Developing Self-Directed Learners Through an ePortfolio Peer Consultant Program

2. Use Q&A for: Panel discussion Use Chat for: Technology support #eportfolio Slides and recording will be posted online: www.aacu.org/webinar/eportfolio19

3. Presenters Moderator Scott PeecksenOutcomes Assessment Specialist, Office of the Provost, Department of Career Connect, University of North Texas scott.peecksen@unt.edu Joanne BritlandDepartment of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, University of Virginia jeb5hc@virginia.edu C. Edward WatsonChief Information Officer and Associate Vice President for Quality, Pedagogy, and LEAP Initiatives, AAC&Uwatson@aacu.org Leslie CordieAssistant Professor, Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, Auburn University lesliecordie@auburn.edu Wesley PittsAssociate Professor, Middle and High School Education, Lehman College WESLEY.PITTS@lehman.cuny.edu

4. Joanne BritlandDepartment of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, University of Virginia jeb5hc@virginia.edu

5. Developing Self-Directed Learners through an ePortfolio Peer Consultant Program Joanne Britland, Ph.D. University of Virginia

6. ePortfolio Peer Consultants at UVA • Foreign Language Learning ePortfolio Project (2014-2015) Pilot Year • Full Implementation (2015-2016) • Student-centered goals • 60 foreign language faculty • 7 foreign language departments • 30 beginning, intermediate, and advanced language courses • 96 separate class sessions • 3,500 students per semester

7. Who are the ePPCs? • Peer-mentoring peer support model • Implemented 2015-2016 academic year • Students with prior coursework using ePortfolios (WordPress and Digication) • Orientation training • Weekly meetings • Office hours

8. Walk-in office hours By Appointment

9. https://uva.digication.com/eppc.support/home

10. Does the ePPC program promote self-directed learning? • Learner-centered goals of ePortfolios and FLLeP • Self-directed learning • Autonomous learning • Unexpected phenomenon: The ePPCs were achieving these same goals • Extracurricular component of ePortfolio implementation • Completely student-centered • Authentic employment experience

11. Two Key Questions • Does the ePortfolio peer-mentoring program foster self-directed learning? • What evidence indicates that the ePortfolio has encouraged self- directed learning?

12. Methodology • Examine multiple sources of data collected iteratively over three semesters (Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018) • Focus group (May 2017) • FolioFest surveys (Fall 2017) • Media items • Created autonomously by consultants • Personal ePortfolios • Video tutorials • Promotional videos • Interviews with ePPC faculty coordinators (Spring 2018)

13. ePPCePortfolios

14. Findings • Students working as ePPCs developed skills to become self-directed learners • They were motivated to seek ways to learn autonomously, demonstrating a significant and meaningful learning experience (Candy, 1991) • Authentic employment, customer service

15. FolioFest

16. Showcasing student work

17. The ePPCs leading the FolioFest event

18. Practical Implications • Innovative ways to promote self-directed learning with ePortfolios • Unexpected outcomes of ePortfolio practice • Benefits of peer mentoring and ePortfolios • Extracurricular possibilities of ePortfolios • FolioFest—opportunities for collaboration with other universities and programs

19. Leslie CordieAssistant Professor, Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, Auburn University lesliecordie@auburn.edu

20. Constructing a Professional Identity: Connecting College and Career Through ePortfolios Leslie Cordie, PhD, MBA Auburn University

21. Professional Identity – Overview • “Tell Me About Yourself” • Integrating ePortfolio into Higher Education Curriculum • 3 Programs • Human Development & Family Studies • School of Forestry and Wildlife • College of Education • Adult Education and Workforce Development

22. Constructing the ePortfolio

23. Adult Education Program

24. Program and Instructional Strategies • ePortfolio Workshops and Resources • Design Basics • Adult Education Examples • Scaffolded into ADED Curriculum • Utilization of Peer Review • Advisory Board Development

25. Overall Best Practices • Support across time for authentic learning • Reflective writing based on consideration of the audience • Personalized ePortfolios • About Me pages • Tell Me About Yourself assignments • Synthesis into a Professional Identity • Scaffolding the use of technology

26. Scott PeecksenOutcomes Assessment Specialist, Office of the Provost, Department of Career Connect, University of North Texas scott.peecksen@unt.edu

27. PURPOSE College Students’ Motivation and Confidence for ePortfolio Use • Students’ motivation and confidence are arguably important factors for enhancing learning outcomes through ePortfolios. • Without motivation and confidence, students may not put forth effort into the creation and continued development of their ePortfolios. • The purpose of this study is to understand students’ motivation and confidence to use ePortfolios by examining why students use ePortfolios and what they perceive as the advantages and disadvantages of their use.

