Author: Julie Hughes, j.hughes@wlv.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: e-Portfolios

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Philosophical and Religious Studies/History, Classics and Archaeology

This case study illustrates...an effect on learning, an effect on exam results, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, an influence on policy, modifications to learning spaces, an effect on social equality

Background & Context

The impact of e-portfolios on learning - Becta 2007

This scoping study argued convincingly for a research methodology that was capable of capturing the affective, social and conative aspects of the student experience, in contrast to the conventional focus on the cognitive. Two major gaps in data collection methodologies were identified by the scoping study:

• stories or narratives that capture the diversity of how students use learning technologies in their formal studies
• attempts to elicit beliefs and intentions.

The study proposed that ideally a methodology capable of filling these gaps should display at least some of the following characteristics:

• It should be 'naturalistic' (focusing on informal as well as formal learning)
• It should capture the complexity and authenticity of case studies
• It should sample purposefully (choosing learners who are characterised by behaviours or qualities of particular relevance)
• It should focus on typical e-learning contexts rather than on specific types of activity
• It should employ semi-structured interview schedules

Interview Plus

The study proposed a method termed 'interview plus', where the 'plus' represents some artefact or activity chosen to guide, recall or aid thinking aloud.

Why did you use this e-learning approach?

Key finding:

The results of this study suggest that e-portfolios benefit learning most effectively when considered as part of a joined-up teaching and learning approach, rather than as a discrete entity. The approach should include online repositories, planning and communication tools, and opportunities for both students and teachers to draw out and present e-portfolios at particular times and for particular purposes.

There is then likely to be substantial impact on both learning processes and learning outcomes.

Use of e-portfolio and blogging in a School of Education

I was invited to be part of the institutional pilot year 2004-5 as an established user of technologies to support learning. My earlier use of available VLEs had not supported the dialogic approach I used with paper journals as the forum spaces were somewhat static and learner interactions were lacking the depth of reflection and engagement that I had experienced in the classroom and in students' shared journals.

I was keen to see if my successful face-to-face strategies of encouraging peer journal sharing and critical incident sharing for meaningful reflection upon self and professional practice could transfer/translate into an online learning environment that presented itself as inherently more dialogic and intuitive.

What was the context in which you used this e-learning approach?

The e-portfolio system, pebblePAD, has been used with three cohorts of PGCE (post-compulsory education sector) students, two cohorts of Foundation Degree students (Early Years and Learning Support) and a group of PGCE mentors undertaking a PGCert in Mentoring at the University of Wolverhampton. This institution has a key widening participation agenda and role in the region.

The PGCE is a full time 1-year programme consisting of 2 days in a teaching placement and 2 days at University. This is traditionally assessed by a paper portfolio. I was concerned about the technicist accumulation of paper evidence in the portfolio and the practice/theory split evident in some of the attitudes and comments of the beginning teachers. I was keen to use this online space to encourage a deeper engagement with theorising practice leading to observation evidence of teaching practice underpinned by theoretical understanding and application. In each of the 3 years I have used e-portfolio, all of my student group, 15 each year, used the system and submitted e-portfolios for assessment. During the academic year 2006-7 all PGCE students were inducted into the system and provided with workshops to support their use of a blended approach to e-portfolio use. 21% of the overall cohort from 4 tutor groups submitted e-portfolios for summative assessment.

The Foundation Degree is a part-time programme. Students work full-time and attend university 2 evenings per week. There were 30 students in each year. The e-portfolio has been used for ePDP in both cohorts and for submission of ongoing journal blogs and summative assessment in 2006-7. In both years workshops were provided for students and colleagues. Previously, writing has not been shared with tutors ongoing and students received no feedback on their writing and reflections until the return of the summative essay.

The PGCert in Mentoring pilot. This module was previously a face-to-face module with summative submission of a paper portfolio for each component of this module e.g. component 1 focuses on practice and component 2 on the theorising of their mentoring practices. As with the PGCE I wanted to encourage a dialogic investigation of both components simultaneously.

The University did not have, and still does not have a clear strategic vision for the use of this platform and there was considerable resistance from some colleagues who viewed the VLE as meeting their students' needs. However, the VLE is still predominantly used as a content management and delivery system which positions the learner as a passive recipient of chunks of information. Discussion within this environment was highly formal, rigid and owned by the institution. The e-portfolio's emphasis upon learner ownership and control, feedback and dialogue was viewed with suspicion by some colleagues ' and continues to be so.

As there were no clear instructions from the institution the e-portfolio seemed to inhabit a 'soft' PDP space and was not perceived as suitable for serious subject use. These perceptions have shifted slightly but there is still a worrying vocational/academic split.

What was the design?

