arnold kumar hci_2014

E-Portfolios – Fostering Systematic Reflection in Social Work Education Patricia Arnold1 /Swapna Kumar2

1Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany 2 School of Teaching & Learning, University of Florida, USA Human Computer Interaction International (HCII) Conference 2014, Heraklion, Greece

Partially funded by

HCII 2014 Patricia Arnold, [email protected]

1. Research Questions and Methodology

2. Literature Review E-Portfolios

3. Context: Online BA Degree Program Social Work

4. Cases: Analysis of Three Student Portfolios

5. Conclusions

Overview


Research Setting

higher education in social work, for professional students

an educational design that combines a mixture of carefully selected learning technologies (including MAHARA as specialized e-portfolio software) with explicit ‘scaffolding’ to foster reflection

Research Questions

How do students engage with the educational design and the technological affordances in creating their e-portfolios?

Research Methodology Qualitative in-depth analysis of three e-portfolios

The Challenge of ‚Scaffolding‘ E-Portfolios –

Research Questions & Methodology


„An e-portfolio is a digital collection of showcases of work (artefacts) by

a person who wants to document and illustrate the product (learning

results) and the process (learning trajectory) of his or her development

of competencies over a certain period of time

(Hornung-Prähauser et al. 2007, 14; transl. PA)

What is an E-Portfolio?

http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/scholars/doc_ 20Phongsai/images/eportfolio.jpg


Study results (e.g. essay, presentation, discussion posting, etc.)

Descriptions / Commentary (abstract, significance, contextual information)

Reflections of learning trajectory (new insights, new questions, evaluation at hindsight, obstacles, solutions, etc.)

Feedback by peers or lecturers (according to Lewin 2002, Barrett 2003)

->selected, presented in different media, “packaged“ in different views

-> define access rights per view / also to be used as job application

Elements of an E-Portfolio

http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/scholars/doc_ 20Phongsai/images/eportfolio.jpg


Affordances innovative method and technology for

learning, teaching and assessment (Barrett 2003, Hornung-Prähauser et al. 2007, Arnold et al 2013)

a valuable tool for fostering students’ reflective capacities (Bäcker, Cendon & Mörth 2011)

a suitable means to document one’s own professional learning trajectory (Bauer & Baumgartner 2012)

Instrument for impact assessment of programs (Arnold & Kumar 2014)

Pitfalls students often not familiar with

technologies used AND with reflective practices (Meyer et al. 2011)

a risk of “over-acting,” e.g. including too many items and applying insufficient selection criteria (Reinmann & Sippel 2011)

a risk of “over-reflecting”: reflecting because it is required, only on a personal level (ibid)

A risk of “defensive-reflecting” to avoid bad grades (Häcker 2005).

E-Portfolios – Literature Review


scaffolding

according to Brown, Collins & Duguid’s (1989) cognitive apprenticeship model

a learning environment that provides carefully thought-out support for acquiring certain skills

reflection

With reference to Schön’s notion (1983) of “reflective practitioner”

how professional experts act, think and reflect in practice

Reflection-on-action vs. Reflection-in-action

Higher education for working professionals

In these programs it is particularly important , to ”recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning” (Boud, Keogh & Walker 1985, 18).

E-Portfolios – Theoretical Framework


Context - Online Degree Program BA Social Work

Context

75% online modules, 25% on-site seminars Requirements: minimum of 3 years work

experience in the social field, working in the social field alongside the study program

Networked cooperation with 7 universities across Germany

www.basa-online.de

Learning technologies Learning Management System OLAT

Live Classroom Adobe Connect

Peer-to-peer counseling Kokom.net

Mahara for e-portfolios

AND On-site seminars a week-end per month

BA Social Work

http://www.basa-online.de/


Context – Educational Design of Module


Figure 1: Structure of e-portfolios

***************Comprehensive narrative on personal learning trajectory across the module************ Learning Product A Learning Product B Learning Product C Student's comments as to selection, significance, production process and context, etc.

Student's comments as to selection, significance, production process and context, etc.

Student's comments as to selection, significance, production process and context, etc.

Feedback by peers, lecturers or retrospective self-evaluation



Context - Structure of E-Portfolios


Cases: E-Portfolio Student A – „All in Flux“

presents herself as a student with three adult children for whom obtaining an academic degree is an import part of her aspirations in life

Study products: BA thesis and 2 products from module.

