Assessing & Documenting Student Civic Learning through ePortfolios

1. July 2011 AAEEBL Conference, Boston, MA Assessing & Documenting Student Civic Learning through ePortfolios Kristin Norris Kathy Steinberg Mary Price Susan Kahn Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

2. How many of you….. • Are familiar with the concept of ePortfolios? • Currently use ePortfolios? • Use ePortfolios in the context of service-learning and civic/community engagement?

3. Session Goals • Introduce ePortfolios & civic learning at IUPUI • Discuss implications of civic learning in higher education • Define a ‘civic-minded graduate’ • Provide you with a suite of tools to assess civic-mindedness, including ePortfolio application

4. Institutional Context • Campus Culture • Campus Assessment Culture - Principle-based approach to general education • Campus ePortfolio development

5. Campus Commitment Civic Engagement Sam H. Jones Community Service Scholarship Programs Alternative Spring Break Domestic and Int’l Service lEarning Courses George Washington Community Schools Partnership Community-based Work-Study

6. Campus Challenge for Civic Learning • Demonstrate the value-added dimensions of SL/CE to multiple audiences • Critically assess how SL/CE experiences contribute to civic learning

7. Civic Learning in the context of Higher Education What is the purpose of civic learning? What are the implications of civic learning on higher education?

8. http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdfhttp://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf Lumina Degree Qualifications Profile • Preparing students for responsible citizenship is a widely acknowledged purpose of higher education. • Higher education is experimenting with new ways to prepare students for effective democratic and global citizenship. • In developing civic competence, students engage in a wide variety of perspectives and evidence and form their own reasoned views on public issues.

9. High-Impact Practices (by Kuh, AAC&U, 2008) • First-Year Seminars & Experiences • Common Intellectual Experiences • Learning Communities • Writing-Intensive Courses • Collaborative Assignments & Projects • Undergraduate Research • Diversity/Global Learning • Service Learning, Community-Based Learning • Internships • Capstone Courses & Projects

10. Lumina Degree Qualifications Profile • The objectives of Civic Learning rely considerably on students’ out-of-classroom experiences and their development of a capacity for analysis and reflection. • http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf

11. The Intellectual Commons—Musil (2009) Essential Questions for Students • Who I am? (knowledge of self) • Who are we? (communal/collective knowledge) • What does it feel like to be them? (empathetic knowledge) • How do we talk to one another? (intercultural process knowledge) • How do we improve our shared lives? (applied, engaged knowledge)

12. (Hovland, 2005) Students should be able to: • Gain a deep, comparative knowledge of the world’s peoples and problems; • Explore the historical legacies that have created the dynamics and tensions of their world; • Develop intercultural competencies to move across boundaries and unfamiliar territory and see the world from multiple perspectives; • Sustain difficult conversations in the face of highly emotional and perhaps uncongenial differences; • Understand – and perhaps redefine – democratic principles and practices within an intercultural and global context; • Secure opportunities to engage in practical work with fundamental issues that affect communities not yet well served by their societies; and • Believe that actions and ideas matter and can influence their world

13. Civic Learning At IUPUI and your campus

14. Defining Civic Engagement • Civic engagement is the acting on a heightened sense of responsibility to one’s communities that encompasses the notions of global citizenship and interdependence, participation in building civil society, and empowering individuals as agents of positive social change to promote social justice locally and globally. (Musil, 2009)

15. Definition of Civic Engagement at IUPUI • Active collaboration that builds on the resources, skills, expertise, and knowledge of the campus and community to improve the quality of life in communities in a manner consistent with the campus mission (http://csl.iupui.edu/About/5c.asp) .

16. http://csl.iupui.edu/about/5b.asp Service Learning Defined • Service learning is a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students: • Participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and • Reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of the course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility .

17. Civic-Minded Graduate A developmental model for looking at student development of a sense of civic purpose

18. Civic-Minded Graduate • Civic Mindedness refers to a person’s inclination or disposition to be “mindful” of the community and to his/her duties as a citizen of that community. This includes being aware of community strengths, weaknesses, issues, organizations, and individual people. • A civic-minded graduate is skillfully trained through formal education (bachelor’s degree or equivalent), and has the capacity and desire to work with others to achieve collective public goods.

19. Steinberg, Hatcher, & Bringle (in press)

20. How do you assess Civic Learning?

21. CMG can be used to assess: • Civic identity • Understanding how social issues are addressed in society • Active participation in society to address social issues • Collaboration with others (includes diversity issues, interconnectedness, mutuality, and respect) • Benefit of education to address social issues

22. Tools CSL has developed to assess civic-mindedness • SL Course Evaluation • CMG Scale • CMG Narrative, sub-prompts, and Rubric

23. Why Civic Learning ePortfolios? Why Now at IUPUI?

24. Value of ePortfolios for Service Learning • Most assessment tools are self-report instruments (nationally and locally) • Eportfolios provide “authentic” assessment evidence/data • Draw on strengths of Service Learning • critical reflection • Eportfolios are not just for research • also for course use and program assessment • designs can be simple or complex

25. Various forms of Portfolios at IUPUI • Course-based (ex - First Year Seminars , capstone) • Process (Matrix) • Assessment/Evaluation (Matrix with Evaluation tools and report functionality) • Presentation (both students and faculty)

26. Service Learning Assistant

27. Process Matrix within Portfolio site

28. Questions???? Kristin Norris (norriske@iupui.edu) Kathy Steinberg (ksteinbe@iupui.edu) www.csl.iupui.edu

29. References Adelman, Cliff, Peter Ewell, Paul Gaston, and Carol G. Schneider (2011). Degree Qualifications Profile. Lumina Foundation: Indianapolis, IN. http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf Hovland, K. (2005). “Shared futures: Global learning and social responsibility”. Diversity Digest, 8(3), 1, 16-17. Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Musil, C (2009). Educating students for personal and social responsibility: The civic learning spiral. In B. Jacoby, Civic engagement in higher education: Concepts and practices (pp. 49-68). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Steinberg, Kathryn S., Julie A. Hatcher, and Robert G. Bringle (2011). “A North Star: Civic-Minded Graduate.” Paper submitted to Michigan Journal for Community Service Learning.