DATA MODELLING SOLUTION FOR REFLECTIVE ePORTFOLIO SYSTEM

An importance of creating of efficacious information systems, which would enhance learning outcomes, leads to development of appropriate models.Modelling process with further validation and verification of developed information system or technological solution is essential. This paper displays the considerations and efforts made to work out such model in a form of reflection stimulating and learning outcomes enhancing ePortfolio information system. The authors introduce architecture of developed system from a view of used technologies, system’s algorithmic model and data model, as well its approbation results in Living Lab

ADVANCEMENT OF E-PORTFOLIO SYSTEM TO IMPROVE COMPETENCE LEVELS

Nowadays educational process is not imaginable without applications of information technologies. Their implementations in different technology enhanced learning programs, platforms and systems are becoming more and more popular in educational institutions all over the world. Appropriate usage of information systems has already gained significant place in curriculums and learning processes. However, due to rather high dropout rate and insufficient learning outcomes educational organisations are still seeking for new systems, tools and methods which would enhance learners’ competence development. This paper describes benefits of a new ePortfolio system created by Riga Technical University’s researchers group, its testing results in Living Lab environment in study year 2012/2013, and comparative analysis with initial version of the system implemented in previous year. Findings show that introduced new ePortfolio system has a great positive impact on learning outcomes and learners’ competence development

Digital communities: context for leading learning into the future?

In 2011, a robust, on-campus, three-element Community of Practice model consisting of growing community, sharing of practice and building domain knowledge was piloted in a digital learning environment. An interim evaluation of the pilot study revealed that the three-element framework, when used in a digital environment, required a fourth element. This element, which appears to happen incidentally in the face-to-face context, is that of reflecting, reporting and revising. This paper outlines the extension of the pilot study to the national tertiary education context in order to explore the implications for the design, leadership roles, and selection of appropriate technologies to support and sustain digital communities using the four-element model

Rebooting Community Colleges Through ePortfolios: A Key Strategy for the American Association of Community College’s 21ST Century Initiative

In an effort to increase completion rates among community colleges across the nation, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) released a report that provided a list of recommendations for community colleges to consider. These recommendations strive to redefine missions and roles of the community college system and improve institutions’ outcomes. In consideration of these recommendations, I suggest a tool that will recognize the tenets of each implementation strategy and achieve the changes proposed by the AACC’s report. The initiation of ePortfolio programs throughout community colleges can address these recommendations with evidence-based success. Through an analysis of community colleges that have successfully implemented ePortfolio programs into their curriculums, such as LaGuardia Community College, Salt Lake Community College, Tunxis Community College, and others, I offer evidence of ePortfolio programs’ useful applications. This evidence supports the notion that ePortfolio programs are flexible enough to enact the AACC’s recommendations, while providing students and faculty with an established practice capable of remodeling an institution’s outcomes

Electronic Portfolios as Living Portals: A Narrative Inquiry Into College Student Learning, Identity, and Assessment

As universities increasingly utilize electronic portfolios, college students are asked more than ever to create ePortfolios for academics, assessment, or advising. This study shifts an analysis of ePortfolios from prior epistemological approaches, where ePortfolios have been explored as a tool to measure student progress, onto an ontological perspective, where they are a medium for new understandings about self and others. This research examines the influence of college students\u27 electronic portfolios on learning, identity, and assessment. The broader intention of this study is to create a narrative of students\u27 experiences with ePortfolios that integrates critical hermeneutic theory. The research protocol of this study is critical hermeneutic participatory inquiry (Herda 1999). Through an interpretive approach, new understandings of the topic at hand emerge from conversations with participants. The conversations are transcribed and analyzed in light of critical hermeneutic theory (Ricoeur 1984, 1992). This framework guides this research on understanding how ePortfolios encourage students to examine their past and imagine new possible worlds. This research is guided by the categories of narrative identity (Ricoeur 1992), fusion of horizons (Gadamer 1988), and mimesis (Ricoeur 1984). Viewing the ePortfolio through narrative identity highlights that one\u27s identity, through constancy and change, can be understood as a story that is recounted to others. Fusion of horizons provides a framework for student learning that arises through experience, text, and conversation. Mimesis offers an approach to viewing a student\u27s ePortfolio experience through a lens of past understandings, present experiences, and future hopes. The findings relate to the diverse experiences of conversation partners with ePortfolios, which served purposes related to advising and mentoring, or to present an academic identity to employers or faculty. These findings address ePortfolios as a way to engage with others about identity, to expand on prior understandings and ways of being, and to create a coherent narrative of past, present, and future. The implications may guide educators in developing ePortfolio programs that prepare students for authentic, ethical living in a global, ever-changing world

Purpose, Meaning, and Exploring Vocation in Honors Education

This paper examines the importance of cultivating a sense of vocation in honors education. Through examples of coursework, program initiatives, and advising strategies, authors from across five institutions align the scholarship of vocation with best practices and principles in contemporary honors discourse, defining vocation in the context of higher education and describing how this concept works within honors curricula to enrich student experience and cultivate individual understandings of purpose. By focusing on critical reflection processes, Ignatian pedagogy, and theories of moral development and reasoning, the authors offer different models to advance the thesis that honors educators can and should address personal fulfillment in addition to intellectual talent, and they posit vocational exploration and discernment as tools for extending and deepening their students’ personal sense of meaning in local and global communities