ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Growing a New Culture of Assessment: Planting ePortfolios in the Metro Academies Program
Author: Shada, Alycia
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: School Culture,Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Community Colleges,State Universities,Intercollegiate Cooperation,Case Studies,Student Evaluation,Computer Uses in Education,Low Income Students,First Generation College Students,Urban Schools,Undergraduate Students

This paper provides a look at the development of a new culture of assessment in higher education with the use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios). It uses the metaphor of horticulture to describe how an inter-institutional program, Metro Academies of Health, has gone through the first two parts of the ePorticulture cycle--preparing for the use of ePortfolios and planting the first ePortfolio &quot;seeds&quot; within cohorts of students at both an urban community college and 4-year state university. Metro serves as a case study for potentially rich, albeit challenging, ePortfolio integration within a program that serves primarily low-income, first-generation college students. Given the chronically poor outcomes of many of today's college students, ePortfolios operate as a high-impact practice that provides students and educators with a tool for assessment to improve academic success. Metro aims for a successful and strategic ePortfolio implementation by beginning with a foundation of research on best practices and gives a series of recommendations that apply to new or growing ePortfolio programs.
Using the e-Portfolio to Document and Evaluate Growth in Reflective Practice: The Development and Application of a Conceptual Framework
Author: Pitts, Wesley
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Reflective Teaching,Science Teachers,Graduate Students,Inservice Teacher Education,Chemistry,Case Studies,Faculty Development,Teacher Competencies,Secondary School Teachers,Outcomes of Education

This case study focused on the electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) as a portrait of teacher growth in an in-service chemistry education graduate program. The e-portfolio provided a multimedia space for systematic documentation of teacher professional growth within the domain of reflective practice. In this study, the outcome and illustration of authentic growth was theorized and evaluated using a system of quality criteria (ontological, educative, catalytic, and tactical). Findings showed that successful e-portfolio entries illustrating reflective practice were created when teacher participants explicitly showed how they experienced growth (increased professional competency) over time through well-coordinated sets of baseline- and post-baseline evidence. The conceptual framework introduced in this article responds to calls for robust models to analyze growth through reflective practice in the development of e-portfolio pedagogy.
Improving the Quality of Evidence-Based Writing Entries in Electronic Portfolios
Author: Denton, David W.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Writing (Composition),Preservice Teachers,Writing Improvement,Intervention,Metadata,Comparative Analysis,Correlation

The problem investigated in this study was whether entries written to an electronic portfolio by preservice teachers improved in quality after an intervention was deployed. The study also compared portfolio metadata to writing quality scores to determine whether there was a relationship. Participants included a convenience sample of 11 undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program. Primary analyses focused on comparing portfolio entries, written before and after the intervention, using a repeated measures design. Secondary analyses involved calculating correlations between writing quality and portfolio metadata. Results showed that writing improved at a statistically significant level, t(10) = 4.99, p &lt; 0.001, d = 3.16, 95% CI = 1.91 to 5.00. In addition, statistically significant correlations were found between writing quality and the number of unique terms shown on portfolio tag clouds, r = 0.60, N = 11, p &lt; 0.05, d = 1.50, as well as writing quality and the total number of portfolio entries, r = 0.72, N = 11, p &lt; 0.05, d = 2.08. These findings suggest that the intervention improved writing quality on entries made to electronic portfolios and that metadata predicted the quality of portfolio content.
Perceptions Regarding the Efficacy and Use of Professional Portfolios in the Employment of Teachers
Author: Whitworth, Jerry
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Administrator Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Educators,Attitude Measures,Portfolios (Background Materials),Teaching Skills,Barriers,Teacher Selection,Electronic Publishing,Teacher Education,Online Surveys,Evaluation Methods

This study explored the perceptions of school administrators and teacher educators regarding the effective use of portfolios in the process of hiring new teachers. Three questions helped to focus this study: (1) What are the perceptions of school administrators and teacher educators regarding the value and use of portfolios in the employment of teachers? (2) What are the perceptions of school administrators and teacher educators regarding the quality and accuracy of teaching portfolios in documenting applicants' teaching skills? (3) What are the perceptions of school administrators and teacher educators regarding the problems and barriers in the use of teaching portfolios in the hiring process? Advantages and disadvantages regarding portfolios as an effective tool in the hiring process were identified along with several barriers to their more extensive use. Both teacher educators and school administrators reported that a high percentage of new teacher candidates are still using more traditional paper-based portfolios rather than ePortfolios. From the study emerged a clearer picture of how professional ePortfolios might be more effectively developed and used in the teacher interview and employment process to overcome some of the barriers identified by participants to the effective use of portfolios.
Self-Representation and Student Identity: A Case Study of International Student Users of Sakai
Author: Snider, Evan
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Case Studies,Foreign Students,Electronic Publishing,Portfolios (Background Materials),Self Concept,Observation,Interviews,Qualitative Research,Undergraduate Students,Aesthetics,Computer Uses in Education

