Summary - CEN / ISSS Workshop on Learning Technologies: Project Team Quality Development ; Providing Good Practice for ELearning Quality Approaches"

Source

Dondi, C., Moretti, M., Husson, A.M. and Pawlowski, J.M. (2005) ‘Interim report: CWA 1 - providing good practice for elearning quality approaches’, CEN/ISSS, [online] Available from: http://cms.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/cwa1_20051118.pdf (Accessed 6 November 2008).

Interesting read of what appears to be a system for assessing submissions looking for a stamp of approval or recognition as "quality work" or an emerging "good practice".

Criteria for "quality work" includes the need to demonstrate the following

• has been "field' tested and trialed
• is culturally appropriate, contextually relevant
  
• addresses a current need, issue, problem that required monitoring for quality improvement
• is well documented
  
• demonstrates improvement and effectiveness
• can be used in an new context but in a similar field
• invites continuous improvement (promotes improvement)

In short, a good practice

• has been tried and tested in the field
• clearly targeted and adapted for a specific user group (takes the user into consideration)
• relevant or current (deals with current issues being faced in the field by other practitioners)
• is presented transparently so that it can be clearly understood by other practitioners
• demonstrates its benefits
• has broad support from other users who have used it
• is transferable to others ( it can be used by others in a new context)
• promotes improvement (quality sought after via feedback loops)

It would seem to me that these are qualities to be looking for and using to realize a good poster presentation.

Summary - Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report

Source

Goodyear, P., Salmon, Gilly, Spector, M., Steeples, C. and Tickner, S. (2001) ‘Competencies for online teaching’, Educational Technology Research & Development , 49(1), pp. 65-72, [online] Available from: http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourcepage/view.php?id=90970 (Accessed 11 November 2008).

Compared with Hillier, this piece provides a more systematic approach to identifying the different competencies of an online teacher. It starts by identifying the many roles an online teacher may be asked to assume. Then it looks at the skill set / tasks required to carry out these roles to produce a comprehensive "competencies" list for an online teacher.

Roles involved in online teaching

• researcher
• assessor
• adviser
• process facilitator
• content facilitator
• technologist
• designer
• manager / administrator

Under one of these roles .... we might have "tasks" listed

• process facilitator
• welcoming
  
• establishing ground rules
  
• creating a community
  
• managing communications
  
• modelling social behaviour
  
• establishing own identity
  

One could mine these tasks to generate a list of competencies

• challenge participants but support them individually and as a group
• tolerate ambiguity when working with individuals and groups
• etc.
  

Noted by Goodyear was how it was implied in the final lists an educational philosophy . One valuing

• democratization of learning
• inclussiveness
• increasing student responsibility for learning

-------------------------
No mention of the word excellence... but definitely inferring the need for someone who aspires to becoming an online teacher or who already calls themselves one - to reflect on how well they feelthey understand and have mastered these many competencies. Produce evidence to support their development in these area

I can also well imagine for those who came up with the lists, that the task would have been an equally demanding one - demanding a great deal of reflection on one's practice.

Summary - Promoting excellence in HE - Hillier article

Source

Hillier, Yvonne (n.d.) ‘The quest for competence, good practice and excellence’, The Higher Education Academy, [online] Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id494_quest_for_competence.pdf (Accessed 11 November 2008).

Attempts made to identify qualities of excellence. To formally recognize it and in doing so promote good practices to realizing it.
-----------------------------

NTFS (National teaching Fellowship Scheme - UK
criteria for rating submissions for teaching excellence

• ability to inspire students
• ability to inspire colleagues
• ability to inspire broader community
• enable Ss to achieve learning outcomes
• demonstrate reflective practice in their teaching
• innovation
• promotion
• presentation
• sharing and promoting good practice

-----------------------------
Research on the subject by Vielba and Hillier, 2000.
Administrators focussed on organizational qualities

• planning
• resources
• explicitly stated outcomes

Teachers and students focussed on affective / personal qualities

• enthusiasm
• creativity
• interpersonal skills

Students noted the importance of "communication skills"

------------------------------

So using criteria for judging excellence is dead.. long live the role of research and reflection in promoting excellence (?)

That's sort of what I'm left with here after reading the Hillier article. So there is not true set of criteria to realize what is deemed to be "excellence" in teaching. Rather we know what is needed to encourage personal and professional development to make anyone a better educator - namely "research" to inform "reflection on our practices" and this to inform our "professional practice".

