Assoc. for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning

Brief Overview of ePortfolio Landscape

The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning

(AAEEBL.org)

1. Minimal technology capabilities to support portfolio practices
   1. A personal portfolio must:
      1. i.     Be associated with the learner over time
      2. ii.     Be easily accessible at all times
      3. iii.     Be able to manage and display multiple file types
      4. iv.     Have a technology migration path to the future
      5. v.     Be able to share files with other individuals (or groups)
      6. vi.     Be able to accept files from a variety of authoring tools
      7. vii.     Enable easy management of artifacts.
      8. viii.     Provide security options
   2. A personal portfolio can be produced within a combination of tools, such as a Web authoring tool, media production technology, a blog, a wiki, a content management system, a word processor, social sites and more.
   3. A personal portfolio can also be a module within an assessment management system or a course management system (or learning management system), but must still have all the attributes listed in number 1.
   4. A life-long personal portfolio must be embedded within a business model or sustainability model that allows an individual to sustain the portfolio structure she or he built during school years or during college.

1. A portfolio used for advising, or portfolios generated from social sites on campus that may or may not be maintained by central computing, would vary in their architecture, but must still have all the attributes from number 1.
2. A portfolio designed for learning assessment would, in addition to the attributes in number 1, support reflective processes, allowing for comments to be associated with the work.
3. Confusion arose when assessment management systems used for institutional research adopted the label “ePortfolio.”  Assessment management systems, which some people call “accreditation management systems,” are not portfolios.

   Assessment management systems often do have a personal portfolio as the “front end,” and many of these personal portfolio modules are excellent.

4. Comments about the portfolio market
   1. Most systems that are labeled “ePortfolio” have an assessment management system.
      1. i.     An assessment management system generally allows the teacher, or even the student, to indicate that an assignment has met the rubric requirement for progress in that course and at that level (first year student, second year, etc.), or has met the standards the school uses.
      2. ii.     Once the paper has been accepted into the system as complete, that means a piece of data has been added to all the data being collected about students in that course, or in that department or college, or in the university, or in that K-12 school.
      3. iii.     Institutional researchers can then query the data and generate the reports the institution needs year-around, but especially for “grading” schools or accrediting programs or institutions of higher learning.
   2. Since funding for enterprise management systems or for whole school systems is at a few magnitudes of order greater than funding for individual student learning systems, the market dictated that assessment management systems would deploy more quickly across the country than personal portfolios.
   3. However, in recent years, ePortfolio vendors have responded to demands for personal portfolios and have added more features to their assessment management systems to answer those demands.
   4. For an idea of the spread of potential tools out there, see Helen Barrett’s taxonomy at http://www.electronicportfolios.org/categories.html
   5. And, also see:  http://epac.pbworks.com/Evolving+List%C2%A0of%C2%A0ePortfolio-related%C2%A0Tools
5. Ninety percent of all work for a successful implementation of portfolios should be preparation – deciding the purpose, planning, developing rubrics, defining the process, training faculty and students, piloting tools, visiting campuses that have portfolios, and so on, all before any large-scale implementation.  Choosing an enterprise platform, if that is the path you choose, should be the last part of the preparation.

   Large-scale implementation of portfolios means changing the game.  Without changing the game, the implementation will probably fail.  Success depends on re-thinking everything.

The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL — www.aaeebl.org) has institutional members in the U. S., the U. K., the Netherlands, Singapore, and Australia.  See list of member institutions at http://www.aaeebl.org/page/List+of+Members.  Many of the most recognized ePortfolio leaders in the world are either from these member institutions or on the AAEEBL Board of Directors:  http://www.aaeebl.org/page/AAEEBL+Board+of+Directors+and+Administrative+Staff

AAEEBL, as a professional association, aims to move the focus of ePortfolio discussions from the technology to the much more important focus on how people use portfolio tools and other digital tools to re-shape teaching and learning for this new digital era.

AAEEBL hopes to help faculty and students and administrators share the discoveries and innovations occurring on their campuses and at their schools with the AAEEBL community.

AAEEBL therefore offers discussion forums, regional chapters of AAEEBL, and an annual international conference.

Having just launched on May 21, 2009, AAEEBL is already in full operation with 80 institutional members and 10 corporate sponsors.  The corporate sponsors will become corporate affiliates as they and we engage in collaborative activities.

AAEEBL is ambitious:  the portfolio market is world-wide but with different emphases, the market is also deep with around 40 portfolio vendors around the world, and definitions of the portfolio phenomenon vary wildly.   AAEEBL hopes to create more understanding and awareness for the benefit of the portfolio community.

Portfolio tools also vary widely and no general classification system exists to distinguish among the types of tools.

More about AAEEBL:  AAEEBL “offices” are at 25 Kristen Lane, North Kingstown, RI and at the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology at Washington State University, the first office being the home office of the Executive Director, Trent Batson, and the other office being the Center that Gary Brown Directs.  AAEEBL is really a virtual organization as is typical of this time.

AAEEBL aims to pleateau at about 200 institutional members in the next year.  AAEEBL is loosely affiliated with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (www.aacu.org) and has similar portfolio learning and assessment and employability goals within education as does AAC&U.

AAEEBL is unique in focusing on the revolutionary potential of a particular use of information technology.  We are a learning and assessment organization tied to portfolio teaching and learning methods.  If faculty, students, and administrators can successfully implement engaging and informative uses of portfolio tools, they will also have adapted to the digital era.  The portfolio approach, therefore, is one of the best avenues for educators seeking to move their practices into the technology ecology of this century.

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