This case study of two international students, coupled with artifact analysis of 22 eportfolios and observations of the authors as participant researchers, closely explores the ways in which students attempt to self-represent within one particular system (Sakai) and institutional context (Virginia Tech). Using artifacts (the participants' eportfolios) and qualitative interviews with the participants, the study calls attention to challenges international students face when required to craft online identities for themselves with the English ePortfolio. Participant data is discussed in terms of aesthetics, functionality, flexibility, and self-representation. The rigidity of the system denied participants the flexibility to craft identities with which they felt much connection, resulting in eportfolio creation being reduced to a class project rather than a personally and professionally meaningful process and product. Greater flexibility in design and function would make the eportfolio system more useful to student users in this particular context.
Making Learning Visible with ePortfolios: Coupling the Right Pedagogy with the Right Technology
Author: Johnsen, Heidi L.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Electronic Publishing,Portfolios (Background Materials),Educational Technology,Community Colleges,Technology Uses in Education,Two Year College Students

This essay captures one instructor's experience implementing, revising and re-implementing ePortfolio practices over several years at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY. It outlines and analyzes the strategies that have worked best in rendering more visible the learning process to students generally inexperienced in academic pursuits, namely (1) determining &quot;learning&quot; as the primary purpose of student ePortfolios, (2) helping students discover the language to talk about the learning process, (3) providing continual guidance to enforce critical and academic analysis, and (4) celebrating technological advances that have enhanced pedagogical changes. This process of experiment, failure, reflection, and success should be of interest to teachers and scholars concerned with using technology to empower learning among nontraditional students new to the college environment.
Class Syllabi, General Education, and ePortfolios
Author: Appling, Jeffrey
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: General Education,Course Descriptions,Student Experience,Undergraduate Students,Portfolio Assessment,Electronic Publishing,Student Surveys,Evaluation Methods,Student Evaluation

A study of undergraduate student experience with class syllabi revealed several concerns for improvement in areas directly related to General Education and assessment strategies using electronic portfolios. We report several student interests and suggestions, including the need for consistent syllabi that contain information designed to promote success in classes. Students report that faculty members teaching General Education courses have not adequately engaged in helping them with electronic portfolio requirements. Results of this study suggest that better communication, through carefully constructed syllabi, is needed to connect students and instructors to the importance of General Education and the use of electronic portfolios for assessment and student documentation of learning.
On the Right Track: Using ePortfolios as Tenure Files
Author: Danowitz, Erica Swenson
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Electronic Publishing,Portfolios (Background Materials),Tenure,College Faculty,Community Colleges,Teacher Promotion,Computer Software,Teacher Evaluation,Scoring Rubrics,Summative Evaluation

ePortfolios have been used in many disciplines for different purposes. In the following paper, I describe how I created and used an eportfolio as my tenure file over a five-year period. As the first tenure-track faculty member at Delaware County Community College to attain tenure through the use of an online tenure portfolio, the tenure eportfolio played many roles including as a summative, reflective, and showcase tool. Using an eportfolio for tenure promotion has become increasingly popular at my institution which now has an institutional eportfolio software package that all new tenure-track faculty use to create their online tenure files. This paper also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using a prescribed eportfolio software package in creating tenure eportfolios.
Using the ePortfolio to Complement Standardized Testing in a Healthcare Professional Program: Better Education or More Busy Work?
Author: Chan, Clarence
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Standardized Tests,Allied Health Occupations Education,Community Colleges,Physical Therapy,Two Year College Students,Professionalism,Intervention,Pilot Projects,Test Preparation,Licensing Examinations (Professions),Instructional Materials,College Curriculum

