Sunday, August 21, 2011

Orientation: Reflective Writing and Portfolios

Hello to all our new and returning faculty,

As a follow-up to my Orientation breakout session, I'm posting here links to the websites that I'll be showing regarding ePortfolios and reflective writing. The portfolio is a requirement; our program portfolio guidelines are posted on the writing program website. Using an ePortfolio is NOT a requirement, but instructors may be interested in exploring ePortfolios as an option in their classes. We encourage all instructors to emphasize reflective writing throughout the semester to build the final portfolio.

UVU does not have a general education portfolio requirement at the current time, but is moving in that direction. You may want to look at what Salt Lake Community College is doing with their General Education ePortfolio:

http://www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio/index.asp

A national organization for ePortfolios is The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning:

http://www.aaeebl.org/

Also you may want to look at the site for Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication (EPAC)

http://epac.pbwiki.com/

The ePortfolio movement is growing nationally and internationally. Because as writing teachers we know the value of reflective writing, we may want to study this technology and move towards incorporating it into our pedagogy.

Gae Lyn

3 comments:

Andrew B. Adams said...

I missed the breakout sessions and have a question: Is it appropriate for the required final portfolio to be submitted as an ePortfolio, or is the ePortfolio merely a building tool that can inform that final, printed portfolio?

Ron C. said...

In defense of the eportfolio, as the Assessment Coordinator at TMCC, I continually promoted the use of ePortfolios as the most effective and potentially efficient manner to assess our gen ed outcomes. It does require faculty to cooperate. The Higher Learning Commission examines this area closely.

Ron Carpenter

Anonymous said...

Andrew,

Instructors have the option this semester of deciding how they want portfolios submitted. We may move to a required system in the future. For now, we kept the required elements in the portfolio the same as last year to encourage instructors assess value-added over the course of the semester and to reward student revision and reflection.

Gae Lyn