The Living Schoolbook

I was asked if I could provide "just a paragraph about your view of both OSP/Sakai, the state of eportfolios in the country, and a sentence or two about where Syracuse with ePortfolios for the upcoming Academic Impressions: ePortfolios for Learning and Assessment :: Web Conference. Here is what I wrote...

The Open Source Portfolio community understands that portfolio systems are often implemented to fulfill a business need as a key component of a program or institution wide assessment system. Portfolio proponents have long lamented that this taints the portfolio system and inhibits its use as a platform for storytelling and making meaning out of a diverse set of ideas.

We also understand that accreditation boards and external agencies that advocate for standardized data collection and quantitative analysis of student performance are not likely to be receptive to the subjective feedback and guidance that should accompany student owned portfolios.

I think that we generally DISAGREE with the widely help belief that one system can not fulfill both the needs of the institution/program for standardized review/ evaluation AND the pedagogical needs for a student owned portfolio. Over the past two years we have come to recognize that by incorporating the institutional portfolio needs for standardization and data collection into the courseware tools in Sakai, we can free the portfolio tools for student reflection and presentation of their ideas to their peers, their teachers or professional contacts.

In the School of Education at Syracuse University we have been piloting the “Goal Aware” courseware tools in one of our programs. While the tools are functional, the use of the standardized data collection features has not yet been institutionally mandated and (not surprisingly) have only seen limited use. We require our students to publish a portfolio that addresses our “five proficiencies” by completing an OSP matrix column two or three times during their education here. My sense is that while some students find the experience valuable, the back loaded timing of the portfolio review each semester prevents the type of ongoing feedback loop that makes all of the difference. Many students find the additional work to create media rich portfolios technically challenging (given the compressed time frame that they have to complete the work) and also have a difficult time switching their mindset from “giving the right answer” to “providing evidence of learning” and “reflection” at the end of the semester.

I’d enjoy the opportunity to discuss our work with anyone interested with it. Feel free to share my contact info with your audience.

I wanted the recipient to know that I was "I am NOT faculty nor in a decision making role in our college. I manage the technical development, implementation and support of the system. My perspective comes from discussions with faculty and students in the course of doing my job. I tend to be critical of our local implementation while remaining VERY optimistic of what others could do with the Open Source Portfolio system."