28. METHODOLOGY FRAMEWORK • This study applied a student-centered/person-centered lens by grounding the study in Miller and Rollnick’s Motivational Interviewing framework which aims to strengthen an individual’s motivation for change towards specific behaviors by eliciting their own motivation and confidence. • The current study gained insight into students’ motivation for, and confidence in, using an ePortfolio in the context of experiential learning activities. • Fundamental principles of the motivational interviewing framework are: • People are the expert on themselves. No one knows more about them than they do. • People have their own strengths, motivations, and resources that must be activated in order for change to occur. • It is important to understand the person’s own perspective on the situation, what is needed, and how to accomplish it.

29. METHODOLOGY • University of North Texas (UNT) students were recruited by email based on their ePortfolio account being activated, meaning students who had previously logged into the ePortfolio. • A survey was sent to 6,803 UNT students across 14 UNT colleges (e.g., Colleges of Education, Science, and Music) and ran for three weeks, with weekly reminders and a raffle incentive to increase response rates. The survey assessed: • reported levels of motivation and confidence • participation in experiential learning activities • reasons for and reported ways to improve confidence and motivation to use ePortfolios • perceived advantages and disadvantages of the ePortfolio within the context of experiential learning • students’ ranking (by importance) of personal or intrinsic values

30. RESULTS • Out of 6,803 surveys sent, students completed 339 for a 5 percent response rate. • Of the 339 participants: • 20 percent indicated that they had participated in an experiential learning activity • 64 percent reported that they had not participated in an experiential learning activity • 16 percent did not respond

31. RESULTS • The average rating for the motivation ruler (a 10-point scale) was 3.43 (SD = 2.75) and the average confidence rating was 5.85 (SD = 3.40). • Students who participated in an experiential learning activity, compared to those who did not, reported significantly higher confidence ratings for using ePortfolios (M = 6.66, M = 5.63, p = .03, respectively). • Results indicated no significant differences in students’ reported motivation to use ePortfolios based on participation in experiential learning activities.

32. RESULTS Content analysis into the reasons for students’ reported motivation and confidence revealed . . . • benefits such as documenting, reflecting on, and showcasing student learning experiences • challenges such as technological difficulty and too much time invested to complete the ePortfolio • required for courses, degree, or assignments

33. RESULTS Content analysis into students reports about what it would take to increase their motivation and confidence included . . . • providing more information and marketing about the benefits of ePortfolio use • making ePortfolio use part of a required course assignment • providing one-on-one assistance and more time in class to develop ePortfolio

34. STUDENT RESPONSES ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES “It takes time to complete them.” “Sometimes ePortfolio shows an error, such as asking me to verify something, and that confuses me.” “It is a double-edged sword…it could make that individual question his/her motivation for a career/education switch, for fear of starting from scratch to learn a new or quite possible more rewarding skill.” • “It allows us to put on record what we learned and what we accomplished.” • “The task makes me reflect on what I did wrong and what I did right. It makes me reflect on how the activity benefited me, and how I could improve.” • “Prepare myself for any possible questions in an interview and understand how I can better myself to employers.” • “I feel that participating in something like that might be an eye-opener to the individual. I realized some thing about myself that I might not have paid attention to previously, that could in turn make me more marketable…”

35. VALUE SORT • Value words were chosen by students at the end of the survey and were collated into the top 10 frequently endorsed value words out of 83 choices. Below are the results: • Self-acceptance (N = 128) • Caring (N = 125) • Adventure (N =124) • Achievement (N = 122) • Dependability (N =121) • Compassion (N =117) • Purpose (N = 112) • Comfort (N = 107) • Family (N = 107) • Friendship (N = 105)

36. Summary of Identified Factors • Participation in experiential learning activities • Understanding of, prior experience with, competence in, and social norms regarding students’ ePortfolio use • Quality of the ePortfolio system and the usefulness of the guidance or instructions for using it • Perceived advantages of ePortfolio use and its capabilities, including the benefits derived from documenting, reflecting on, and showcasing students’ career-identities and learning experiences for potential job opportunities; • Perceived disadvantages of ePortfolio use such as technical difficulties and the high-level of time commitment.

37. POTENTIAL MEANING OF FINDINGS • Results suggest several factors that may be related to students’ motivation and confidence to use ePortfolios. • Findings may help other universities identify student-centered motivational and confidence factors that could be considered when implementing ePortfolio initiatives across their campuses • Marketing messages could be tailored to the audience based on the intrinsic value sort, for example, self-acceptance through reflection and student compassion through service-learning activities or emphasizing travel abroad and experiences outside of the classroom to engage personal values of adventure and friendship.

