ePortfolios
At EduCause, ePortfolios were a much talked about concept that
dotLRN/OACS is well- suited to creating. For example the file
storage module combined with the Homework module is a portfolio
package by another name.
The first step is translating from educationspeak into
programmerspeak. Educators mean a variety of things when they say
the word "portfolio," but in each case, a portfolio can be thought
of as a personal object library.
One type of portfolio is a type of extended resume that is used for
career purposes. Berkleemusic.com has implemented this in their
prom functionality. Example:
http://www.berkleemusic.com/promo/promokit-display?
promokit_item_id=46916
Another type of portfolio is evaluative. For example, the teacher
looks at a portfolio of work rather than individual tests and
assignments to create a grade. At the EduCause conference, one
English professor explained that students are more likely to revise
their work a month later than a week later. The current homework
functionality could be used for this purpose.
In its more generalized form a portfolio allows a student to create
a library of personal objects that can be assembled and reassembled
to create different portfolios.
Portfolio Use Cases:
1. Writing Class portfolio
2. Research/Thesis seminar portfolio
3. Graphic art student portfolio
4. dotWRK Employee evaluations
5. Employment Portfolio
6. Certification application (The portfolio would organize examples
of how each of a number of certifying criteria were met)
The Actors:
The Portfolio Creator
1. Student
2. DotWRK: employee being evaluated
3. Job Seeker
4. Certification seeker
Portfolio Evaluator
1. Instructor
2. Manager
3. Employer
4. Certifying agency employee
Criteria creator
1. Instructor
2. Upper Management
3. Career Office
4. Certification Committee
Creating a Portfolio Template:
This is much like creating a survey. It provides organization so
that each portfolio submission is in a consistent format. It would
likely be implemented by extending survey question types to include
a portfolio type that allowed portfolio objects to be attached.
Access Control:
One of the features of portfolios is fine-grained access control,
usually by the portfolio creator, allowing the creator to grant read
privileges to other users and/or groups.
Portfolio Object Types:
In addition to files, other portfolio objects included activities,
such as holding a student government office, volunteering for a
committee assignment, attending a training session or attending a
seminar.
Feedback:
The portfolio product I saw demo-ed had the ability to comment on
either the entire portfolio or any piece and to mark the comments as
public or private.
Summary:
Many of the elements of a sophisticated portfolio tool are already
present in dotLRN. The interface on the tool I saw demo-ed looked
very much like some of the ACS content management systems I have
seen.
Although Sloan has no plans to create a portfolio module in the
immediate future, it is a concept and a set of use cases that the
dotLRN community should be aware of as we continue to implement and
expand functionality.
