ELECTRONIC STUDENT CAREER PORTFOLIOS (EPORTFOLIOS) AT NYC COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Aida Mysan
New York City College Of Technology

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRACTICE

 

New York City Technical College (NYCCT) has developed a project that implements the use of Electronic Student Career Portfolios (ePortfolios). The ePortfolio project incorporates both career and transfer information so students can explore career goals, scholarships and professional development opportunities early in their academic careers.

Electronic Student Career Portfolios are web sites containing a collection of a student's scholarly achievement over time. The collection illustrates a student's skill, development and mastery of a subject.

The project is funded through a five-year grant from the United States Department of Education's Title V program.

 

Platform (lms)

The ePorfolio project is a web-based environment and is conducted in English.

Why are you using e-learning in your organization at present?

E-Learning has been selected for use in our organization because it facilitates Technology Integration. The b uilding and maintaining of ePortfolio computer labs assists students to use evolving technology to create their ePortfolios, and to maintain a server that supports the project. Using ePortfolios stimulates students' professional development and career exploration. E-Learning encourages students to explore career goals and professional development opportunities early in their academic careers.

ePortfolios increase the number of associate degree students who transfer to ePortfolio-related baccalaureate degree programs at City Tech, and the pursuit of baccalaureate degrees for City Tech students enrolled in related associate degree programs already at City Tech.

ePortfolios allow for programmatic assessment by providing an effective evaluation of student competencies within program curricula and giving a demonstration of program performance for external accrediting bodies.

 

Do you consider e-learning positively as a system for teaching?

ePortfolios foster ongoing reflection and growth by the student, which allows the student to achieve challenging goals.

ePortfolios provide an alternative form of assessment that addresses the students' comprehensive thinking and cognitive skills rather than the traditional paper and pen assessments.

Through ePortfolios both students and faculty have an ongoing access to the student work. ePortfolios provide continuous documentation of students' learning process and allow faculty to view learning from students' perspective.

 

Strong points of the e-learning project of your organization

The key goals of the ePortfolio project are:

• To enhance student learning outcomes,
• To encourage the ongoing self-assessment and self-reflection by students,
• To improve the transfer process and increase enrollment in NYCTC baccalaureate programs,
• To advance the integration of technology and curriculum and
• To promote faculty development.

 

 

HOW YOU HAVE IMPLEMENTED NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO THE PATTERNS OF TEACHING WITH TRADITIONAL DISTANCE LEARNING METHODS

 

A) e-Learning objetives

Please see the points above:

• The ePortfolio project is designed to stimulate students to expolore career goals, scholarships and professional development opportunities early in their academic careers.
• ePortfolios foster ongoing reflection and growth by the student, which allows the student to achieve challenging goals.
• ePortfolios provide an alternative form of assessment that addresses the students' comprehensive thinking and cognitive skills rather than the traditional paper and pen assessments. A career ePortfolio goes beyond the traditional paper resume by allowing the students to show multimodal evidence of their talents. For example, Art & Advertising Design graduates can share their professional ePortfolios by including their artwork, photographs, and projects as well as video and audio work. Graduates from the Legal Assistant Studies program can direct employers to their ePortfolios in order to view examples of legal documents that they have drafted. Computer Information System graduates can show examples of their projects such as distributed database assignments and demonstrate their knowledge and expertise in particular software. Regardless of the major, students are able to demonstrate broad skills such as writing, critical thinking, reflection, and technology literacy .

B) Docent model

n/a.

C) Interactivity

See Online Services and Interactivity sescions below.

D) On-line services

• The project website allows students to log-in directly to their own ePortfolios. By submitting their User ID, they log-in and get automatically transferred to the URL which is featuring their ePortfolio. The students include their ePortfolio URL (internet address) on their resume which will allow academic, business or peer audience to view their scholarly work.
• Electronic Roster (eRoster) allows faculty to log-in to their own, password-protected part of the website. This feature allows faculty to have access to their students' ePortfolios which are listed by student's name, class and academic term.
• eTutor is a writing assistance support service available to students participating in the ePortfolio project. Students may submit writing samples such as term papers, projects and HTML pages to online writing tutors for review. eTutor is a collaborative project between ePortfolio and the Learning Center with support from The Office of the Provost.

E) Teachers training

The ePortfolio Summer Institute is a unique opportunity for incoming ePortfolio faculty to explore the ways how can effectively prepare themselves for the ePortfolio work they are expected to complete during the academic year. In this exploration, numerous topics are undertaken, including the production of ePortfolio assignments, curriculum development and alignment to CityTech ePortfolio standards for assessment.

The Institute usually focuses on introducing participants to ePortfolio technology and capabilities. Topics covered include how to create assignments for multimodal production, how to use the template, eRoster etc.. Additionally, guest speakers conduct workshops and training sessions to familiarize participants with production software.

Participants attend 2 days of the Institute. Daily sessions run from approximately 10:00am-4:00pm with a 30-minute lunch break.

Tutorial model

The success of the ePortfolio project can most certainly be linked to the dedication of the ePortfolio computer lab staff and the peer tutors that are available to assist students and faculty.

