Multiple purposes of ePortfolios in higher education: a case study of one department

This case study was designed to investigate how the multiple purposes of ePortfolios in support of learning, program assessment, and institutional accountability were expressed in one department. The research site was purposefully identified: the most mature constituency of the eDoc electronic portfolio system initiative at Iowa State University (ISU), the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN), integrated the practice of ePortfolios in its undergraduate curriculum to track student progress, assess the quality of its programs, and prepare for accreditation.;A qualitative interpretive approach was adopted for this research. Rich in content and depth, data were collected from a variety of sources, including semi-structured interviews with the students and faculty members (both instructors and administrators); student electronic portfolios; course, program and departmental documentation; observations; and participant feedback. Process tracing through lateral and vertical iteration was the analytical procedure employed in this study.;The major research outcomes of this study are as follows: (1) Multiple purposes of support for learning, program assessment, and institutional accountability created a tension in this department that was triggered by: (a) Perceptual differences for portfolio development in students and faculty. (b) Student and faculty differences in understanding portfolio purposes. (2) This tension was recognized and regulated through: (a) Entrepreneurial activities of those faculty members who were enthusiastic about ePortfolios. (b) Leveraging grass root movement and administrative support for portfolio development in the department.;The implications of this research emphasize the importance of embedded curriculum, active participation of all stakeholders, leverage of grassroots and administrative support and attention to irreconcilable differences of portfolio purposes for successful ePortfolio development

The Mean Business of Second Life: Teaching Entrepreneurship, Technology and e-Commerce in Immersive Environments

Second Life is a three-dimensional multi-user virtual environment with a vibrant economy, where avatars (virtual representations of users) can engage in innovative and unique business and collaborative activities. The immersive nature of this application creates ample authentic opportunities for teaching entrepreneurship, technology and ecommerce. This article describes a Masters of Business Administration elective course, in which Second Life was utilized to teach strategic and managerial issues related to ecommerce. The collected data indicate that the students in this course experienced a steep learning curve with regards to the complicated interface of Second Life, its complex social canvas and non-traditional framing of teaching and learning. The article discusses an array of pedagogical issues to be considered in the design and development of an immersive course

Is the effectiveness of lecture capture related to teaching approach or content type?

AbstractThe purpose of two related studies was to explore the relationships between course characteristics (teaching approach, content type, and level of curricular coordination), lecture-capture implementation, and learning in a veterinary medical education environment. Two hundred and twenty two students and 35 faculty members participated in the first study, which surveyed respondents regarding their perception of lecture-capture use and impact on learning. Four hundred and ninety one students participated in the second study, which compared scores on a standardized test of basic science knowledge among groups experiencing various levels of lecture-capture implementation. Students were most likely to view captured lectures in courses that moved quickly, relied heavily on lecture, were perceived as highly relevant to their future success, and contained information not available in other formats. A greater percentage of students than faculty perceived lecture capture as beneficial to learning. Higher views of captured lectures were associated with higher test scores in disciplines that relied most heavily on a straight-lecture teaching approach and had a basic science – research teaching context. The number of lecture-capture views was not significantly related to test scores in disciplines that relied less heavily on straight lecture for instruction and had a basic science – applied teaching context

An Examination of a Theory of Embodied Social Presence in Virtual Worlds

In this article, we discuss and empirically examine the importance of embodiment, context, and spatial proximity as they pertain to collaborative interaction and task completion in virtual environments. Specifically, we introduce the embodied social presence (ESP) theory as a framework to account for a higher level of perceptual engagement that users experience as they engage in activity-based social interaction in virtual environments. The ESP theory builds on the analysis of reflection data from Second Life users to explain the process by which perceptions of ESP are realized. We proceed to describe implications of ESP for collaboration and other organizational functions

The Big Crunch: A Hybrid Solution to Earth and Space Science Instruction for Elementary Education Majors