38. POTENTIAL MEANING OF FINDINGS • Extends the literature by helping to address • Bryant and Chittum’s (2013) call for more research on students’ ePortfolio use and non-academic outcomes • Mobarhan et al.’s (2014) call for more research on factors associated with students’ motivation to use ePortfolios • Suggest similarities in the factors that motivate students to use ePortfolios within and across university colleges or departments.

39. LIMITATIONS • Higher respondent rate for women and freshmen • Low overall response rate, 5 percent of total emails • Cross-sectional data FUTURE DIRECTIONS • Intentionally targeted marketing messages that correspond to the values students identified as able to increase their motivation and confidence to use ePortfolios. • Repeat the study annually or conduct pre-and post-test analysis of students’ motivation and confidence to use ePortfolios before and after participating in experiential learning activities.

40. REFERENCES FROM PRESENTATION • Miller, W.R. & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. • Mobarhan, R., Majidi, M., & Abdul Rahman, A. (2014). Motivation in electronic portfolio usage for higher education institutions. In H. Rahman & R. D. de Sousa (Eds.), Information Systems and Technology for Organizational Agility, Intelligence, and Resilience (pp. 224–243). Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference. • Tosh, D., Light, T., Fleming, K., Haywood, J., & Haywood, J. (2005). Engagement with electronic portfolios: Challenges from the student perspective. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 31(3). REFERENCES FROM MANUSCRIPT For inquiries, please contact Scott Peecksen at scott.peecksen@unt.edu.

41. Wesley PittsAssociate Professor, Middle and High School Education, Lehman College WESLEY.PITTS@lehman.cuny.edu

42. Engaging the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as a Lens for Assessment in an ePortfolio Social Pedagogy Ecosystem for Science Teacher Education Wesley Pitts and Alison Lehner-Quam Lehman College, CUNY How do ePortfolio practitioners assess the development of competencies and dispositions in the contextual circumstances of social pedagogy and learning practices of a community?

43. Overview We present a case study that assesses how graduate-level in-service secondary science teachers engage in an ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem using the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as a lens to document their growth in knowledge practices and dispositions in information literacy.

44. Coordinating Several Key Frameworks to Work at the Intersection of ePortfolio Social Pedagogy and Information Literacy Based on the work done in the Connect to Learn (C2L) Network 3 Key Prepositions from the Catalyst Framework (for ePortfolio Practice) Social Pedagogy and the Social Core–Bass & Elmendorf (2016) Association of College and Research and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (ACRL Framework) (ACRL, 2015)

45. The Catalyst Framework: 3 Value Propositions 1) ePortfolio initiatives advance student success 2) Making student learning visible, ePortfolio initiatives support reflection, social pedagogy and deepen learning 3) ePortfolio initiatives catalyze learning-centered institutional change

46. Information Literacy Definition and ACRL Framework Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information increating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.

47. The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Six Frames: 1) Authority is Constructed and Contextual 2) Information Creation as a Process 3) Information Has Value 4) Research as Inquiry 5) Scholarship as Conversation 6) Searching as Strategic Exploration Knowledge Practices—Demonstrations of ways in which learners can increase their understanding of these information literacy concepts. Dispositions—Ways in which to address the affective, attitudinal, or valuing dimension of learning.

48. Research Questions 1) How do participants demonstrate the use of the ACRL Framework to structure their reflections on their competencies and dispositions in information literacy in the context of the ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem? 2) Where is evidence of competencies and dispositions being found within the ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem? 3) How can we use what we have learned about students’ understanding of information literacy through the ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem to improve future instruction and course and assessment designs?

49. Background and Context -Graduate Secondary Science Education Program -Two-semester ePortfolio Capstone Project -ePortfolio authored in TaskStream -Webinar Midterm Presentation (Adobe Collaborate Ultra) -Final In-class Presentation -Collaboration between Education Librarian and Science Education faculty members

50. Research Design -Case Study Approach (Yin, 2009) -Unit of Analysis: Understanding Information Literacy as you engage with Science Education Literature and Theory ePortfolio entry -ePortfolio text, Webinar, and In-class Presentations were transcribed and analyzed for meaningful and/or recurring statements and themes -Thematic meanings were developed by using the overarching ACRL frame (Research as Inquiry) -Identified and coded patterns and common themes using the corresponding ACRL frame Research as Inquiry knowledge practices and dispositions