•concise, memorable writing that conveys a message
•visual literacy/design aesthetic: layout, design and usability
•learning and navigating copyright issues
•personal branding
•reflective writing for public consumption
•crafting enduring viewpoints

20. Skills Used in
Portfolio Creation
•editing and revision
•multimedia documentation and production
•considering audience/looking through different lenses
•bridging academics with lived experiences
•cultural competency
•storyelling

21. LIU Global Portfolio Exemplars
Caitlin Kawaguchi
https://liu.digication.com/caitlin_kawaguchi/Welcome/published
Sydney Boles
https://liu.digication.com/Boles-May012/Welcome/published
Loren Diesi
https://liu.digication.com/loren_diesi_global_college_fall_2011/
Magnolia Morris
https://liu.digication.com/roundtwospring2010/Juan_Carlos/published

22. Assessment
•Digication allow for submission of assignments
•Grading of assignments takes place with rubrics
•Workflow outlines steps for students and faculty
•Reports can be generated by Digication, but
require data from assignments

23. What do you need to know as a faculty
member thinking about using ePortfolios?
•Craft purposeful assignments along with assessments
•Know the ins and outs of Digication
•Have someone who can help students
•Develop peer mentors (structure mentoring into your course)
•Students need to know the terms of reference (rules of the road)

24. Areas for Improvement
•Create assignments that are visually and textually strong
•One excellent, well-crafted assignment is better than ten
quickly generated ones; build many aspects of learning into a
few key assignments.
•Construct assignments to incorporate multimedia components
•Assignment and assessment design takes time to develop
•Moving between Blackboard and Digication causes confusion

25. Areas for Improvement
•Instructors should share documents and assignments across
portfolios
•Ensure final portfolios are shared with instructors.
•Be prepared for students who have a broad range of skills
•Scaffold the development of visual literacy and multimedia
skills.

26. Beyond Our Control
•Travelling programs: little time to work on portfolios and
lack of Internet access.
•Uganda: a trip two hours each way to work on the portfolio
•Ghana: NGO where student worked lacked power/Internet
access for up to two weeks at a time.
•China: firewalls.

27. Next Steps
•Incorporating digital storytelling components to appeal to
students with strong verbal and writing skills.
•Refine assessment and rubric creation.
•Faculty Development; a need to know the possibilities.
•Faculty need to be introduced to different types of
documentation in order to stimulate their imaginations.

28. Thanks!
Kathleen Modrowski
Kathleen.Modrowski@liu.edu
Norm Sutaria
Norm.Sutaria@liu.edu