Students recieve one-on-one assistance from a peer tutor in the ePortfolio lab. Most peer tutors are students in the Advertising Design & Graphic Arts department that have created an ePortfolio themselves. All peer tutors have experience using the ePortfolio template, Dreamweaver software and other relevant web design software.

The project has also developed a number of workshops to help students create and add content to their ePortfolios. During workshops both students and faculty are taught how to use web-publishing software tools, work within the template by adding and modifying their content and post their ePortfolios to the web using FTP software. The workshops last approximately two hours. All workshop schedules can be found online and are updated weekly.

How many tutors use the platform (lms) or a system of telematic tutorship?

All tutors use electronic mail, BlackBoard, and all software packages, tools and utilities listed in section 4, item #1 (type of software).

 

How long have you used the pattern and-learning?

The project started in 2001. The pilot ePortfolio template was designed and distributed in Fall 2002, at the same time when the ePortfolio lab was open. The template got a new visual look in summer of 2003 when the ePortfolio website was launched.

 

 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

 

Type of software

The following software packages, plug-ins and tools are recommended*:

• Web- browser software (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Opera etc).
• Microsoft Office XP (Word, PowerPoint).
• Imaging Software: Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Illustrator 10.0.
• Web development software: Adobe/Macromedia Dreamweaver.
• Animation sotware: Flash.
• FTP software.
• Plug-ins: Quick Time Player, Windows Media Placer, Acrobat Reader, Powerpoint viewer, Word Viewer, Flash/Shockwave Placer.
• Data compression utility tools: Winzip, Stuffit.

* Software packages may be obtained as freeware, shareware, demoware and/or proprietary software.

 

Type of technology

The ePortfolio project uses Web technology. ePortfolio assignments may also be supported through BlackBoard.

Do the students or professors need to use a specific software?

Students are required, at minimum, to have internet access, software brower, text-editing software, image-editing software and web development software.

Professors are required, at minimum to have internet access, software brower and text-editing software.

* Software packages may be obtained as freeware, shareware, demoware and/or proprietary software.

 

Is production following any kind of standard

It is recommended that the ePortfolio production follow the Web Accessabiltiy Initiative (WAI) standards.

EVALUATION OF RESULTS (PROCESS, PRODUCTS, IMPACT)

 

Have your e-learning practices been evaluated? have you used specific tools for evaluation or quality control?

An on-going assessment of the ePortfolio project has been provided to ensure that the project provides the necessary technology, support, and training both for students and faculty. With assistance from the Office of Assessment & Institutional Research at the college, both students' and faculty ratings of satisfaction and usefulness of the project are tracked. This feedback provides formative assessment to continually make mid-course corrections and changes to the way the project is managed.

In addition, faculty continuously assesses performance of students' ePortfolios. Using the scoring guide (known as ePortfolio rubric) faculty assigns ratings to each student ePortfolio. The information is used to inform curricular changes in the academic programs if necessary.

Finally, the project also tracks the total number of program participants in addition to the number of LaGuardia Community College students who transfer into NYCCT baccalaureate programs.

 

Describe evaluation results

Faculty Survey Key Findings - Fall 2002 to Spring 2006 

• ►93% of faculty said they enjoyed participating in the ePortfolio project and thought the ePortfolio provided them with an additional way to assess their students' skills.
• ►96% of faculty agreed that the ePortfolio workshops in the lab helped their students create their ePortfolio.
• ►92% of faculty agreed that the equipment in the ePortfoliolab met their students' needs.
• ►90% of faculty agreed that the ePortfolio helped themlearn more about their students a  individuals.
• ►100% of faculty enjoyed participating in the project.
• ►93% thought the ePortfolios provided them with additional ways to assess their students
• ►Over 2/3 thought it helped them learn more about their students as individuals.
• ►56% of faculty agreed that the ePortfolio project helpedthem improve their technical/computer skills.
• ►56% thought that their students seemed more engaged in class due to  the ePortfolio project.
• ►Over half of the faculty referred their students to the Learning   Center  to work with a writing tutor.

Key Findings Student Survey - Fall 2002 to Spring 2006

• ►93% of student participants agreed with “The instructor explained what he/she expected of me with regard to the ePortfolio project.”
• ►90% agreed that the ePortfolio lab provides a comfortable working environment  and indicated it was a good idea to have the peer tutors available during open lab hours.
• ►Over 80% agreed that the software and equipment in the ePortfolio lab met their needs and said the ePortfolio workshop was useful in helping them create their ePortfolio.
• ►74% indicated that they may show their Career ePortfolioto an employer someday.
• ►Over 2/3 said the ePortfolio helped them improve their computer skills.  Students also saw the link between the project, their career goals and writing and language skills. However less than 50% said the ePortfolio helped them improve their writing skills.
• ►41% visited the  Learning   Center for assistance with theePortfolio project.
• ►62% said the majority of the computer work done for their ePortfolio was in the computer lab on campus.
• ►Over 3/4 said they enjoyed creating their ePortfolio. 
• ► Since 2002, almost 4,000 students have started the process of creating a Career ePORTFOLIO to showcase their work for employers upon graduation

 

Impact in the organization

Impact on learning communities and organizations:

The ePORTFOLIO project is an effective vehicle to facilitate the transfer of students from LaGuardia Community College (LAGGC) into baccalaureate programs at NYCCT. Students and faculty from each college are connected through Virtual Interest Groups (VIG's). Creating a strong ongoing connection between the two colleges that improves transfer rates.

