Learning from the VALUE Project + Eportfolios (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education)

How can we really asses whether students are gaining truly valuable competencies?

I found this in my Google Reader's RSS feed to Academic Commons
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/value-project-rhodes-interview

The article is an interview with Terrel Rhodes, Director of the VALUE project and Vice President of the Association for American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). He discusses how meta-rubrics of Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) such as Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Written and Oral Communication based on the LEAP project (Liberal Education and America's Promise) are being developed by a number of universities to be used with ePortfolio based assessments of student learning.

Here is the developing draft of the Critical Thinking rubric.

The list of Essential Learning Outcomes is here, and basically includes:

1. Knowledge of culture and the natural world (science, math, history etc.),
   
2. Intellectual and practical skills (critical thinking, communication, inquiry, IT skills, teamwork),
   
3. Personal and social responsibility attitudes (intercultural sensitivity, civic awareness, ethics, lifelong learning), and
   
4. Integrative learning (ability to synthesize fields of knowledge/skills to adapt to new tasks).

That's a nice list. I'm particularly interested in how these outcomes can be evaluated holistically through e-portfolios. I think ICU should be moving toward a 4-year e-portfolio based assessment of projects in various classes, plus reflective essays for each project or class, a crystalization of learning for that term/class.

I liked the following quote by Terrel Rhodes: "We also know, from twenty or more years of pioneering work with portfolios in higher education that periodic reflections on learning by students are critical components of an education. Student reflections, along with self and peer assessments, guided by rubrics, help students to judge their own work as an expert would. These reflections and self-assessments all become part of the collection of work that gets evaluated in light of the Essential Learning Outcomes."

The e-portfolio eventually should supercede GPAs and other fragmented, less valid evaluation schemes as evidence of learning and ability for the student to show graduate schools, potential employers and other parties. One of the most important skill that a college can teach students is the ability to critically self-evaluate and reflect and set goals for further learning directions and interests.

So...are there any examples of eportfolios on the web? Here is a long list of schools in America.

Or, go no further than the authoritative website: https://www.eportfolio.org/conference/

Owen James of ICU has used a Blogspot based epf for his social learning class (example).

Clemson seems to have a nice program: http://www.clemson.edu/ugs/eportfolio/index.html with the following example of an education student: http://beckyportfolio.googlepages.com/

Iowa State University student example: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mtwetten/documentary_poster.html
City U of NY-Technology has an eportfolio project here, with several samples and this type of project eval rublic. LaGuardia College has a large eportfolio project introduced here with examples like this and student feedback like this: The ePortfolio really helps me improve my critical thinking, writing and communication skills and most of all my computer skills. Learning all the digital tools help me become a better students because it is very helpful for the future. I can do better assignments due to my new knowledge. I also do lots of presentation and computer work for class and this ePortfolio helps me prepare for the future.

Also: Nice data on effectiveness:
"“How much has your experience in this course contributed to your knowledge, skills, and personal development in understanding yourself?” Eportfolio students = 80%, national community college average = 5-%.

The interview says there increasingly are "free Web tools that students can use to construct e-portfolios"...such as?

The Visual Knowledge Project is an important hub for discussions on how multimedia projects should be used in higher education. This article Multimedia as Composition is a How-To on introducing multimedia essays in composition classes instead of the traditional 5-7 page composition. Using Moodle etc. for peer review-another VKP article (Main takeaway is that US students found peer review very useful and draft improvement was quantified-having specific narrow categories to give feedback on is useful thesis, content, organization, development, critical thinking-with a rubric and explanation, students can evaluate papers quite well.)