Bob%20Sproule,%20University%20of%20Waterloo

1
Integrated Learning and Student Engagement Using
ePortfolios
Bob Sproule, University of Waterloo MERLOT Aug
ust 9, 2007
2
Where We Started

• National Coalition on Electronic Portfolio
  Research (http//ncepr.org/ncepr/drupal)
• The University of Waterloos context
• The University of Waterloos research issues
• How does engagement with ePortfolios map against
  other engagement indicators (NSSE)?
• Do ePortfolios assist students to document their
  learning in different contexts and promote
  transfer between them?
• Do ePortfolios transform how students view
  learning?

3
Where We Started

• Reflection is what makes us learners we need to
  practice, assess and perfect it.
• Four criteria characterize the concept of
  reflection
• Reflection is a meaning making process
• Reflection is systematic, rigorous and
  disciplined with roots in scientific inquiry
• Reflection needs to happen in community
• Reflection requires attitudes that value personal
  and intellectual growth
• Defining Reflection Another Look at John Dewey
  and Reflective Thinking, Carol Rodgers, Teachers
  College Record, Volume 104, Nol. 4, June 2002,
  pp. 842-866

4
Where We Started

• Our study group accounting students starting
  their academic program in the fall of 2006.
• Their work to date create an ePortfolio and
  reflections / artifacts to date.
• Our pilot project group accounting students who
  started their academic program in the fall of
  2004.

5
Contextual Comments

• University/College setting tends to focus on the
  academic setting only.
• Professional accounting organizations have
  developed competencies for their profession.
• Government funding for post secondary
  institutions is increasingly focused on
  demonstrated learning outcomes.
• Our program and curriculum mapping.
• ePortfolios support higher order thinking
  consistent with Blooms taxonomy.
• Changes in our world, as a result of technology
  and globalization further support the need for
  integrative learning.
• ePortfolios facilitate connections, benchmark
  performance and plan for the future.
• Importance of feedback.

6
Results of Investigation to Date

• Making connections by reflecting on ones
  experience is a learned skill, one that students
  need to develop.
• The opportunity to make connections will foster
  development
• I would just like to say that I never knew just
  how important the team reflections from AFM 131
  would be, until I began preparing for interviews
  for summer internships at accounting firms. I
  figured they would ask about teaming sic
  experience (which they did) and I was fully
  prepared to answer their questions because I
  referred to what I had wrote sic in my team
  reflections. On a side note, I have received an
  offer and I owe a lot of that to the
  reflections! Virtually all of their questions
  were about experiences in teams.
• Student email, February 25, 2007

7
Results of Investigation to Date

• In one-time contexts we need to scaffold student
  learning.
• Expected outcomes that reflections address need
  to be clearly articulated.
• Analysis of the first 3 reflections from the
  pilot project group show random progressive
  demonstration of
• Meaning making
• Reflection in community
• Attitudes that value personal and intellectual
  growth
• ePortfolios need to be program based.
• ePortfolios provide context to ones learning.
• I had a new perspective on learning, a new
  appreciation on how my life was connected, and a
  new tool to organize my thoughts with. I realize
  now that my personal interests have value in my
  education, and my education in the way I live my
  life outside the classroom
• From a student, July 2007.