Student Panel Website + ePortfolio Links

Debbie Oesch-Minor, Panel Coordinator

How would you describe your ePortfolio experience/expertise?

I teach writing and literature classes and have since 1997.

I am a teacher, advocate, and student of ePortfolios.

In my field, Rhetoric and Composition, we use portfolios as part of a process-oriented pedagogy: students brainstorm, research, write, rewrite, peer review, revise, and brainstorm more as they explore writing strategies and what works best for their composing purposes.

ePortfolios were a natural evolution for my classes. The shift from paper portfolios--clunky three ring binders--to ePortfolios was relatively smooth due to the support of ePortfolio gurus like Susan Kahn and Amy Powell.

I've used ePortfolios in first year writing classes, in Project-Based Learning courses where students partner with community clients, across a three-course themed learning community, and with an Advanced Leadership Training course for community leaders who support Grassroots maternal child health initiatives. In my professional life, I've used ePortfolios for annual reviews, presentations, and to close-out a grant.

I advocate for ePortfolio everything.

What does this look like?

Using ePortfolios to teach ePortfolios
Using micro-ePortfolios to share documents with community partners
Networking with other faculty to support students as they build ePortfolio across courses and coursework
Hyperlinking ePortfolios to showcase student work
Building professional ePortfolios to house presentations, documents, and reflections for faculty annual reviews
Designing an ePortfolio for the back-end of grants [including progress reports and reflective commentary]
Constructing ePortfolios as a learning management system when networking with community partners
Constructing/Managing shared ePortfolios--like this one--as part of presentations and work across time zones

ePortfolio Everything: Re-Imagining Genre Boundaries

In the spirit of democratization, the AAEEBL student panelists at Zoom 2 suggested that I build a tab documenting some of my experiences as a teacher using ePortfolios and my experiences as a student of ePortfolios, finding my way as I experiment with ePortfolios in classes and professional pursuits.

"THAT IS NOT AN ePORTFOLIO," she said with a tone that expressed great patience and tolerance.

What Makes an ePortfolio an ePortfolio?

A wizened peer told me that putting materials on a website doesn't make my website an ePortfolio. I agree. At the same time, I'm open to pushing the boundaries of what we conceptualize when we say "ePortfolio" and what we imagine ePortfolios to be, along with what ePortfolios can do.

Here are eight ways I've used ePortfolios with hyperlinks to these works in progress:

Using ePortfolios to teach ePortfolios

W140 FIRST YEAR WRITING: https://oeschminor.wixsite.com/w140

I clone the website each semester, update the HOME page, then delete some content from several tabs. Students build along with me during classes. We work together during class each time a major project is due. Then, students share their website updates with peers in a Discussion Thread on Canvas [IUPUI's Learning Management System]

Using micro-ePortfolios to share documents with community partners

MICRO-ePORTFOLIOS to SHARE PROJECTS with COMMUNITY CLIENTS

W231 PROFESSIONAL WRITING: https://oeschminor.wixsite.com/w231reporttemplate

The W231 Instructional ePortfolio provides instruction, examples, tutorials, information to share with clients on previous projects, and materials to boilerplate.

Networking with other faculty to support students as they build ePortfolio across courses and coursework

ePORTFOLIOS in a THEMED LEARNING COMMUNITY

INTRODUCTORY LITERATURE in a cluster of three courses: https://oeschminor.wixsite.com/sample/home

The website provided commentary, examples, and structural ideas for students building the ePortfolio to work with their Themed Learning Community cohort in STEM.

Hyperlinking ePortfolios to showcase student work

IUPUI ENGAGED LEARNING SHOWCASE: https://getengaged.iupui.edu/showcase/2022/index.html

Faculty build Google Forms, then circulate them to among their students to gather names, project descriptions, and ePortfolio hyperlinks. The good folks in IUPUI's Institute for Engaged Learning build the Engaged Learning Showcase and circulate an announcement when the site goes live.

Building professional ePortfolios to house presentations, documents, and reflections for faculty annual reviews and promotion documents

PROFESSIONAL ePORTFOLIO: https://oeschminoriupui.wordpress.com/

My professional ePortfolio has an introductory home page then tabs for presentations and other materials I need to link to my Faculty Annual Review. When I'm presenting, I can share the URL that gives the audience quick access to the visuals and notes.

