Out of sight, but still in mind: Using ePortfolios to enable integrative learning on an industry placement capstone course

Thursday 4 July: Conference day two, 4:45pm – 5:15pm parallel session

Venue

Room 7 – 301-G053 Med Chem

Presenters

Emma Sadera
University of Auckland, New Zealand
e.sadera@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Rhiannon Lloyd
University of Auckland, New Zealand

Overview

This showcase presents an innovative ePortfolio use-case which formed a key part of an atypical Masters-level Capstone course. Our students – highly diverse groups studying on a taught Masters programme – were required to undertake individual consultancy projects with New Zealand businesses. Responding to pedagogic and experiential issues emerging from a curricular review of previous course iterations, we identified the need for an approach which emphasised integrative learning (Woodside, 2018), and subsequently developed ePortfolio requirements which we embedded into the course structure. This integrated ePortfolio provided both process and cognitive structures for the course which helped to ‘pull’ non-research students through an intensive consultancy research project. It also enabled our students to reflect on their experiential learning from both their unique placements and their overall Masters programme, thus meeting both integrative and gap analysis purposes (Matthews-De Natale, 2013; McCoy Wozniak, 2013).

The ePortfolio was designed to be a structural spine to a course that otherwise was bespoke and asynchronous. Students with little-to-no research experience were expected to undertake a research process, and a carefully crafted set of weekly ePortfolio requirements provided them with an ‘arc of progress’ that they could follow outside of the classroom, allowing us to both assess and enhance students’ learning (Mummalaneni, 2014).

The effectiveness of this initiative was explored through student feedback, delivered both through formal SET systems, capturing data across several semesters, and through a focus group conducted with the students. In addition, we evaluated the quality of reflective writing assignments and their final project reports, in which the criteria and marking rubric remained consistent. In this showcase, we will discuss the curriculum redesign process to enable more integrative learning to take place, and the process that we as educators took to identify, evaluate, and maximise the effectiveness of our ePortfolio initiative.

References

Matthews-De Natale, G. (2013). ‘Are We Who We Think We Are? Eportfolios As A Tool For Curriculum Redesign’, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(4), 41-55.
McCoy Wozniak, N. (2013). ‘Enhancing Inquiry, Evidence-Based Reflection, And Integrative Learning With The Lifelong Eportfolio Process: The Implementation Of Integrative Eportfolios At Stony Brook University’, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 41(3), 209-230.
Mummalaneni, V. (2014). ‘Reflective Essay And E-Portfolio To Promote And Assess Student Learning In A Capstone Marketing Course’, Marketing Education Review, 24(1), 43-46. doi:10.2753/MER1052-8008240107
Woodside, J.M. (2018). ‘Real-World Rigour: An Integrative Learning Approach For Industry And Higher Education’, Industry and Higher Education, 32(5) 285–289. doi:10.1177/0950422218784535

Presentation topic

Students – Places and Spaces