P a g e 1 ALBERTUS MAGNUS COLLEGE USING EPORTFOLIOS TO PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS THROUGH HIGH- IMPACT PRACTICES PROJECT REPORT, JUNE 14, 2012 STATUS OF PROJECT GOALS With the support of the Davis Educational Foundation, the College is undertaking a three-year project aimed at adopting the use of eportfolios to: Support and assess student success in achieving the student learning outcomes targeted by the College s core program; Develop a first year and transfer student eportfolio lab course in which students will document their success in meeting first year student learning outcomes; Develop and implement the Aquinas Scholars Program, a program that enables students to earn eighteen credits over three years by completing and documenting projects that stem from student/faculty collaborative research. The learner-related outcomes targeted in this project are: Students will improve at meeting College benchmarks in reading, writing, critical thinking, and quantitative and scientific reasoning. Students will improve at meeting College "B" and "C" general education course student learning outcome benchmarks. Students will develop the habits and dispositions necessary to succeed academically and engage in lifelong learning. The pedagogy-related outcomes targeted in this project are: Instructors will expand their use of high-impact practices. Assessment of the general education program will be more detailed and reliable. Use of eportfolio will expand to other programs. The higher education outcome targeted in this project is: Knowledge and practices gained through this project will be disseminated. The project began in summer, 2010 with the development of a three-year implementation action plan, selection of the Mahara eportfolio platform, hosting of stakeholder information sessions, and selection of early adopters to draft the first-year eportfolio course, the Aquinas Scholars Program, and requirements for the first year eportfolio. The College currently is completing the second year of the project. As planned, the first-year eportfolio lab course was implemented, and
P a g e 2 all first-year students were required to create eportfolios documenting first-year student learning outcomes. All but one faculty member teaching the first-year English and Humanities courses participated in the project in both the fall and spring terms. To support this effort, the College: Hosted required training sessions for faculty members participating in the project in late summer and fall of 2011 and spring of 2012. Developed eportfolio tutorials to assist with the technical aspects of using the Mahara eportfolio platform. These tutorials are housed on the College portal and are available to faculty and students. Supported a faculty teaching circle that met weekly during the spring term to develop eportfolio best practices. This circle was to have consisted of five faculty members, but interest was so strong that ten faculty members actually participated. They presented their findings at the College s May, 2012 Academic Planning Day. Supported an initiative undertaken by the Writing Program Director to work with faculty to refine student learning outcomes and assessment rubrics for all writing-intensive courses. Incorporated an introduction to eportfolio into the new student and parent orientation program. The Aquinas Scholars Program also was implemented this year. It was anticipated that twenty students would participate in this program, but given student interest, twenty-four students were admitted. Students were divided into two cohorts, each of which was assigned a faculty mentor. Each student selected a second faculty mentor with expertise in their chosen area of research. Students completed projects which they included in their Aquinas Scholar eportfolios, and they presented their work to faculty and peers in end-of-term sessions. To support this effort, the two primary faculty members: Developed an Aquinas Advisor Form detailing the responsibilities of faculty mentors. Developed an Aquinas Scholars Handbook detailing expectations of students and student learning project outcomes Met regularly to refine the program. In summary, the College is on target in implementing the initiatives aimed at promoting the specified outcomes. With respect to learner-related outcomes, first-year students are developing eportfolios which document their acquisition of core skills. A primary feature of their eportfolios is a reflective component in which they assess their progress. Student learning outcomes and rubrics have been developed for all writing-intensive courses, which will be particularly helpful in the next phase of the project, implementing eportfolio into B and C writing-intensive courses. Students in the Aquinas Scholars Program are using eportfolios to document their success in achieving self-designated B and C course student learning outcomes. Finally, faculty members have focused on developing the reflective component of eportfolio to promote the kind of student reflection that enables students to develop the habits and dispositions necessary to succeed academically and engage in lifelong learning. With respect to pedagogy-related outcomes, all full-time faculty and a small portion of part-time faculty have gained exposure to eportfolio. Approximately 40% of the full-time faculty and several part-time faculty have used eportfolio in one or more courses, and an additional 10% of full-time faculty have received training to begin using eportfolio in fall, 2012. Furthermore, the
P a g e 3 Education Program has decided to convert its student candidate portfolio requirement to an eportfolio requirement, and it began implementing this policy with the class of 2015. The School of New Dimensions, which offers programs to working professionals, also has decided to incorporate the use of eportfolio into its programs, and several other departments are considering its adoption as well. With respect to contributing to the higher education community, the College has designed a page for its website that showcases the use of eportfolio at Albertus. (See: http://staging.albertus.edu:8080/bachelors-degrees/eportfolio/index.php) ADVANCEMENT OF FOUNDATION S OBJECTIVES Data collected thus far suggests that the uses to which eportfolio is being put are advancing the Davis Educational Foundation s goal of strengthening teaching and learning practices. It is also reasonable to believe that there has been a positive impact on controlling costs. Assessment efforts to date have consisted of: Faculty eportfolio review. Student course evaluations. Student focus groups. Student retention and academic good standing data. Students report that their experience of using eportfolio has been a positive one. More to the point, they indicate that it has enabled them to see how they have progressed over time. Faculty members report that using eportfolio has provided them with a means of incorporating a metacognitive dimension into their assignments and also has enabled them to better engage students with diverse learning styles. This has resulted in stronger student work. The following is illustrative of faculty findings: On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised by the effects of incorporating an image and reflection into an essay assignment -- the additional reflection actually gave me a greater sense of the students' grasp of the material. Furthermore, the students were able to be creative with their image choice, which was fun for them, and connecting the image to the unit encouraged additional critical thinking. Finally, I was struck by how engaging the pages were and how attractive it is to have different components laid out in one space; it made the assignments appear approachable and personal. An Aquinas Scholar focus group said that the program was much more challenging and researchfocused than they had anticipated. Several students said their participation had resulted in significant growth in their research skills and love of research, and that they felt the program prepared them well for graduate study. Faculty reported that students who successfully completed the year achieved the targeted student learning outcomes. It is worth noting that only 17 of the 24 students initially admitted to the program completed it. Others opted out, citing the demanding workload. With the implementation of eportfolio, first-year student retention rates improved from 72% in 2011 to 77% in 2012, and more strikingly, the percentage of first-year students placed on academic review or academically dismissed decreased by 66% from 2011 to 2012.
P a g e 4 The College also administered the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the ETS Proficiency Profile to first year students at the beginning and end of the academic year. Analysis of these results is underway. Regarding the impact on controlling costs, while it is not possible to draw a causal connection between the introduction of eportfolio and the increased retention rate and improvement in student success, the initial correlation is promising. LESSONS LEARNED Others considering a project focused on the introduction of eportfolio, or an analogous project, should keep the following in mind: eportfolio is a tool and not an end in itself. Be clear about how and why it is to be used. Bringing individuals from other colleges and universities with experience in the use of eportolio to make presentations on campus to key stakeholders and to consult in the selection of an eportfolio platform is crucial to successful implementation. There are many eportfolio platforms. Consider technical factors and envisioned functions carefully in the selection process. We chose Mahara because it is open source and can integrate with our course management system. When we began the project, the integration was not in effect. We also encountered several technical difficulties that almost derailed the project. Fortunately, these were resolved, and beginning July, 2012, eportfolio will be fully integrated into our course management system. Be adaptable. We started using eportfolio at the beginning of the first year. Our experience taught us that it would be better to begin using it later in the year. Moving forward, we will introduce students to eportfolio early in the fall term so they can begin to archive artifacts, but the lab is going to start in the second semester when students have more content available to build their eportfolios and begin the reflection process. We also found that more support is needed to engage students in meaningful reflection. Build opportunities for faculty to work together on the project. We started the teaching circle in the second semester. This was a mistake. Faculty did not focus sufficiently on the eportfolio component of their courses in the first semester. They leaned heavily on the eportfolio faculty. The teaching circle gave them an occasion for thinking about how they could fundamentally transform their assignments to take advantage of the pedagogical potential of eportfolio. SHARING INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT The following are ways in which we are sharing information about the project: We have developed a webpage on the College website devoted to the eportfolio initiative. (See: http://staging.albertus.edu:8080/bachelors-degrees/eportfolio/index.php) Descriptions of the Aquinas Scholars Program and the eportfolio requirement are included in the Albertus Magnus College Catalogue. (Follow Undergraduate Catalogue
P a g e 5 link and see pp. 53 and 97 of the Albertus Magnus College Course Catalogue at: http://staging.albertus.edu:8080/bachelors-degrees/bachelors-degree-programs/index.php) The Office of Admissions highlights the Aquinas Scholars Program in the College view book and informs prospective students about the eportfolio initiative. The College has integrated an introduction to eportfolio into student registration and orientation days and parent orientation. Sessions on eportfolio are given during biannual academic planning days, and reports on first year program and Aquinas Scholar program implementation are given regularly at Department Chair and Faculty Assembly meetings. FUTURE PLANS With the support of the Davis Educational Foundation, eportfolio will be introduced into B and C writing-intensive courses, and the second year of the Aquinas Scholars Program will occur in the 2012-2013 academic year. Once the grant is ended, eportfolio will be introduced into capstone writing-intensive courses, and the third year of the Aquinas Scholars program will occur in the 2013-2014 academic year. It will be possible to implement the plans for 2013-2014 because most faculty will be conversant with how to use eportfolio by that point. The College can use its faculty development fund to support the small number of new faculty who will need training in any given year. Also, the resources and tools developed by faculty and our ITS instructional designer will help to facilitate the continuance of the project. It is anticipated that other departments and programs will adopt the use of eportfolio as well. Career Services and the Education Program already have begun using it to track student progress and to help students prepare eportfolios they can use in their careers. The School of New Dimensions plans to use eportfolio to support students success in realizing targeted student learning outcomes. During the May, 2012 Academic Planning Day, several program directors and department chairs said they planned to incorporate its use to document student achievement in the major. Also, the faculty has expressed a desire to expand the use of eportfolio in the general education program. These efforts will be facilitated through the integration of Mahara into the College s course management system, which is occurring this July. The College also has committed to hiring an external host to manage the system and to devoting faculty development funds to the project. BUDGET The College met its commitment to fund eportfolio best practices workshops ($3,000), eportfolio teaching circle stipends ($5,000; given the number of faculty who participated, stipends were reduced to $400 a piece, and $1,000 was used to provide lunches, etc.); and developed the eportfolio online resource center. (An additional instructional designer was hired and tasked with developing this center.) The Davis Educational Foundation contributed $48,000 for faculty stipends in the amount of $1,000 per section of courses that substantively used eportfolio as specified by the project. All funds from the Davis Foundation were used for this purpose.