Keeping up with changing needs in e-portfolios (Part 1)

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Universities have progressively turned to technology-enhanced strategies for teaching, learning and making learner-centred student assessment, inspiring life-long learning (Lopez-Fernandez & Rodriguez-Illera, 2009). E-portfolio supports this need, and has been used with different focuses for students, teachers and institutions in the education sector. Therefore, expectations for e-portfolios are constantly changing over the years.

A review of the literature shows that there are three primary functions of e-portfolios that support users’ affective and cognitive development – documentation (evidence and outcomes of learning), reflections on learning, and collaboration.

On documentation, personal, professional and intellectual development of students can be well recorded and supported in e-portfolios (Watson & Doolittle, 2011). The collection, organisation and analysis of various learning artefacts motivate students to process and make connections (Loreanzo & Ittelson, 2005a).

For reflections on learning, Lorenzo & Ittelson (2005a, 2005b) believe that e-portfolios encourage self-reflection and ‘involve exchange of ideas and feedback,’ enhancing information literacy. An in-depth learning involving ‘reflection, intrinsic motivation, story-telling, interconnections and real meaning making’ can be fostered, and students ‘learn by doing’ (Barrett, 2004; Cooper and Love, 2007, as cited in Buzzetto-More, 2010, p.66).

In relation to collaboration, Ahn (2004) views e-portfolio as an effective mechanism to encourage users to interact with peers, thus creating a good learning community. Students embrace learning from non-traditional activities (Wang, 2009, as cited in Buzzetto-More, 2010).

At HKU, how should we come up with solutions that are agile enough to meet these (still changing) needs? Please email us (enquiry@teli.hku.hk) with your ideas.


On July 23, TELI joined MBBS Year 5 students for an orientation to Medical Humanities. We’ve launched an e-portfolio system for their reflection writing exercise in the coming two years of clerkship.

References

  • Ahn, J. (2004). Electronic portfolios: Blending technology, accountability & assessment. T H E Journal. 31 (9).
  • Barrett, H. (2004). Electronic portfolios as digital stories of deep learning. Retrieved on 7/18/16 from: http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/epstory.html
  • Buzzetto-More, N. (2010). Assessing the Efficacy and Effectiveness of an E-Portfolio used for summative assessment. Interdisciplinary journal of e-learning and learning objects, 6, 61-85.
  • Lopez-Fernandez, O., & Rodriguez-Illera, J. L. (January 01, 2009). Investigating university students’ adaptation to a digital learner course portfolio. Computers & Education, 52, 3, 608-616.
  • Lorenzo, G., & Ittelson, J. (2005a). An overview of e-portfolios. Educase Learning Initiative, 1-27.
  • Lorenzo, G., & Ittelson, J. (2005b). Demonstrating and assessing student learning with e-portfolios. Educause Learning Initiative Paper 3: 2005.
  • Watson, C. E., & Doolittle, P. E. (2011). ePortfolio pedagogy, technology, and scholarship: Now and in the future. Educational Technology, 51(5), 29-33.

Sneak Preview 5 – Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity & Cultural Sustainability

What does the future hold for vernacular architecture in Asia? In this concluding episode, we will try to look into this question and examine tradition, modernity, and cultural sustainability in the context of the Asian vernacular built environment. Register to take the course for free at http://tinyurl.com/architecturemooc and join learners from around the world on July 26, 2016. Find out more about it here!

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Assessing with ePortfolios

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As the curriculum broadened in scope and depth, more and more teachers are interested in developing meaningful and effective ways of documenting, monitoring and evaluating student achievements through ePortfolios. That’s why Professor Gavin Brown (Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland) and Dr. Tanja Sobko (Faculty of Science, HKU) received a full-house attendance at their seminar “Assessing with ePortfolios” on July 8, 2016.

Gavin

Professor Brown introduced ePortfolio as a ‘systematic, purposeful and chronological collection of student work’ which empowers students to continuously learn through critical thinking and reflection. There are several aspects to facilitate the use of ePortfolios.