Seems to support my earlier opinion about using the term "expert" - calling myself an expert on anything. I am more comfortable declaring myself someone who is a reflective practitioner thus continually under development. The alternative? To stay the same .... to not grow .. to fossilize.

Summary - eFolio Minnesota for Lifewide & Lifelong Learning

eFolio article from Minnesota was very informative.. I had a sense that the H808 course was modelling its approach on the Univ of Minnesota's eFolio initiative AND drawing on the research findings to improve upon it.

Key items that stood out for me?

Process of efolio development
experimentation / living document / archiving

In short, experimentation on what can be added, what should be added, in what form should it should take, and what structure might it take... but also key to it is having a chance to share ideas with peers (getting feedback, learning about other approaches, etc.) to sort out what its purpose is (and it can be multiple). Once this has been sorted out, the portfolio becomes a living document .. something to be added to.

Realizing Integrity
Ties into audience and projecting authenticity. An integration of both the professional & personal really helps realize this. I read this to mean displaying one's underlying values & how they come out in both one's professional / personal worlds. Perhaps best realized through the selection / display of diverse forms of evidence from all spheres of one's life.

Variety of uses
Impressive variety of common uses
- six main functions
* educational planning
* documenting knowledge, skills & abilities
* tracking development
* finding a job
* evaluating a course

Changing roles for users
How these roles can switch over time and even be concurrent. For example one can be a student (studying something) and a teacher (working in the day time) at the same time... which means being able / encouraged to draw in volunteer / community development work as well as one's professional work into the portfolio.

The concept of lifelong AND lifewide learning
I was aware of lifelong learning but I had never heard of the concept of "lifewide" learning. I interpret this to mean a holistic review of all aspects of my life - personal and professional development.

Critical need for Institutional Support
Research outlined the important need for the institution to promote collaboration between students in the development of their portfolios (something that most students found invaluable to their development). and to also support the "presentation" of the portfolio concept. It also needed to provide some sort of framework to make the task easier for learners to manage. Curiously enough, the eFolio made no effort to promote planning with it (which led to a suggestion that it should review this).

Good source of sample eportfolios
Especially useful for modelling how three different "users" could shape eportfolios using the same fundamental structure - students / educators / career (example - http://www.jasonschoch.efoliomn1.com/ )

Summary - Activity-reflection e-portfolios (Richards)

Resource
Activity-reflection eportfolios - An approach to the problem of effectively integrating ICTs in teaching and learning, Richards (2005)

Very interesting read.
Richards presents the idea of using eportfolios not as a simple repository for artefacts but as a means to realizing an activity reflection cycle with students. A cycling and recycling between activity and reflection on the process of completing a project, course or activity. More specifically a activity reflection cycle that causes the student to examine perhaps the various hurdles faced, identified and overcome in completing a project, or solving a problem. Very similar to Kolb's experiential loop or spiral, Schon's "reflection on action" but grounded in a context for application and organized / guided to a certain degree in practice (i.e. via questions or format)

The idea being that the learner may discover theory, procedures, or content not simply through reading but through a need to apply these to realize a meaningful project / purpose and then reflect on it. The depth of their understanding is challenged by this need to apply it to the problem. Note that reflections on the task and subtask is encouraged not just at the project's completion or even at the end of key stages of the project but before starting a task and while completing a task.

These can be realized via guided focus questions. Possible questions might encourage focusing on how they might solve or have ended up solving a problem, identifying the skills they had to learn to overcome a problem, or comparing their final work with exemplary examples.

Evidence of good reflection in the eyes of Richards?.

• responses with higher order learning / thinking / knowledge construction
• responses that related to practical experience or application of theory
• responses that were supported by references and/or well informed arguments

Example of a simple eportfolio framework?
A template with headings. Each heading with subheadings .. The student is asked to produce artefacts that support the needs described alongside or in the subheadings and are then stored and hyperlinked to these subheadings. Then the student needs to support the work with an overall review of the portfolio with a focus on reflections about

• key stages of development / learning
• their artefacts of learning

.. but the process doesn't end there. Final reflections are then posted for sharing with others which invites more opportunities for collective learning and creation of a learning community. From my perspective, this also invites the possible identification of "good practices" and debate about most effective "learning / problem solving strategies"

Summary - PDP work (Moon) - my notes - 1

The reflection continuum?
A 5 step process..

