Instructionally portfolios have recently enjoyed renewed attention in electronic form. e-Portfolios are rapidly gathering interest and support becoming more commonly implemented in the United States, Europe and Australia. To support these efforts institutions and software companies are developing complex system-wide applications designed to support the collection, organization and presentation of this evidence of student learning.

Beyond open web space, e-portfolio systems provide administrators with a 'back end' that allows for the review, aggregation and reporting of student activity within the more complex systems. This might be thought of as analogous to course management systems that provide students and instructors with tools related course activity. However, rather than only existing for the 15 week semester period, accounts within an e-portfolio system would be carried by students' throughout the length of their Penn State experience - and beyond.

e-Portfolio systems also provide users with tools that can introduce awareness or reinforce the importance of certain evidence of learning that takes place across a program of study. This includes important attributes such as leadership, critical thinking, strategic awareness, appreciation of diversity, insight and creativity to mention a few. These are characteristics that all programs aspire their graduates to demonstrate at some level yet these are attributes that are developed - not one course at a time - but across all of the experiences of a program of study. (see Penn State's Cocurricular Learning Outcomes)

Penn State's Journey

Requirements Document

During the Spring and Summer of 2006 the Vice President and Dean of Undergraduate Education and the chair of the University Assessment Committee charged a committee to examine the requirements and need for an e-portfolio system at Penn State.

"An e-portfolio system was one way that the university could respond to the Middle States’ recommendation that Penn State should strengthen its efforts to assess learning outcomes both within individual courses and in academic majors and minors. In addition, an e-portfolio system could also help some of the 206 academic programs that require external accreditation or program review by producing institutionally relevant data, including samples of student learning. Just as important, an e-portfolio system could support the efforts of Student Affairs to heighten students’ awareness of cocurricular learning and perhaps help students with career development and job hunting. Finally, an e-portfolio system could help Penn State understand the trajectory of student development, a topic of keen interest to the research community throughout higher education in the US and Europe. "

The committee gathered information related to how programs gather, assess and interpret evidence of student learning. The report identifies five features that should be central to the selection of an e-portfolio system. These features deal with the collection of artifacts that demonstrate students’ learning; the selection and display of these artifacts; the students’ reflections on learning; the interactions with others about the students’ learning; and the incorporation of these artifacts in program and institutional assessment.

The completed report is available here:

Requirements for an e-Portfolio System at Penn State: Recommendations from the Study Team ( 98 KB, 17 pages)

Pilot Projects

TaskStream

Preservice teachers in both the College of Education's Science Education program and the Professional Development School have been using the TaskStream system to publish assignment and other work that relates to their student teaching experience. Supervising faculty and mentor teachers connect with and comment on this work online. Students purchase a subscription to TaskStream directly from the company and can maintain this account after graduation. This pilot project is expanding in the College of Education. (Contact: Carla Zembal-Saul)

ANGEL ePortfolio 2.0

In the Spring of 2006 Penn State's Division of Student Affairs was selected as a member of the third cohort of International Coalition of Electronic Portfolio Research, 13 institutions from the US, Canada and the UK whose purpose is to collaboratively propose and explore research questions and methodologies which focus on e-portfolio implementation at their respective institutions. Particularly as accreditation program evaluation requirements focus on the inclusion of co-curricular learning, the Division of Student Affairs investigated the impact that a structured e-portfolio system such as ANGEL ePortfolio, designed to communicate high expectations and intended learning outcomes, could have on student engagement and co-curricular learning. The ANGEL ePortfolio application at that time did not meet the needs of investigators. ANGEL ePortfolio use has been discontinued. (Contact Glenn Johnson).

PebblePad

In the summer of 2007 the Division of Student Affairs also conducted a similar small pilot of the personal development planning tool PebblePad. A product from the UK, PebblePad provides a users with a wide range of student-centered tools, templates and other support structures that aid in the development of a personal repository of materials that users can apply towards their educational planning and achievements. The pilot provided mixed results for investigators which prompted additional inquiry into the support of student learning and reflection related to their collegiate experience. (Contact Glenn Johnson).

Penn State Blog tool - MT4

During the summer of 2008 the Division of Student Affairs conducted another pilot study, this time using the Penn State Blog tool MT4 to organize students' reflective writing and artifacts relating to the 10 first-year learning outcomes and competencies. (Contact Glenn Johnson).