  • First, students need to understand the importance of reflection and self-monitored learning. A timely and continuous progress is the key – work must start early for students to curate and build the ePortfolio. Willingness to reveal different stages of work justifies improvements and connections to learning outcomes.
  • Second, for teachers, having a well-designed rubric and cross-references will lead to good assessment. Alternatively, an ePortfolio can be developed as a non-assessed dialogue with students – but some incentives or motivation will be necessary.
  • Third, be flexible about the platform for ePortfolio. Professor Brown believes that current market options have similar technology. It is not necessary to be too restrictive.

ePortfolio

An example in HKU

In the second part of the seminar, Dr. Sobko shared her ePortfolio experience in a BSc Exercise and Health course with 30 students. She aimed to promote eHealth Literacy 1 via the combined use of wearable device ‘Mi band’ and ePortfolio. Students wore the tracker device to record their daily activity levels (e.g., walking distance, hours of deep sleep) electronically, and wrote regular reflections during the process.

ePortfolio

It was found that students became more aware of their personal health, and incorporated more scientific references in their reflection writing as the weeks passed. Key words to describe content quality of ePortfolio evolved from ‘interesting’, ‘personal’ at the beginning to ‘reflective’, ‘evidence-based’, ‘organized’ at the end of the course.

Dr. Sobko particularly saw the added value of the data collected in helping to ‘track, support and explore development of new literacies in eHealth literacy.’

TELI is now working closely with teachers on a few pilot projects to understand the features that they’d like to see in ePortfolios. If you’d like to collaborate, please get in touch via enquiry@teli.hku.hk.

Download the presentations here:
Prof Brown’s presentation
Dr. Sobko’s presentation

Summary of workshop details here.

1 The ability to seek, find and understand health information from e-sources, and apply that knowledge to solve personal health problems.

Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity and Cultural Sustainability

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If you are someone who is curious or cares about the everyday environment you live in, join this online course! Be part of the journey with us in Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity and Cultural Sustainability and explore how vernacular architecture can be sustained in this urbanized world. This 5-week course will start on 26 July 2016.

Highlights of the course

  • Deepen your appreciation of the values and meanings of vernacular architecture in your local environments
  • Establish your personal perspectives on the more complex issues in vernacular architecture, such as self-conscious or un-self-conscious way of building, informal settlements, and cultural sustainability
  • Help you to generate your own ideas of how to protect and conserve your local vernacular built environment

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Asian e-Table: the e-learning Mexican wave

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Prologue: Initiating a large scale collaboration is not much different from starting a Mexican wave – grab the people around you, gather a concerted effort to do something exciting and let others pick up the momentum.

The 2nd annual Asian e-Table was held on May 12-13. We joined hands again with e-learning advocates from nine top-notch universities 1 in Asia to spark ideas for a common Asian position so as to create a bigger impact in the region.

photo_2016-07-12_10-08-28[From left to right] Professor Roger CHENG (HKUST), Ms Helie KIM (YU), Professor Joon HEO (YU), Professor Toru IIYOSHI (KU), Professor Ricky KWOK (HKU), Dr. Huang Hoon CHNG (NUS), Professor Xiaoming LI (PKU).

“Crowdsourcing” Contents – Internationalization at Home

Producing high quality contents require tremendous time and resources so why not make the most out of them? The Asian e-Table is looking to establish a common platform to pool the contents developed by all the institutions involved. Once this is achieved, we aim to develop a mechanism for credit transfer. Taking advantage of the Asian time zone, the platform could potentially serve as a synchronized virtual classroom where students can learn, collaborate and co-create with their overseas counterparts, right at home.

Incoming Skype call from Professor Anant AGARWAL, Chief Executive Officer, edX.

Regional (E-)Teaching Excellence Award

For e-learning material producers, one major source of frustration is the lack of awareness, support and acceptance by fellows. Therefore it is of crucial importance that recognition is given to teachers who are willing to adopt this new practice – and excel in doing so. The Asian e-Table is looking to launch a Regional (E-)Teaching Excellence Award to reward and promote excellence in e-teaching. It is also an effective way to celebrate achievements in e-learning, which can potentially evolve into communities of practice headed by the awardees. Making e-learning an “established” practice could be the way to sway more professors in, which means wider and better collaboration.

Incoming Skype call from Professor Benson YEH, Director of MOOC Program, National Taiwan University.

The big shot – Asian Consortium

With these new initiations, the Asian e-Table aims to create some buzz which could generate a more extensive wave of international e-learning collaboration. Our ultimate goal is to connect all the e-advocates in the region into an Asian Consortium. By benchmarking the quality of e-learning and associated parameters, and enhancing professional development and teacher training, we hope to turn e-learning into the new standard of learning.