1. noticing - catching one's eye .. consciously or unconsciously
2. making sense of it - getting to know the material .. but only in how it interconnects (within itself)
3. making meaning - getting to understand that the material is "meaningful" .. a holistic view
4. working with meaning - getting to understand how the material relates to other ideas .. relationships with other materials .. which may change
5. tranforming learning - evidence that the new learning has changed / transformed one's understandings of things .. creative / idiosyncratic responses

Steps 1 & 2 are more indicative of surface learning

how do we demonstrate learning through reflection .. using this continuum?
Suggested from my reading that we

• simply realize / demonstrate stages 3 to 5
• represent / summarize our learning (i.e. writing an essay, to explain something in our own way / words)
• upgrade our learning (integrating what we have learned with our understanding of other things - i.e. tutorials, using the discourse of the subject .. integrating ideas)

how do we support reflection in learning?
Look at the characteristics of reflection .. (review what needs to be in place to support these characteristics?)

• reflection slows down activity (students need time to process material and make links with other ideas)
• reflection promotes ownership of the material (need to allow time for students to put it into "student" voice, one's own context)
• reflection encourages metacognition - awareness of one's own cognitive functioning (need to promote student awareness of their learning processes - study skills prog)
• reflection emerges out of unstructured material (need to reflect on material that is not structured, to make sense of it)

So online learning / elearning may potentially support reflection much more so than traditional "classroom" based learning because it arguably supports a student's need

• for quiet and time to process material,
• to summarize material in their own words,
• to put material into a personal context ..
  

However, it should preferably be structured so the learner is not obliged to simply follow it lock step yet it can't be unstructured so the learner is too challenged to realize access to the content s ( i.e. choosing from a variety of reading selections for a unit in H808).

Classroom management issues promote the use of a very structured environment (time / place dependent) . Classroom management issues and physical space / time limitations strongly direct instructional design…and type of learning possible because a teacher often feels pressured to present the material within a pre-set time frame (maybe not enough time for Ss to absorb and contextualize it).

• much less quiet and time to process material,certainly in the classroom
  
• much less time to summarize material in their own words,
• much less time to put material into a personal context ..
• to be aware of their learning style ..

Thus classroom instruction can indirectly support more surface learning from students.

Let me "reflect" on this.

Summary - PDP / CPD and ePortfolios (Stefani)

Portfolios in general
(basic) - standard folder w/ trigger questions (i.e. ZU - ABP teaching port)
(adv.) - eportfolio - modified / manipulated according to demands of subj. domain

great idea .. but poor execution / poor documented examples that illustrate success of the approach / intended purpose

if PDP is such a good idea why hasn't it succeeded?
There is a lack of examples to demonstrate success .. thus a need to re-examine

• chief purpose of pdp
• why learners do NOT engage in the concept
• support structures / portfolio format

.. to find improvement

if CPD is such a good idea (support for CPD for teachers) why has it been so poorly received?
equally poor uptake/ engagement w/ CPD by teachers
low level of meaningful implementation

.. same problems as PDP .. why is there the same need for review of ...

• chief purpose of CPD
• why learners do NOT engage in the concept
• support structures / porf format

.. to find improvement?

CPD is supported in principle

• need to reflect on / record / journal one's learning
• need to identify activities that support / encourage the indentification of learning needs to enhance practice

problem!

• not clear what activities help realize this
• little idea as to how to validate CPD by just reporting it

need identified!

• need evidence of actions that arose from development (evidence)

***************************
CPD vs PDP
- Ss are recording in a meaningful way (directed to do so)
- Ss get some credit for their work
.. but CPD has almost none of this (little more than a cert of attendance)

issues identified in HE Scotland example
- time requirements
what is the cause?
absence of "real" models
absence of teacher understanding / experience of reflection as a learning activity .. therefore .. difficult to support Ss w/ example

- positive views towards PDP from Ss (once they understood reflection)
but again. .. teachers have little to no direct experience w/ reflection

- need to realize some sort of reward for Ss via assessment
common to have alignment of teaching / learning / assessment so PDP is expected to be included as part of curriculum / thus assessed

