INTEGRATIVE EPORTFOLIO PRACTICE.

Enhancing learning with eportfolios

Portland State University (PSU) is an urban campus located in the heart of downtown Portland. It is one of the largest universities in the state and is Oregon’s most diverse state university, also boasting a large transfer population. In 1994, PSU launched its four-year interdisciplinary general education program, University Studies. From the start, portfolios were seen as a way to enhance student learning and assess the program and PebblePad has been supporting eportfolio practice in this program and across the University since 2015.

The ‘Expanding Eportfolio Use For Wider Impact’ Ambition 

Following a project in which the team distilled its particular pedagogical “brand” into a vision and mission statement, faculty and administrators recognized an opportunity with this 'refreshed articulation' to explore and expand the practice of critical reflection through the use of eportfolios among the Program’s constituents. Since the founding of the Program in 1994, students in the year-long Freshman Inquiry (FRINQ) have produced portfolios as evidence of their engagement in this course, and these portfolios have been foundational to both integrative student learning and programmatic assessment ever since. A faculty support program called “Cultivating Your Professional Identity” was also implemented, offering faculty across departments an opportunity to develop their identities and aspirations in community with each other. The program included creation of a professional eportfolio reflective of their professional identities.

The vast majority of FRINQ students now produce their portfolios through the use of PebblePad, and faculty, administrators and graduate students from across the University engage with PebblePad during end-of-year assessment processes. With a renewed emphasis on the practice of critical reflection, the team set upon a goal to advance portfolio thinking and integrative learning not just with, for, and among the students, but with, for, and among faculty and administrators, as well.

The Successful Workflow

PSU's adoption of PebblePad allowed for a unified platform that students could use for their eportfolios and provided better systems for tracking student work. Students generally develop the eportfolio throughout the year. They can store their materials in PebblePad, returning to them, redesigning, and sharing them as needed - for example, as they prepare for new experiences (e.g., jobs, internships, or graduate school) or write cover letters or recommendations. The Assessment Engine, ATLAS, makes it possible for faculty to find, track, and revisit students’ work. This scaffolded approach allows faculty to provide feedback throughout the year and helps students build on their thoughts about their own learning. 

Insight into students' experiences of learning in Covid times

After the University instituted remote learning in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the programmatic assessment of student portfolios yielded especially valuable insights. As faculty came together to discuss productive and promising ways to assess student learning, they framed a question to inform their review of each student eportfolio: What can University Studies learn from this student? Viewed this way, student eportfolios revealed how important relational connections were between and among faculty and students; how much students perceived organization, flexibility, and clear communication to be evidence of care; and how resilient they and their peers were, even and especially in such difficult times. As always, the collective review of eportfolios allowed faculty to learn from each other's curricula and perspectives on student learning - something that was particularly refreshing and needed during a time of heightened professional disconnection and isolation.

Our PebbleVision video, while not specifically about this case study, provides other examples of how
PebblePad supports professional storytelling with portfolios.