This article evaluates the full-scale integration of the ePortfolio into a healthcare professional program in an open admissions community college in the United States. The Physical Therapist Assistant program in question struggles to balance the dynamic tension between preparing students for a summative multiple-choice licensing examination and the continuous development of professional core values such as altruism and integrity--qualities that cannot be measured by any standardized test. To address this conflict, the program has piloted the ePortfolio as a pedagogical tool that enables students to reflect on their development of professionalism and to make connections between academics, clinical practice, and personal developments. From the program's perspective, the integration of the ePortfolio has been somewhat successful. The ePortfolio has allowed faculty to go beyond the otherwise &quot;test prep&quot; curriculum and creatively design assignments to help students understand and cultivate professional values. Yet, in an open admissions institution where students come with an elevated level of unpreparedness, the ePortfolio is not a panacea for a professional program with highly stringent graduation and licensing requirements. After the implementation of the ePortfolio, faculty and students continue to confront the dilemma of test preparation and the development of professional qualities-- albeit with new dynamics. Our experience in balancing the needs to &quot;teach to the test&quot; and to develop a well-rounded student body has relevance to the ongoing national debates on ePortfolio and standardized testing as pedagogical and assessment tools in higher education.
Understanding Students' Experiences of e-PDP and the Factors That Shape Their Attitudes
Author: Gaitán, Alfredo
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Student Experience,Student Attitudes,Undergraduate Students,Psychology,College Curriculum,Electronic Publishing,Portfolios (Background Materials),Web Sites,Information Literacy,Interviews,Qualitative Research,Writing (Composition),Computer Uses in Education,Action Research,Grounded Theory

Using an action research approach, e-PDP (electronically-supported Personal Development Planning) was embedded within an undergraduate psychology curriculum at an English university for more than two years. e-PDP was embedded in three ways: (a) information literacy micro-tasks, (b) blogs of learning activities, and (c) eportfolios submitted at the end of each academic year in which the students assessed their experiences and development across all units. This paper focuses on findings from the qualitative analysis of a sample of interviews with students. A system of five interconnected categories was identified at the center of which were the students' &quot;attitudes&quot; towards reflective writing and the construction of eportfolios. These attitudes were closely related to a perception of &quot;purpose&quot; (many different purposes, but also lack of purpose), as well as &quot;technical aspects&quot; (experiences of using the software), the students' willingness (or reluctance) to &quot;disclose personal aspects&quot; in their eportfolios, and the &quot;guidance&quot; received from tutors
Developing a Model for ePortfolio Design: A Studio Approach
Author: Carpenter, Russell
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Models,Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Creativity,Peer Evaluation,Multiple Literacies,Universities,Assignments,Undergraduate Students,Communications,College Faculty,Teacher Educators,Teacher Education,Information Literacy,Employers

After developing and testing a model for integrative collaboration at Eastern Kentucky University's Noel Studio for Academic Creativity, we offer results that highlight the potential for peer review to significantly and positively impact the ePortfolio design process for students. The results of this classroom/studio collaboration suggest that students who participated in consultations at the Noel Studio were more successful in the design of their ePortfolios than students who did not. While the results have proven promising for sustained collaboration between the multiliteracy center and the ePortfolio course highlighted in this research report, the proposed collaborative model is highly replicable across many institutions.
ePerformance: Crafting, Rehearsing, and Presenting the ePortfolio Persona
Author: Ramírez, Kimberly
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Performance,Student Centered Learning,Cooperative Learning,Multimedia Materials,Self Disclosure (Individuals),Audience Awareness,Undergraduate Students,Urban Education,Student Role

&quot;ePerformance: Crafting, Rehearsing, and Presenting the ePortfolio Persona&quot; exposes vital intersections between pedagogy and performance to reveal how using ePortfolio encourages not only student-centered learning, but facilitates collaboration through cooperative exchanges. Productive interactivity with audiences who actively influence process, content, and outcomes displaces classroom hierarchies and the passive absorption of predetermined material. It is the powerful intersection of multiple modes of performance that establishes the ePortfolio medium as an elastic, ultra-accessible theatrical arena in which students may create, rehearse, and present themselves. By recognizing that they are not only at the center of learning, but that they are one of multiple centers in a multicentric teaching and learning dynamic, students activate the discourse of which their work is already a part.
The Dialogic Potential of ePortfolios: Formative Feedback and Communities of Learning within a Personal Learning Environment
Author: Ehiyazaryan-White, Ester
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Communities of Practice,Formative Evaluation,Feedback (Response),Educational Environment,Portfolio Assessment,Electronic Publishing,Masters Programs,Qualitative Research,Transcripts (Written Records),Content Analysis,Focus Groups,Portfolios (Background Materials),Teaching Methods,Action Research,Blended Learning,Grounded Theory,Interviews