• student attitudes towards PDP process - produce reflections for assess / learning
• teacher attitudes towards CPD process - no reward for CPD therefore it does not succeed

- efficiency of task increases w/ use of technology (recording / reflecting on achievements)

******************************
why does Batson think eports are revolutionizing HE?
eport can / makes the focus of learning on the whole person.. personalizes curriculum , invites more active learning from the student, contextualizes the learning for the student

how do we design curriculum to integrate eports?
- this is a major change in assessment
- it requires a major change in the mindset of faculty to manage assessment w/ eportfolios

how about CPD - relevance?
start with the question..
how do we measure teaching excellence?
- by assessing how well students are learning

• good teaching requires professional approach to teaching practice equal to the professional approach taken to do research

reflection

scholarly review

evidence

... by Ss to what they have learned / help them understand what they have learned
.. the same could apply to Ts

teaching portfolio needed to evaluate teaching
but needs

• generic guidelines
• use of technology to make / collect / assemble evidence
• review of PD support / resources so that they support reflection & produce evidence .. to support port development

supports evaluation of portfolio

model presented? Auckland example
generic yet focussed in 5 key areas

• roles, responsibilities, goals (to identify one's expertise in context of teaching)
• teaching evaluations
• contributions to your institution or profession
• activities to improve instruction
• honours or recognition

****************************************
process

list

• teaching goals
• learning activities that arise from teaching goals
• actual student outcomes that arise from learning activities

review / reflect on these three elements
produce a teaching philosophy
check for alignment of all 4 (goals / methods / outcomes / philosophy)

but what does an eportfolio contribute to this?

• more variety in how evidence can be assembled / presented
• improved flexibility / portability of the material
• effective modelling of technological competencies (increasingly in demand)

what does the University offer as result of assessment?

• offering faculty certification "Certificate in Academic Practice"

conclusion from Stefani
- eport / pdp / cpd is still a leap of faith that .....

• enhanced learning
• enhanced levels of attainment

.. .....will be achieved.

Summary - European Schoolnet - National Policies & Case Studies on the use of Portfolios in teacher training (Vuorikari)

Policies for eportfolio use in teacher training

Finland
- eportfolios for teachers - goal?
to refresh teaching methods
2 prong strategy for teaching teachers

• training given in use of ICT for educational purposes (general education?)
• training also given on content specific issues, prof. applications, learning objects, development of communities (context specific)

Norway
- eportfolios for students - goal?

• for assessment
• for improved school / parent review
• major tool for reform in HE

Italy
- portfolios for students

• for formative assessment

Catalonia
- eportfolios for students - language focus
for assessment .. of lang learning development

• record competencies
• promote management of lang learning on a life long basis

*********************************
Policies on Portfolio use
Netherlands
- eports for

• assessment
  
• competency development
• employability
• lifelong learning

UK
- eports for students

• assessment .. with student involvement
• identify key stage development
• personalized tool for learner use

- eports for HE students / workers

• focus on good practices
• pdp

Switzerland
- eports for personal training in ICT related teaching competencies

**********************************
Case studies

- 4 types of portfolios

• assessment
• showcase
• development
• reflective

TieVie portfolio structure - schematic of what it looks like



















Students
perceived benefits

• feedback from real users
• improved motivation / fellowship
• improved interaction / sharing of knowledge
• personalizable

perceived negatives

• labour intensive

Teachers
perceived benefits

• same as students +
  
• promotes new learning processes w/ theory & practice integrated better than previously
• increase S metacognitive skills
• personalize activities more
• more parental support
• Ss reflect on their learning goals more
• Ss more autonomous

perceived negatives

• privacy may be an issue
• time demands
• tendency to see summative evaluation take over
• increased work load for both T & S

limitations also noted

• technology - concerns about interoperability / scalability / transferability
• impact of culture on implementation (ie. Italy vs Norway) ...

  the change must be viewed as meaningful .. to justify the commitment to training, review, reflection by both student and teacher

issues

• degree of standardization to use
• use of a new tool = need for new competencies / training (i.e. new ways to work together)
• privacy rights
• access rights
• portability
• parental access (can be negative if no training given to parents)

key themes of the paper

• competencies
• assessment

secondary themes

• personal development
• self reflection

Summary - Extending the Portfolio Model (Greenberg)

portfolios are a means to stimulating discussion, interaction with peers, instructors, experts

digital portfolios present new opportunities made possible by..

