ePortfolios

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e-Portfolios

• Scott Wilson
• 23-05-2005

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Who am I?

• Assistant Director, CETIS
• Researcher, MELCOE
• IMS Participant
• Blogger
• Not Very Good Musician
• Music Fan
• Dad-to-be

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The Order of Business

• What are e-Portfolios for?
• What do they contain?
• Who owns and manages them?
• How can standards help?

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What is an e-Portfolio for?
Recording
Evidencing
Reflecting
Planning
Presenting
Assessing
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Recording

• Activities
• Formal learning
• Informal learning
• Employment
• Volunteering
• Military service
• Memberships and Affiliations

• Capabilities
• Competencies
• Skills
• Abilities
• Achievements
• Qualifications
• Awards
• Licenses

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Reflecting

• Commentary by the subject on any aspect of
  themselves
• Can be private, shared, or public
• Examples include journals and blogs

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Evidencing

• The traditional role of a portfolio a
  collection of artifacts that say something about
  the subject
• Essays, documents, reports
• Photos, artwork, music
• Plans, blueprints, patents
• Certificates, awards, references, reviews

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Planning

• Goals
• Interests
• Plans

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Presenting

• Its more than just prettifying the content
  presenting offers an opportunity to tell a story
  or make a point
• Structuring
• Visualising
• Narrating
• Re-purposing

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Assessing

• Using an e-Portfolio for a specific purpose
• Gaining access to education or employment
• Achieving a grade, or a promotion
• Getting a license or certificate

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Cultural Differences

• UK
• Primarily a set of information about goals,
  achievements, and reflections for personal
  development
• US
• Primarily a set of evidence for presentation and
  assessment

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Where is the e-Portfolio, and who owns and
manages it?
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transition
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• From school to college to university to
  workwherever you go, someone is managing your
  e-portfolio!
• A model for e-Portfolio as an institutionally-mana
  ged construct
• Key requirement is ability to export across
  transitions
• but potentially learner-centered

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Question

• What happens when I work or study in more than
  one organisation?

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intersection
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David Tosh Learning Technologist The University
of Edinburgh d.tosh_at_ed.ac.uk Ben Werdmuller
Application Developer The University of
Edinburgh b.werd_at_ed.ac.uk
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• The e-Portfolio lives in the intersection between
  the worlds for education, work, and home
• A model for e-Portfolio as a learner-managed
  construct
• Key requirement is easy-to-use tools and hosting
  services
• E.g. the e-Portfolio-as-blog approach

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aggregation
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planning
reflecting
E-Portfolio?
recording
recording
evidencing
presenting
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• Pieces of e-Portfolio are scattered amongst
  employers, institutions, websites, and
  applications
• A model for e-Portfolio as a learner-assembled
  construct
• Key requirement is interoperability

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Or, to put it another way

• Depending on where it sits, the application that
  supports an e-Portfolio may be
• An enterprise solution
• A weblog or personal information solution
• An aggregator or bloggregator

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So which is it to be?

• Dedicated e-Portfolio tools of the first
  generation (e.g. OSPI) tend to be transitional
  and enterprise-oriented
• Current tools under development (e.g. ELGG) look
  more intersectional, but are evolving towards
  aggregation
• is ownership the key consideration?

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Question

• how can an e-Portfolio be learner-centered (and
  learner-owned?)
• yet at the same time be scaffolded and supported
  in the learning process?

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Ownership
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Ownership 1

• Some things are clearly the provenance of the
  subject
• Personal reflections
• Plans and goals
• Statements of interest
• Independently-produced artifacts (e.g. photos)

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Ownership 2

• Some things are clearly the provenance of an
  institution
• Awards
• Artifacts with institutional IPR e.g., patents
• Official records of achievement
• Materials used in learning e.g., learning objects

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Ownership 3

• Some things are clearly the provenance of an
  employer
• References
• Artifacts created for the company, e.g. source
  code, products
• Official records of conduct
• Official records of training outcomes

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Ownership 4

• Some things have problematic ownership
• Records of personal tutoring and coaching
• Artifacts created outside company time
• Posts to forums and blogs within an LMS or other
  enterprise system

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The Question of Ownership

• Given that the pieces of an e-Portfolio have a
  range of owners, how do we make e-Portfolios
  work?
• how do we include or reference material?
• How do we verify aspects of e-Portfolios for
  assessment?

