Blackboard 9 – Grade Center Workshop

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Learn how to add and configure columns for assignments, quizzes, tests, and other assessments.

• Add and configure columns for assignments, quizzes, tests, and other assessments.
• Enter scores, comments, and include feedback.
• Export and import grades to/from a spreadsheet.
• Download all student documents for a single assessment.
• Set up weighted grading.

One size fits all ePortfolio tool: Does it exist?

Why ePortfolio is the Tool of the Time and Who is Enaaeebling It — Campus Technology

Is there such thing as a one-size-fits-all ePortfolio tool?

(delicious tags: eportfolio bPortfolio higher_education assessment showcase)

Coining a new term – bPortfolios

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about electronic portfolios recently.  Both faculty and students have been unhappy with our current implementation.  Faculty see the system as onerous because it doesn’t fit well with their current assessment practices. Students view the system as just another requirement, rather than as a way to reflect on their learning and showcase examples of their work.

After reading Helen Barrett’s work where she uses various Web 2.0 technologies to create an electronic portfolio, I though that a blog might be the best tool for creating a portfolio.  I’m working with Andrew Lumpe on this idea.  He points out that a blog may allow to students to have a more holistic portfolio experience by moving them beyond the one artifact to one standard mentality.

We have started a pilot project with a group of students to test some of our ideas.  Rather than electronic portfolios or ePortfolios, we will call this Blog Portfolios or bPortfolios.  Here are some of our initial thoughts. We would appreciate any help fleshing these ideas out.  Also, it’s important to note that we will probably not use all of these ideas with our pilot group.

1. Faculty utilize a blog’s (WordPress) journaling feature to help students reflect on their learning as it is happening.
2. Program chair works with professors to include an assessment where students make at least five journal entries during each course.  To avoid duplicating work, these  posts can come from comments students have already made on the Discussion Board.
3. Students would be encouraged to attach projects, papers, as well as work-related documents such as lesson plans, example of their students’ work, etc. to their blog entries.
4. Performance indicators for each standard would be used to generate a list of suggested terms students should address in their blog posts.
5. Students would have access to this list of terms, allowing them to reflect on topics that aren’t necessarily intended to be the focus of the courses they are currently taking
6. These suggested terms would help students generate their own list of tags that would develop into a folksonomy they could use to continue to reflect on important topics related to their teaching, even after the program ends.
7. Students would categorize their posts in WordPress using the program standards.
8. Student authors or others would be able to click on a category or tag in a blog and see a list of related reflections.
9. During the capstone course students would be asked to create pages in WordPress where they create a concise meta reflection with artifacts for each of the program standards.
10. Students then self-assess their portfolios by completing likert scale “quizzes” in Blackboard.
11. Faculty review bPortfolios, providing feedback and approval for completing a program requirement.
12. Students are encouraged to continue reflecting of the standards and tagging topics. They are also encouraged to use bPortfolios with their own students and parents.

Dialoging about ePortfolios

e-Portfolios in the California State University system 

This link provides access to presentations given during a recent “Day of Dialogue” about the use of ePortfolios in higher education.

(tags: assessment eportfolio higher_education)