One student’s perspective

1. One student’s perspective “So you get here and they start asking you, ‘What do you…want to major in? …what courses [do] you want to take?’ and you get the impression that’s what it’s all about – courses and majors. So, you take the courses. You get your card punched. You try a little this and a little that. Then comes GRADUATION. And you wake up and you look at this bunch of courses and then it hits you: They don’t add up to anything. It’s just a bunch of courses. It doesn’t mean a thing.”

2. Founded 1969 with a strong local mission Blended campus Metropolitan research university 20+ schools Commuter campus 30,000 students The Context of IUPUI

3. The Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) • Core Communication and Quantitative Skills • Critical Thinking • Integration and Application of Knowledge • Intellectual Depth, Breadth, and Adaptiveness • Understanding Society and Culture • Values and Ethics

4. The IUPUI ePortfolio • Definition:A selection of purposefully organized artifacts that supports retrospective and prospective reflection, as well as documentation, assessment, and enhancement of student learning over time.

7. PUL and global citizenship • I wrote “Born to Farm” because I wanted to interview people living in my community. I had heard them talk about farming and their memories of it. This artifact shows how the community is changing, and therefore, the citizens are also changing. Writing an account of these changes gives me an opportunity to offer some analysis of the world, the economics of the world of farming, and the values of this farming community. I can communicate with others and form their thoughts and ideas into a story. I can effectively gather information and put it together in a form that readers find interesting.

9. Matrix Thinking • Students self-assess their intellectual growth since the original creation of the artifact • Encourages clear articulation of knowledge, skills, abilities, dispositions • Encourages integration across courses and disciplines

10. Development in Reflective Thinking • Ability to self-assess • Awareness of how one learns • Developing lifelong learning skills

11. “I no longer see what I have to offer as an English job hunter in mere terms of degree possessed and years of experience…I look at what I have to offer in a larger context. Beyond the essential in my resume that I share with all other graduates, I now see capacities in critical thinking, communications, and multi-project analyses. All these capacities can be supported with the creative and scholarly material in my matrix.”

12. How would you rate this reflection? What is your specific evidence? How might you adapt the rubric to your campus? What insights did you gain from this exercise?

13. The IUPUI ePortfolio Definition:A selection of purposefully organized artifacts that supports retrospective and prospective reflection, as well as documentation, assessment, and enhancement of student learning over time.

14. Complete Pending Ready Locked

15. What happened at IUPUI • Use in first-year TLCs was mandated • Faculty received inadequate development (neither faculty nor students understood why they were using it) • Portfolio treated as add-on, not integrated into work of course/TLC • Software rolled out prematurely, not matched to institutional vision

16. Implications of ePortfolios for Learners and Teachers • Learning-centered vs. teaching-centered • Support active learning pedagogies aimed at promoting deeper learning • Support integrative, reflective learning • Support formative and summative assessment • Thrive when faculty collaborate to develop coherent curricula and well-defined learning outcomes

17. Other Barriers Perceived as top-down initiative Lack of campus-wide buy-in to PULs, assessment, learning paradigm Faculty workload-TLCs were also new Early “bad press” about software poisoned subsequent efforts Became entangled with other campus political issues Unfounded rumors abounded

18. Current approach • Small grants to interested departments and schools • First year designated for department-wide curricular and pedagogical preparation • Intensive one-on-one guidance and support • Projects geared to needs the academic unit wants to address • We are asking faculty in these departments for advice to guide ongoing software development (needs assessment) • Ongoing formative evaluation

19. Other Enablers • Support (and funding) from executive leadership • Large number of professional schools • CTL: Well-developed structure for supporting pedagogical and curricular innovation with technology • ePort integrated into course management system • Development of a few good examples