This paper reports on the findings of a study into the use of ePortfolios as personal learning environments (PLE) by a group of students pursuing Master's degrees in Education. The qualitative study explores the potential of the ePortfolio to support learners in engaging in formative peer and tutor feedback as well as in developing a learning community. Within this study, the ePortfolio is presented as an alternative to the discussion forums based in the institutional virtual learning environment (VLE), as it combines the individual, reflective benefits of the PLE with the communal, social benefits offered via the discussion forums. Data were collected of the interactional content that students created through the ePortfolio (blog posts and responses to others' posts) as well as through a focus group interview with the participating students that explored the learners' perceptions of the ePortfolio as a support mechanism for their study on a specific module. The findings of the study indicate that while in many ways learners' online interactions through the ePortfolio were similar to those described in VLE discussion forums, there were several key advantages to positioning this dialogue within a PLE, including encouraging deep rather than surface approaches to learning and providing the opportunity to construct a personal and re-traceable narrative of the individual's learning journey.
Research into Learning Process in a Vocational Secondary School in the Context of Sustainable Development
Author: van Gejeka, Natalja
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Secondary Schools,Vocational Education,Learning Processes,Sustainable Development,Construction Industry,Foreign Countries,Cooperation,Models,Construction Management,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Teamwork,Creativity,Communication Skills,Teacher Role,Observation,Teaching Methods,Conventional Instruction,Cooperative Learning,Statistical Analysis

The paper provides an insight into the results of a lesson designed and carried out at Riga Construction College in the study subject &quot;Building Constructions&quot;. The aim of this study is to better understand the impact of learning environment reorganisation into juvenile groups while teaching technical study subjects. In particular, the research conducted at this vocational secondary school focused upon introducing a particular form of integrative collaboration amongst the learners. Criteria were developed to respond to the question: How is the organisation of the learning process based on the Learners' Integrative Collaboration Model changing? A formative teaching experiment, which analyses learners' integrative collaboration through structured observation at the beginning and end of the acquisition of the study subject &quot;Building Constructions&quot; points at positive changes associated with the model's criteria: working in a team, mutual learning, business communication and creativity action.
Competitiveness and Quality of Higher Education: Graduates' Evaluation
Author: Bikse, Veronika
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Quality,Higher Education,Competition,College Graduates,Labor Market,Entrepreneurship,Graduate Surveys,Universities,Employment Potential

The aim of the paper is to find the competitiveness of Latvian university graduates in Latvia and the European Union labour market concerning aspects of entrepreneurship education. To achieve the purpose of this study to determine the competitive and qualitative levels of Latvian universities and necessary improvements that need to be made, a survey of 4,909 graduates (from the years 2006-2011) representing six Latvia universities was performed between November-December, 2011. Results indicate that, in general, the graduates consider themselves competitive in the Latvian labour market. The graduates have positive opinions concerning the quality of theoretical knowledge as well as the abilities to present information and to evaluate, analyse and systematise it. At the same time, there are serious improvements that are necessary in regard to entrepreneurship education and to increase the competitiveness of Latvian universities, which can be done by improving the quality of the study process, the content of courses, teaching (learning) methods and the attitudes of academic staff to better motive students to develop their skills emphasising the practical side of the study process.
Clearing the Path That Has Been Laid: A Conceptualisation of Education for Sustainable Development
Author: Bentham, Hayley
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Sustainable Development,Guidelines,Educational Policy,Policy Analysis,Competence,Educational Quality,Educational History,Poverty,Economic Development,Accountability

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has become so crucial that we have tried to smear it on anything and everything that is teachable. The consequence is that almost everything we do may be said to contain weak attributes of ESD even if we know nothing significant about it. This paper attempts to reveal an understanding of ESD that is informed by an exploration of policy language and agenda and recent literature in the field. The exploration of policy reveals the possible cause for previous inadequate implementation of ESD. An exploration of policy and literature reveals some key competencies that are advocated for through ESD. Insight into how policy has shifted from an ecological to a development focus and substantiation for why this shift is important in addressing current sustainable development issues serves to inform the interpretation of ESD. Finally, the analysis of policy and literature is triangulated to develop a framework that may assist ESD stakeholders in identifying ESD competencies in policy and practice. It is hoped that through this engagement with selected texts a more informed and complex insight into ESD and its features may be developed.