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Objects and metadata
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Who owns what

• Sometimes the artifact can only be referenced,
  but the metadata about it can be either included
  or referenced
• Sometimes only the metadata about an artifact can
  be referenced, not the artifact itself
• Sometimes, there is only metadata there is no
  artifact

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Verification and evidencing of claims

• Metadata in a portfolio can often be seen in
  terms of a claim
• A claim that an institution gave the subject a
  specific grade
• A claim that the subject has a specific skill
• Some claims are best verified, some are best
  evidenced, some need both

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Evidencing

• I can play guitar, as evidenced by this song I
  recorded
• I know Java, as evidenced by this code I wrote
• I can do first aid, as evidenced by this training
  certificate
• I am a capable employee, as evidenced by this
  reference from my last employer

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Verification

• I got a 21 in Psychology, as verified by
  checking with the University
• I did a training course in UML, as verified by
  checking with the employer
• I got this reference, as verified by calling the
  referee
• I like music, because I say so

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authentication
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authentication

• The owner holds the artifacts and metadata, and
  the subject has to authenticate to get at them
• The e-portfolio is pretty bare, just some links
  to organisations which own the information
• All organisations need to manage accounts in
  perpetuity
• All organisations must never lose any data!

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assertion
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assertion

• The owners allow the metadata to be included in
  the subjects portfolio, but provide a means of
  verification
• For example, using a digital signature

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Privacy and Disclosure
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How does the subject manage disclosure?

• By providing alternative views of the portfolio
  for particular audiences
• By providing access controls over a single
  portfolio
• Same issues as for any disclosure of personal
  information

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Standards
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Standards and e-Portfolio

• IMS Learner Information Packaging
• IMS e-Portfolio
• HR-XML Resumé
• X/HTML
• RDF
• Other

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IMS

• IMS Global Learning Consortium
• Specifications consortium in e-Learning
• Various members government organisations,
  companies, universities
• http//www.imsglobal.org

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IMS LIP

• Learner Information Packaging
• One of the earliest IMS specifications, along
  with metadata (now IEEE LOM)
• Very comprehensive data model
• But verbose, and prolix

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IMS e-Portfolio

• Currently a Public Draft specification
• Due out this year
• Uses the top-level classes of IMS LIP only
• Creates a graph using Relationships e.g. asserts,
  evidences, supports etc.

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But

• This is just the information model of IMS
  e-Portfolio
• The binding uses a combination of IMS Content
  Packaging and IMS LIP, so there is still a big
  barrier to entry

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HR-XML Resumé

• A specification by the HR-XML consortium
• Resume is another XML schema, and contains the
  sorts of things youd expect to see on a resume
• Doesnt directly support reflections and
  planning more useful as an export option

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X/HTML

• The predominant current standard for e-Portfolios
  -)
• Human-readable, but not machine readable
• Doesnt aggregate nicely

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RDF

• A possible future way for representing
  e-portfolios
• Some useful vocabularies already exist, e.g.
  Friend of a Friend (FOAF), RSS 1.0
• The IMS e-Portfolio information model can be
  bound to RDF instead of LIP

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Other useful stuff

• RSS
• Atom
• FOAF
• SRU/SRW
• OpenURL
• iCalendar
• vCard

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My favoured approach

• A simple base vocabulary of types from the IMS
  ePortfolio model
• Syntax provided using existing standard
  vocabularies Dublin Core metadata, X/HTML, FOAF
• Ontology based on IMS ePortfolio relationships
• Sharing structure from RSS/Atom

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Starting small

• First stage X/HTML, Atom outputs, FOAF/vCard for
  identification
• Second stage Atom/RSS-style modularisation and
  linking of parts for interoperability
• Third stage typing of items from IMS ePortfolio
  adding metadata
• Fourth stage Ontology of relationships to
  provide evidencing and advanced linking

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Example

• Portfolio Atom feed
• Entry links to (or contains) X/HTML
• Entry is typed as epgoal via XSI
• Entry is described using DC metadata
• Entry is linked to other entries by relationships

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• ltentry xsitypeepgoalgt
• ltidgtgoal4lt/idgt
• lttitlegtimprove my guitar playinglt/titlegt
• ltdcrelation xsitypeepaims-atgt
  competency3
• lt/dcrelationgt
• ltlink relalternate typetext/htmlgt
• http//www.43things.com/things/view/2540
• lt/linkgt
• ltissuedgt2005-04-31lt/issuedgt
• lt/entrygt

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Possibilities

• Can support a range of designs and approaches
• Transition
• Intersection
• Aggregation
• Push
• Pull

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Question

• What else do we need for interoperability?

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Thanks!

• s.wilson_at_bangor.ac.uk
• http//www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott