Research Diary: Blogs and Eportfolios in Higher Education

Strengthening Student Success Conference: Assessing Learning in 1A

I'm at my first session at the Student Success Conference.  Listening to Arend Flick, Associate Professor of English from Riverside Community College.  He's also their assessment coordinator.  Interesting to have a faculty person in that position.

He's talking today on "Assessing Learning in Transfer-Level English."  HIs email for followups is arend.flick@rcc.edu.

Student Success Conference: Lee Shulman's Keynote Address

Here I am in San Diego Conference for Strengthening Student Success, listening to Lee Schulman's keynote address.  And it's a humdinger -- synchs perfectly with my own presentation tomorrow, in fact.

The essence of his presentation is that "accounting for student success" vis-a-vis measurements and outcome assessments is also "re-counting" student success:  shaping a narrative.  The facts don't "speak for themselves."  They have to be placed inside stories (and there's more than one story--more than one narrative--out there).

In addition students need to construct the narrative of their own education -- to understand more fully how all the various pieces of their education fit together.

Student Success Conference: Closing the Loop in Advanced Comp and Critical Thinking

OK, third session of the day -- these are all 'synching' quite nicely (and Ro and Tess, my Foothill English Colleagues, are here too).

The presenter is Kate Pluta, Bakersfield College.  The blurb says "When the UC added critical thinking to its requirements for transfer, Bakersfield College opted to create a new course rather than remodel English 1B, Intro to Literature.  English 2, Advanced Comp and Crit Think, is a team-taught interdisciplinary course.  Recent teams have included members from history, communication, political science, counseling, biology, and English.  The lead teacher, who recruits and mentors team members, will share the process of leading an interdisciplinary tema to develop, implement, assess, and revise student learning outcomes.

Student Success Conference: Assessments in the English Basic Schools Classroom

This fourth session today is from two more instructors at Bakersfield College.  Their describing several projects, including a "Contextualized Final," a "Common Final," and a Calibrated Peer Review Project.  There are also math instructors from Glendale CC and College of the Sequoias on the panel, describing their common final.

Student Success Conference: Assessing Learning Outcomes in English

Fifth session of the day -- with English faculty from Riverside CC, Sierra College, CCSF, and Bakersfield College.  Quick overview:

• CCSF is building in assessment at every level, from course portfolios to common finals
• Sierra College has an assessment only for the class one level below freshman comp--a departmental final in-class essay (has helped identify students who are "almost ready" for English 1A but need a 1 unit supplemental intervention). Trying to avoid saying "either you pass this course or you repeat the ENTIRE course" syndrome.  100% of faculty (including adjunct) participate in norming and rubric grading sessions.  Helps move from gatekeepers to coaches.
• Bakersfield College "hasn't touched English 1A" but in Basic Skills they do have a departmental final since 1982.  Updating rubric has been a good method for introducing new adjunct faculty to the department.

Using ePortfolios to Catalyze Student Learning

This will be my final post for this project--because it also represents part of my "final report" on my sabbatical research adventures.

At the San Diego Conference (see below) I just gave a 90-minute presentation on "Using ePortfolios to Catalyze Student Learning."  The catalog blurb for the conference read as follows:  "What happens when students take control of their own personalized e-portfolios -- rather than being forced to use preset criteria developed by outside administrators, faculty, consortiums, or consultants? 

Students Have the Last Word in ePortfolios

As noted, I'm now preparing my final report for the PDL committee.  Going back through my own research has been truly gratifying.  And I'm slightly amazed myself at how many areas and applications for blogs and ePortfolios I've discovered right here at Foothill College!

Even so, out of all those months of learning it's my students' comments on the value of blogs and ePortfolios which encourage and amaze me most.  And since we're in the teaching business (high-tech or low-tech no longer matters) I want to end this research blog with the voices of my own students from the Honors Seminar -- about 8 pages of them!  Read on -- and get to work developing your own inventions, revelations, applications, and experiements online.