|
Return to
"Beyond Computer Literacy:
Implications of Technology for the Content and Outcomes of a
College Education"
At too many institutions, liberal education
resembles an elephant designed by a committee of blind men, each
faculty member teaching a course while knowing almost nothing
about teaching and learning inside courses taught by other
faculty. The titles, course summaries and requirements have been
topics of endless debate (at some time in the past) but the
nature of assignments, of tests, of what students are learning
and failing to learn -- that's a mystery. Electronic student
portfolios can be used to illuminate patterns of learning as
students move through the academic program.
Some of the impacts of student portfolios
are subtle on the faculty's ability to coordinate their teaching
are subtle. For example, at
Alverno faculty need to designate “Key Performances” in each
course – assignments, assessments and projects that represent
that most important goals for the course and, usually, for
meeting requirements of the major and for graduation from the
college. These Key Performances, including
descriptions, criteria, student self assessments and faculty
feedback, are visible to other faculty. Linda Ehley, Assoc.
Prof. of Computer Science at Alverno, reports that this ability
to see, and be seen, provides a basis for both collaboration and
faculty development.
Other impacts of student portfolios on the
ability to plan are more obvious and strategic.
Clemson Provost Doris Helms
comments that electronic portfolios have “freed us to think
about general education as something other than a smorgasbord of
courses.” Clemson is using portfolios to collect student
projects that are intended to demonstrate progress toward
institutional educational goals. Portfolios used in this way
require faculty to work together in describing the intellectual
achievement represented by student work: first to frame the
goals and then to provide feedback to students about whether
they’ve provided adequate evidence of progress toward meeting
those goals for graduation. Provost Helms told me, “We’ll not
only assess student work but also use student portfolios for
research – where are students learning what they’re
learning? For example, what are students learning while
outside the classroom, in jobs, at home, and in
extra-curricular experiences? What kinds of learning should we
foster, more intentionally, outside the course?” So the
electronic portfolio can also provide data for scholarship of
teaching and learning by the faculty working as a research
team. Helms said that such a use of portfolios would not have
been feasible at a large public institution such as Clemson
without the online dimension.
Three conditions are critical if student
portfolios are to provide a tool for collaborative planning by
faculty:
1) faculty
need to collaborate in deciding what kinds of learning are to be
charted by the portfolio
2) faculty
need to collaborate in assessing at least some aspects of
student progress; and
3)
faculty need to use what they learn
from assessment to consider whether and how to change the goals,
the curriculum, their teaching, and assessment.
When portfolios are used that way, the
doorway to rapid, intentional evolution of liberal education
opens.
Further reading:
1. For more on the use of e-portfolios to
support the development of integrative thinking by students,
click here to see those TLT Group
resources.
2. Good intentions are often aided by
effective formative program evaluation - the use of data to
guide, stabilize and energize a long-term improvement effort.
If your institution is a TLT Group subscriber,
click
here to see the Flashlight Guide to Planning and Formative
Evaluation of E-Portfolio Initiatives; you'll need
your
institution's username and password for our web site..
If your institution is not yet a subscriber,
click here to see the first draft of this Guide.
Return to
"Beyond Computer Literacy:
Implications of Technology for the Content and Outcomes of a
College Education"
|