The pebblePAD system, designed by educationalists and technologists, is structured around the Gibbs/Kolb reflective cycle and so prompts the student through a series of writing/thinking frames which support learning to learn. As a teacher I also provided additional specific writing frames such as a Learning Autobiography, focused journal entries and engaged in ongoing dialogue and questioning with all writing events to prompt and encourage deeper levels of learning and meta learning. Students were encouraged to write/reflect weekly. The dialogic approach (Laurillard 1993, Lillis 2001) supported the development of critical thinking suggested by Garrison and Anderson (2003: 15) through 'triggering, exploration, integration and resolution'. Writing within this space was an ongoing activity which drew upon the patchwork text approach (Winter 1999) whereby smaller pieces of shared formative writing developed into summative pieces. Methodologically, this case study situates itself within the emergent research field in e-learning which draws upon Beetham's (2006) Interview Plus approach (Creanor et al 2006, Mayes 2006) with a focus upon identified gaps in earlier research:

• stories or narratives that capture the diversity of how students use learning technologies in their formal studies
• attempts to elicit beliefs and intentions

(Mayes 2006:4)

The study proposed that ideally a methodology capable of filling these gaps should display at least some of the following characteristics:

• It should be 'naturalistic' (focusing on informal as well as formal learning)
• It should capture the complexity and authenticity of case studies
• It should sample purposefully (choosing learners who are characterised by behaviours or qualities of particular relevance)
• It should focus on typical e-learning contexts rather than on specific types of activity
• It should employ semi-structured interview schedules

The study proposed a method termed 'interview plus', where the 'plus' represents some artefact or activity chosen to guide, recall or aid thinking aloud. (Mayes 2006:4)

How did you implement and embed this e-learning approach?

Institutional support

• Technology Retreats to support individuals and teams to adopt e-portfolio - application process.
• Programme of staff development 1/2 day sessions from beginner level to more advanced.
• (In)formal mentoring. No formal support within the School of Education or recognition that additional time is required for teaching innovation activities as opposed to research activities.
• One of my roles within a CETL secondment was to mentor and support colleagues across the University in their e-portfolio practice and research.
• I have presented and written with colleagues and students. As chair of the e-portfolio research group I have mentored colleagues in the Schools of Education, Health, Computing and IT, Art and Design, Business and Sports and Performing Arts in their e-portfolio practices and research.
• Some student e-mentors and Student Union sessions on e-portfolio use.
• End of pilot evaluation conducted by the University.
• Whole University evaluation ongoing has not happened. We are part of the International Coalition for e-Portfolio Research with 10 US Universities, 1 Canadian and 1 other UK HEI and part of this research is to bring together some of the stakeholder evaluation. There are some excellent case studies of evaluation e.g. the School of Health.
• External evaluation/validation - see 6. School of Education PGCE students submitted articles to ESCalate, PGCE students used as JISC case study and PGCE community writing featured as a case study in OUP publication.

Individual

• E-portfolio embedded in all modules and is modelled as a teaching tool from induction. Here is an example of a Foundation Degree teaching webfolio where content is 'storied' for students.
• As the recipient of a National Teaching Fellowship (2005) I was able to employ a former PGCE student, Emma Purnell, as a Teaching and Research Assistant, in 2006. This has considerably developed my use of digital media and I have gained a great deal from this collaboration. Here is a link to a research webfolio containing links to our work.

Problems

• Lack of vision within my own team and School. As an early adopter I somehow became e-portfolio and was responsible for all its minor problems. Colleagues seemed unable to separate the product from the learning processes it enables.
• School TSL directives encouraged false dichotomies: subject knowledge vs PDP, content delivery vs. dialogic, VLE vs. e-portfolio divides which many staff still buy into - leaving e-portfolio viewed as an add-on rather than integral to learning, reflection and progression.
• The 'platform wars' silenced the learning debates and the use of e-portfolio was seen as an informal, student-driven activity rather than a powerful learning and teaching landscape.
• Lack of alumni access for graduating PGCE students. The institutional policies do not seem able to deal with the viral nature of this technology, as it inhabits a different space to the institutionally owned and managed VLE.

Overcoming problems

I just did it anyway! But the experiences above left me feeling very isolated within my team and School.

So I found other communities to interact with - internally as a mentor I have worked with colleagues from 5 other Schools and supported them in their practice and research. Nationally, I developed collaborations with other NTFs and FDTL5 projects - Prof Kay Sambell, Dr Mel Gibson and the MEDAL project. Internationally, my work has been received well including an invitation to contribute to a forthcoming e-portfolio book.

Hughes, J. (Forthcoming 2007) Becoming an e-portfolio teacher (working title) in Yancey, K., Cambridge, D., and Cambridge, B. (eds) Electronic Portfolios: Emergent Findings about Learning and Engagement