Sowing the seeds

Reasons for wanting to engage learners more directly in assessment are plentiful. These include the ability for learners to make judgements of their own work, as this capacity will be essential for learners future lives and careers (Boud & Falchikov, 2006). Excellent guides on how and why this might be done already exist (Falchikov 2005). A puzzle exists, therefore, in why we see so little evidence of assessment practices that engage the learner more directly. To encourage the wider adoption of these practices we must understand the challenges teachers face when considering significant changes to assessment. There are good reasons for believing that the most effective way to transform assessment practices would be to take a whole-of-program approach, with decisions about what, how, and where something is assessed being made after careful consideration of the programs structure and intended learning outcomes

Positioning ePortfolios in an integrated curriculum

Purpose - This paper discusses the potential and the challenges of successful integration of ePortfolios and graduate attributes into the curriculum. Design/methodology/approach - An argument is presented about the positioning of ePortfolios, and their links to graduate attributes, that draws upon the experiences of working with teachers to design, implement and support effective teaching practices to inform the challenges and opportunities that ePortfolios present for institutions, teachers and business curricula. Findings - The potential of ePortfolios for supporting student learning must be balanced against the difficulties of embedding the necessary curriculum changes. Institutions expecting to see take-up of ePortfolios by their teachers will need different strategies than those that accompanied the introduction of Learning Management Systems. Research limitations/implications â Based on experiences in an Australian context and a small-scale trial. The limited availability of studies of student learning and the longitudinal use of ePortfolios in the social networking Web 2.0 context. The practicality of implementing the approach suggested when resources are constrained. Practical implications â A range of potential uses of ePortfolios is considered with a particular focus on seeing their use from the whole-of-program viewpoint, with discussion of the limitations for curriculum if decisions about ePortfolio use are left entirely to teachers to decide. Originality/value â The papersâ value is in its argument about the potential for linking ePortfolios to an integrated curriculum by addressing a common problem with the process of embedding of graduate attributes, and in suggesting a role for changed assessment practices to make this possible