Designing an ePortfolio for the back-end of grants [including progress reports and reflective commentary]

RECENT GRANT ePORTFOLIO: https://djoeschm.wixsite.com/ceg2022-w231-livlab

ePortfolios can be a convenient way to share the range of materials built as part of a grant. This Curricular Enhancement Grant included faculty surveys, student focus groups, the construction of a major database, a mid-grant progress report, and the closing report.

Constructing ePortfolios as a learning management system [LMS] when networking with community partners who don't have access to university LMS

ePORTFOLIO as LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

I had the opportunity to design an advanced leadership training program for Grassroots Maternal Child Health Initiative leaders who partner with IU Fairbanks School of Public Health. The number one challenge was finding a way to share materials with participants during Covid. We couldn't meet in person. We didn't want to mail materials--it was early in the pandemic when there were still fears of Covid transmission on surfaces. And, the participants did not have access to university platforms like Canvas [a learning management system]. The solutions? A website to circulate materials and a shared ePortfolio to share responses, reflections, drafts, and artifacts.

SYLLABUS and SESSIONS: https://djoeschm5.wixsite.com/mysite-1/syllabus

SHARED ePORTFOLIO to SHOWCASE LEADERS' WORK: https://djoeschm5.wixsite.com/eportfolioshowcase

To read more about these amazing women and the way ePortfolios supported their leadership experiences, link to the Winter 2021 issue of AePR.

Constructing/Managing shared ePortfolios for PRESENTATIONS--like this one--as a critical tool for networking and sharing materials across time zones

ePORTFOLIOS for GROUP PRESENTATIONS: https://sites.google.com/iu.edu/aaeeblstudentpanel2022/home

This website functions as a presentation support tool and a place for shared-content development as well as a space for transparency and reflection.

ePortfolio and Zoom: When classes moved online at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, I questioned if ePortfolios would be too technical or demanding as our worlds moved online. My students' ePortfolios were as engaging and well developed as before. We used screen share to support ePortfolio building and shared works-in-progress in Zoom breakouts.

LINK to Student ePortfolios from a first year writing course, W131. Students attended Zooms, shared work on Canvas [our learning management system], and participated in peer reviews during Zoom breakouts. Their work in these digital spaces was impressive. Working with them in Zoom and online affirmed that ePortfolios are a validating, relevant tool even when students do not have face-to-face opportunities for digital support.

URL to the W131 ePortfolios on the IUPUI Engaged Learning Showcase

https://getengaged.iupui.edu/showcase/2021/pbl/w131/index.html

THE QUESTION REMAINS

What is NOT an ePortfolio?

What IS an ePortfolio?

Does it Matter?

These are relevant questions. They help us engage in the intellectual labor of defining and exploring what we mean with the terms we are assigning to the transformative experiences some students have as they create and curate materials to share in their ePortfolio. As we wrestle with the nuances of these questions, we may benefit from answering in ways that are open-ended as we invite universities to re-imagine what ePortfolios can do to support student learning, showcase student work, re-affirm program fidelity, explore new pathways for assessment, and dream of innovative ways to expand who we reach and how we reach them as we make learning more accessible and equitable.

What's missing? What makes "this" an ePortfolio? Or, is it a website?

The realms of REFLECTION

As the student panel and I Zoomed, we reflected on and discussed our ePortfolio experiences. We talked about what we'd like to share and how this website [a "presentation ePortfolio"?] could help us organize the panel and quickly share materials.

The outcome? This website provides and introduction to the panelists and their work. In addition, each panelist had the opportunity to add commentary--commentary that required both reflection and the hard work of composing concise statements about their work. This intellectual labor is inherently reflective. It's metacognitive.

As I type these lines, I'm thinking about what we did, what I thought, what they said, and how we worked to build a "presentation ePortfolio" that would provide AAEEBL attendees access to materials during and after the panel.

We designed with the audience in mind.

Even now, I'm reflecting on what we accomplished and pre-flecting: how will you, as ePortfolio experts, respond to this approach to sharing materials during and after a panel discussion / presentation?

I'll add more after the presentation and invited the panelists to do the same.