• no physical limitations (i.e. physical storage)
  
• digital convergence (where more and more information is conveyed via digital means - cheap, high quality, easy to exchange over great distances ) (digital convergence)
  
• increasing affordability (producing digital artifacts becoming less expensive)
• increasing ease of use (producing / manipulating digital artifacts becoming easier to realize)

thus increasing opportunities for use of eportfolios

***************************

what is an eportfolio?
- not just a folio of digital examples of work but a network application

• allows managing info
• allows organizing info
• allows control over access & communications

the form on an eportfolio?
shaped by when the objects are created AND when the objects are organized

• showcase - after objects are created
• structured - pre defined organization for objects to be created
• learning - organization of objects evolves as objects are created
  

(thus it need not be an iterative process .. definitely more a characteristic of a "learning" eportfolio but not of a showcase eportfolio)

students vs teachers - the same or different in their use of eportfolios?
- Ss require much more guidance, structure and scaffolding to realize effective use of eportfolios
- for adults, the choice in structuring communicates as much as the objects selected (theory of eport)

types of eportfolios

structured eportfolios
meeting a requirement / demonstrating a skill in objects selected for an eport is NOT the SAME as taking a course / completing a quiz .. = new approaches to assessment

• discuss with peers
• get feedback from advisors
• use an online journal to reflect on their progress

Zayed Univ's use of ZULOs - objectives w/ descriptors of what an object should demonstrate communications about objects

• finally submit their report for final review and showcase their accomplishments
• guided mentoring used here to guide and support students through a sequence of experiences to help develop skills students need to demo required competencies.

learning eportfolios

• student creates objects, defines objects ... makes new connections between objects
• eports support communication between peers, teachers, mentors or coaches - ongoing
• documenting these discussions is critical to the learning process..as is the evolution of the work itself
• typically making connections between objects is difficult .. stepping back to see the history of discussions is impossible.. but eportfolios (and web 2.0) applications facilitate this
• encourage ongoing reflection that can help the student better understand the learning processes
• use reflection to document their changing understanding
• because eports can extend beyond the time frame of studies .. most challenging to develop or maintain

opportunity - authentic assessment

• eports may offer better ways to demonstrate skills & competencies
• eports can expose the learning process

opportunity - life long learning

• ongoing eport participation may maintain connections with peers and mentors throughout their prof. careers

Summary - The Electronic Portfolio Boom - What's it all about? (Batson)

http://www.campustechnology.com/printarticle.aspx?id=39299

why use eportfolios?
- student work today has become mostly digital
- the web is everywhere.. so access to info is everywhere
- online databases permit Ss to manage large volumes of their work


eport capitalises on benefits of ict
- storage
- management of data
- retrieval
- display / presentation
- communicate / share with others

issues
- curriculum integration of eport
- flexibility for long term needs (will current set ups accommodate future needs)
- interoperability (can work done on one eport system be transferred for use on another?)

student benefits of eportfolios?
- realize a resume
- provide evidence of their actual work to be shared with others (potential employers?)
- visualize where they are in their college career (what they have accomplished; what's needed next?)
- review a body of their work over a number of semesters (see continuum)
- facilitate transfer/ articulation w/ other colleges or university
- sustain relationships with alma mater once they have graduated

faculty benefits?
- similar to students; realize a resume
- support tenure and promotion reviews; provide samples of student work to illustrate excellence
-reference letter writing for students .. can be better grounded; based on review of student eport
- better manage, review, reflect & comment on student work (longitudinal monitoring / review is easier to realize)

administrators benefits?
- tracking individual student progress over time
- tracking general student progress in a course over time
- tracking many courses to assess a whole program thus facilitating program review
- better integration of courses .. continuity of student work

benefits are many .. so what's stopping it?
how to implement?
- storage issue - storage of S work in perpetuity; changes in technology
- security - how can we keep personal data secure from end to end . (requires an enterprise solution)
- certification - certify S work? would require closing off to future editing previous student work (by whom? how?)
- support - institutions are prepared to make a long term commitment .. yet vendors cannot commit .. too much current experimentation

places to start?
- observe the work done in English classes.. portfolio work with reflective component inviting students to rewrite papers ... reflect on and revise this work