1 Kyoto University, National Taiwan University, National University of Singapore, Peking University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The University of Hong Kong, University of Science and Technology, with Yonsei University as a new member

Sneak Preview 4 – Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity & Cultural Sustainability

As vernacular architecture faces various threats, how do we make sure that the needs of both the current and future generations are met? In Week 4 of Vernacular Architecture of Asia, we focus on the conservation of the built vernacular heritage. Register to take the course for free at http://tinyurl.com/architecturemooc and join learners from around the world on July 26, 2016. Find out more about it here!

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The BOLT roadshow

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Technology has opened up new opportunities for professional development. Choices are no longer restricted to traditional half-day seminars. With new online platforms such as the Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) Project, we can now learn anytime, anywhere. This project aims to support technology-facilitated teaching through developing online resources and forming professional learning communities. Leaders of the project, Professor Lim Cher Ping from The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) and Mr. Darren Harbutt from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU); together with two project teachers, Assistant Professor Veronika Schoeb and Mr. David Watson from PolyU, shared their experiences in developing blended learning in a seminar on 31 May 2016.

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Professor Lim shared EdUHK’s grassroot approach towards promoting professional development of blended learning in Hong Kong. They begin with providing programme/course/department-based support within individual faculties, then sharing the resources with other faculties in the institution, and eventually with other local and international higher education institutions.

(5) Veronika

Dr. Schoeb is one of the teachers who took the BOLT Foundation course and applied the knowledge in developing her course “Qualitative research methods and statistics.” A variety of learning activities were tried out in her teaching, including Kahoot, online test, group work, onsite fieldwork and classic face-to-face sessions. This blended learning approach promoted active learning and was evaluated positively by her students.

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Mr. Watson urged the audience to check out the BOLT Foundation course to learn more about blended and online learning. You may also sign up for the CMALT Professional Development Module, a mentor-supported online module in developing a portfolio to showcase your expertise in learning technologies. Be sure to subscribe for the BOLT Newsletter as well!

(3) Darren copy

More photos of the seminar can be found on our Facebook and Twitter.

Afternote: The HKU team has developed an online module on the basis of e-learning in collaboration with the BOLT team. The course will re-run this summer. Stay tuned for more information.

DIY Video Production for Flipped Classroom

Creating online videos is easier than you think, even if you are no tech guru. With a graphing tablet, a microphone and a screen capture software, you can create DIY videos efficiently. In the Spring 2016 semester, Dr. Rachel K.W. Lui, Dr. K.F. Lam, Dr. William M.Y. Cheung and Dr. N.K. Tsing of the Faculty of Science tried this DIY approach of creating videos for flipping their first-year science foundation course, “SCNC1111 Scientific method and reasoning.”

Screen-capturing
Rachel created a series of short videos using a screen capture software called Camtasia. She started by putting teaching contents in presentation slides, then highlighted keywords and added annotations on a separate tablet while going through the slides. To ensure that students are engaged, she kept the videos short (2-5 minutes), illustrating one concept in each video. Students could also refer back to particular concepts easily. All videos were done in one take. The recording time was roughly the same as the time she used in delivering lectures.

Rachael1Each video will be 2-5 minutes long and covers one concept at a time.

Using videos in a flipped class
The videos were used in flipping the science class. As opposed to lecturing during the entire class, the class now consisted of first replaying videos with explanations, followed by time for in-class activities. For example, in groups of three, student solved problems using concepts learnt from the videos. Teachers were able to walk around the classroom and offer individualized support to students. Selected groups would then present their answers in front of the class using slide projectors. Members of well-performed groups would be awarded one point towards their final grade.

Rickyphotos-3Putting videos online prevents wasted lecture time to teach concepts again.
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Through presenting key concepts in short videos, teachers are now free to organize more interactive in-class activities. Students can also consolidate their understanding through reviewing the videos anytime, anywhere. The use of online videos enhances the quality of learning, and it is not difficult to create your own videos via screen-capturing. Want to give it a try? Contact Us.

Further reading:

  1. Flipped Classroom: Overcoming the Challenges
  2. Conquering the 4Cs: Creating Engaging In-class Activities
  3. Flipping the classroom – a success story

Sneak Preview 3 – Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity & Cultural Sustainability

Does the city you live in have “slum” areas? Have you ever thought about how they are built and how they meet the needs of the people who live there? In Week 3 of the Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity & Cultural Sustainability, we continue our examination of the urban environment by focusing on these “informal settlements”. Register for the course for free at http://tinyurl.com/architecturemooc and join learners from around the world on July 26, 2016. Find out more about it here!

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