Please join us on Thursday, March 27, 2014 for a series of ePortfolio presentations beginning with:
Keynote: ePortfolios as Catalysts for Transformative Change
Mini-presentations: How ePortfolios are being used at uWaterloo
ePortfolio Users' Group: Implementing ePortfolios in courses and programs
Keynote: ePortfolios as Catalysts for Transformative Change
Location: MC 5158
Time: 9:00 am to 10:30 am
Key Note Speaker: Dr. Randy Bass is Senior Research Scholar on the Connect to Learning ePortfolio research project. He is also Vice Provost for Education and Professor of English at Georgetown University.
ePortfolios are coming of age at a complex, precarious juncture in the evolution of higher education. New pressures on costs, access, accountability, and productivity are driving the development of new teaching strategies and pedagogical structures. This session will review findings from the Connect to Learning ePortfolio research project and share data demonstrating the measurable impact of ePortfolios on student success. Preliminary findings that Dr. Bass will address include the following:
1. ePortfolio initiatives advance student success. At a growing number of campuses with sustained ePortfolio initiatives, student ePortfolio usage correlates with higher levels of student success as measured by pass rates, GPA, and retention.
2. Making student learning visible, ePortfolio initiatives support reflection, social pedagogy, and deep learning. Helping students reflect on and connect their learning across academic and co-curricular learning experiences, sophisticated ePortfolio practices transform the student learning experience. Advancing higher order thinking and integrative learning, the connective ePortfolio helps students construct purposeful identities as learners.
3. ePortfolio catalyzes learning-centered institutional change: Focusing attention on student learning and prompting purposeful connection across departments and divisions, ePortfolio initiatives can catalyze campus cultural and structural change, helping the institution move towards becoming an adaptive learning organization.
In addition to Dr. Bass’s keynote presentation, other sessions highlighting ePortfolios at uWaterloo are scheduled throughout the day. Join us to learn how ePortfolios are being implemented in courses and programs to help students integrate learning, and discover ways you might incorporate ePortfolios into your own courses and programs.
The following two presentations are also available as part of ePortfolios at uWaterloo Day:
How ePortfolios are being used at uWaterloo
Location MC 5158
Time: 10:45 – noon
Instructors share how ePortfolios are being used in courses and throughout programs
Marcel Pinheiro – ePortfolios in a first year Biology course
Jay Dolmage – ePortfolios in a first year online English course
Bob Sproule – ePortfolios in the School of Accounting and Finance - in courses and co-op work terms
Geoff Malleck- ePortfolios throughout the Arts and Business (ARBUS) program
Location EV1 241
Time: 2:30 – 4:00 PM
ePortfolios can help students generate and document learning. ePortfolios provide an opportunity and virtual space for students to critically assess their academic work, reflect on that work and make connections among different courses, and connections between academic work and other activities, such as work experiences, extracurricular pursuits, volunteering opportunities, and more.
In this session, staff and instructors will share how they have incorporated and supported ePortfolios in courses and programs. The session is an opportunity to hear how others are implementing ePortfolios , consider how ePortfolios might be used in your own course or program and learn more about the resources and support available to help you integrate ePortfolios effectively.
Jayne Hayden (Centre for Career Action and ARTS 111 instructor) will share how she has used ePortfolios to help students gain a better understanding of their personality, interests, skills, values and how these relate to occupational options and the career development process.
Jessi Neill and Samantha Wiebe (Residence Life Living Learning Coordinators) will tell us how ePortfolios are used in the student success plan development process with first year students and peer leaders.
Kyle Scholz (Center for Teaching Excellence Faculty of Arts and University Colleges liaison) will discuss how he supports instructors in helping them implement ePortfolios in courses and programs. He will also show the types of resources that can be created to help support students as they create their ePortfolio.
Andrea Prier (Student Success Office) will walk us through some of the resources available to students through the My Path space to help them integrate curricular and co-curricular learning. Daspina Fefekos (Learn help support) and Katherine Lithgow will show the support documentation available to help students and instructors begin using ePortfolios.
Please register for the sessions you wish to attend.