VIG's include students, student mentors, faculty and counselors. Learning communities are strengthened with the use of ePortfolios. VIG's and transfer options for LAGCC associate degree students are streamlined to effectively increase transfer rates from LAGCC to CityTech.

 

Obstacles or barriers

One of the main obstacles of the project was to help faculty re-think their course curriculum in order to continuously support the ePortfolio project. Although 100% of faculty enjoyed participating in the project, some of them expressed concerns about increased workload which was unavoidable for the following reasons: Majority of faculty members who do not teach in technology-related fields needed extra time to become confortable with the technological aspect of the ePortfolio project. Additionaly, more work was required on the part of the faculty to evaluate and critique multiple iterations of students' ePortfolio assignments.

In some instances, students follow through on their ePortfolio assignments only while they were attending a class i.e. they used the ePortfolio only because they were requested to do so by the faculty member. Those students did not necessarily continue to update and improve their initial ePortfolio assignments or to share them with the college or business community.

Finally, the technological demands have been rapidly increasing from semester to semester. Student ePortfolio work is stored and maintained on the ePortfolio Server and it has been somewhat challenging to manage rapidly increasing volumes of data.

An ongoing challenge is the question of how to protect the privacy of student's personal data. Students are advised, when it comes to their personal information, to reveal only their official campus email on their ePortfolio pages. All ePortfolio students are required to sign a Computer User Contract and to adhere to the ePortfolio policies.

 

Costs and benefits

ePortfolio project at CityTech has beeen conducted in collaboration with LAGCC. Two colleges collaborate on a 3.1 million dollar Title V grant. The resources are used over a five-year period for:

• Building and maintaining ePortfolio computer labs, and maintaining a server that supports the project. Hiring Computer Lab personnel, peer tutors and consultants. Development of the template and a website. Development of a series of technological initiatives such as eRoster. Faculty training.
• Degree Advancement: Increasing the number LAGCC associate degree students who transfer to ePORTFOLIO-related baccalaureate degree programs at City Tech, and the pursuit of baccalaureate degrees for City Tech students enrolled in related associate degree programs already at City Tech.
• Programmatic Assessment: Evaluating student competencies, program curricula and providing demonstration of program performance for external accrediting bodies.

 

PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT

 

Necessities

Key activities during the first year, 2001-2002, included: the formation of a joint advisory committee between two colleges, the hiring of Co-Activity Directors, Tech Designer, Consultants and Secretaries, recruiting faculty for project review, researching electronic portfolio design and implementation, developing a template, and organizing the Summer Institute to train faculty. Twenty-four faculty members attended the Summer Institute training.

 

Definition

During the second year, 2002-2003, key activities included hiring an Assistant Director, CLT and Tech Support, and implementing ESP's in 24 courses. 600 students created ESP's over the course of the year. ESP's were implemented in 12 LAGCC freshman courses and in 12 NYCTC junior level courses. New faculty members were recruited, including 16 faculty from LAGCC and 16 from NYCTC. A website was developed and 32 new faculty members attended the summer institute.

 

Design

During the third year, 2003-2004, ESP's were implemented in 32 new courses, 800 students created ESP's, LAGCC added 9 FIG's and 7 new introductory courses. NYCTC added 8 junior level courses and began 8 senior level courses. Seven VIG's were implemented with LAGCC and NYCTC faculty and student mentors. 700 students participated in VIG's, 32 new faculty members were recruited, 16 from LAGCC and 16 from NYCTC, and 32 new faculty members attended the Summer Institute.

 

Production

Over the course of the fourth year, 2004-2005, key activities included the implementation of ESP's in 32 new courses and 800 students creating ESP's. LAGCC added additional introductory courses and nine exit/Coop courses, and NYCTC added eight senior level courses. 16 new VIG's were implemented. A total of 1600 students were mentored online through VIG participation and 24 new faculty members were recruited, 12 from LAGCC and 12 from NYCTC. 24 new faculty members attended the Summer Institute.

Implementation

From 2005-2006, key activities included the implementation of ESP's in 24 new courses, 600 new students utilizing ESP's, LAGCC adding 12 exit/Coop courses and NYCTC adding 12 FIG's in Learning Communities. 20 VIG's were implemented so that 2000 students were mentored online. A total of 2,800 students from LAGCC and NYCC have utilized the ESP's in 112 courses, and 2,000 LAGCC students have participated in VIG's.

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

The ePortfolio project offers many benefits to all parties involved in the process. It invites students to systematically and continually evaluate their own learning and it can be an empowering self-assessment tool.

The majority of faculty thought the ePortfolio helped them assess their students' computer-, writing-, language and critical thinking skills. It has also proved to be a significant curricular tool for faculty. Because it is an electronic tool (in terms of skills), it also provides an opportunity to arrive at a cross-departmental curriculum proposals suitable for shared research and advanced media production.