Using strong visual clues she argues that studying does not mean creating “heaps” of knowledge but rather building a growing network of knowledge.

most valuable in-sight gained from her studies for her professional future: she will refuses to “act as a buffer zone” as a social worker , again by using a strong visual of a train buffer.

closing remark: overall behavior has changed due to her academic studies: she now adopts a critical stance everywhere and e.g. requests sources for information, even in small talk conversations.

Mahara: linear text, sections, and graphics


Cases: E-Portfolio Student B – „Scientific Theory-Practice-Transfer“

comparatively young student, working as a nurse in early childhood education

study products: all three from module

no explicit explanation for products chosen and their order.

common thread that runs through the different parts of the e-portfolio is the theme of how important it is to intertwine theory and practice

Additionally: a video in which she explains her changing views on professional identity, video production explained and reflected upon in depth

Mahara: three-row layout text, sections, graphics, embedded home-made video


Cases: E-Portfolio Student C „Authoethnographic Study on EP Production“

Has adult children and works in a Montessori school

Study products: encounter with autoethnography (BA thesis) , ethnographic study on creating e-portfolio

a variety of elements: including a playful section with the text capture “Space” and an empty space created in the portfolio by spreading the single letters out over many lines.

autoethnographic study of creating the e-portfolio. an introspection of her first initial resistance to yet another task and tool, a scan

of handwritten notes taken when the task was introduced, quotes by instructors explaining the task which resonated immediately with her (“to look back on traces of a study program

an excerpt of a documentation where she and a fellow student “played “ with mahara to come to terms with this new tool.

At the end she reports how she inwardly smiled when she suddenly realized how her own conclusion statement in her BA thesis “reflection and introspection are important for any educational process” matched the task of the portfolio creation

Mahara: linear text, section and graphics


Student B responded to guiding questions for constructing an e-portfolio in a very literal way

scaffolding clearly helped her reach a basic level of reflection and build the e-portfolio, but also possible that she chose to adhere to the structure provided, and that the scaffolding prevented her from exploring new dimensions,

Student A loosely used the set of guiding questions, but incorporated them into a bigger narrative and went beyond just including previous elements by reflecting back on her earlier work from her current perspective.

appears to have benefited from the scaffolding because she integrates earlier individual reflections into her personal narrative “all in flux”

Student C did only vaguely follow the guidelines but had the confidence to take the task to another level, expanding the required re-flection-on-action on her learning trajectory by documenting her reflection-in-action to create the e-portfolio.

scaffolding appears to have provided her with structures that resulted in reflection and to have also instilled in her the confidence that any creative solution of the assignment would be appraised if it was well argued and convincingly presented.

Cases: Analysis Response to Scaffolding


Student A used the basic features of mahara, linear text, text sections with head-lines, documents for download ,inserting images for illustration of her statements. Her strongest design elements were “snappy” photos that provided strong visual clues

The educational design appears to have succeeded in that she used mahara to convey her reflective statements and to emphasize them with visual clues.

Student C adopted basic features of mahara in an authentic personal fashion, by using basic features but additionally adding a layer of creativity. , e.g. special characters in the headlines like symbols for musical notes.

The educational design appears to have influenced her learning trajectory in a similar way to the reflective stance she adopted: it helped her to gain confidence, adopt a playful attitude, and to allow herself creativity in her solutions.

Student B eloquently explained why she “dared” to produce a video herself and situated her thoughts within a definition of media design. She used more advanced features of mahara for her e-portfolio, mapping her internal structure into a three-row-layout and made use of mahara’s multimedia features

For her, the the use of technology played an important role in the level of reflection reached

Cases: Analysis Engagement with Technologies


Personalization of tasks with e-portfolios clearly works

Role of scaffolding:

some “clung” to the structure provided and do not go much beyond it, while others used it as a “trampoline” to reach a completely different level of reflection.

Role of technologies:

Some demonstrated basic use of technology but were very creative in the way they represented their reflections

others’ intensive use of technology provided them with new ways of expressing themselves and spurred them on to reflect in ways that they would not have done so otherwise

Future work

provide additional scaffolding in the future for the production of multi-media elements,

Capture some reflection-in-action elements

Considerf actors such as students’ inclination to write, gender issues, etc.

Conclusions


Thank you very much…

…..for your attention!

Contact: Patricia Arnold, Professor of Socio-Informatics

Munich University of Applied Sciences

[email protected] http://patriciaarnold.wikispaces.com/

Slides on slideshare

Partially funded by

mailto:[email protected]

http://patriciaarnold.wikispaces.com/