We describe the rationale and process for the development of a new hybrid Earth and Space Science course for elementary education majors. A five-step course design model, applicable to both online and traditional courses, is presented. Assessment of the course outcomes after two semesters indicates that the intensive time invested in the development of the course results in a manageable workload during the semester for faculty with an already full teaching load. We also found that average scores in proctored online exams for this cohort of students are identical to the average scores of students from the same major enrolled in a face-to-face (F2F) course. Exam scores significantly improved in the second semester after adjustments to the workload and the introduction of explicit test-taking tips at the beginning of the semester. We found that our students, at all stages of their studies, were not used to the self-guided instruction required for success in online courses, and were often not as comfortable using Web-based technology for instruction as we expected

Attitudes toward Second Life Chat Encounters

This paper analyzes student attitudes toward chat encounters in Second Life (SL), a three-dimensional multi-user virtual environment. Reflection data were collected from 57 new users, who were enrolled in two electronic commerce graduate courses in which Second Life was utilized. Contextual analysis performed on the data exposed a relationship between subject perceptions of embodiment and their experiences in Second Life. Those who had a higher level of embodiment exhibited a more positive attitude towards their Second Life experience. This finding suggests several venues for future research examining user attitudes in relation to virtual environments

Multiple purposes of ePortfolios in higher education: a case study of one department

This case study was designed to investigate how the multiple purposes of ePortfolios in support of learning, program assessment, and institutional accountability were expressed in one department. The research site was purposefully identified: the most mature constituency of the eDoc electronic portfolio system initiative at Iowa State University (ISU), the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN), integrated the practice of ePortfolios in its undergraduate curriculum to track student progress, assess the quality of its programs, and prepare for accreditation.;A qualitative interpretive approach was adopted for this research. Rich in content and depth, data were collected from a variety of sources, including semi-structured interviews with the students and faculty members (both instructors and administrators); student electronic portfolios; course, program and departmental documentation; observations; and participant feedback. Process tracing through lateral and vertical iteration was the analytical procedure employed in this study.;The major research outcomes of this study are as follows: (1) Multiple purposes of support for learning, program assessment, and institutional accountability created a tension in this department that was triggered by: (a) Perceptual differences for portfolio development in students and faculty. (b) Student and faculty differences in understanding portfolio purposes. (2) This tension was recognized and regulated through: (a) Entrepreneurial activities of those faculty members who were enthusiastic about ePortfolios. (b) Leveraging grass root movement and administrative support for portfolio development in the department.;The implications of this research emphasize the importance of embedded curriculum, active participation of all stakeholders, leverage of grassroots and administrative support and attention to irreconcilable differences of portfolio purposes for successful ePortfolio development.</p

The Mean Business of Second Life: Teaching Entrepreneurship, Technology and e-Commerce in Immersive Environments

Second Life is a three-dimensional multi-user virtual environment with a vibrant economy, where avatars (virtual representations of users) can engage in innovative and unique business and collaborative activities. The immersive nature of this application creates ample authentic opportunities for teaching entrepreneurship, technology and ecommerce. This article describes a Masters of Business Administration elective course, in which Second Life was utilized to teach strategic and managerial issues related to ecommerce. The collected data indicate that the students in this course experienced a steep learning curve with regards to the complicated interface of Second Life, its complex social canvas and non-traditional framing of teaching and learning. The article discusses an array of pedagogical issues to be considered in the design and development of an immersive course.Published in MERLOT Journal of Online Teaching and Learning, 4, no. 3 (September 2008): 339–348. </p

Is the effectiveness of lecture capture related to teaching approach or content type?

The purpose of two related studies was to explore the relationships between course characteristics (teaching approach, content type, and level of curricular coordination), lecture-capture implementation, and learning in a veterinary medical education environment. Two hundred and twenty two students and 35 faculty members participated in the first study, which surveyed respondents regarding their perception of lecture-capture use and impact on learning. Four hundred and ninety one students participated in the second study, which compared scores on a standardized test of basic science knowledge among groups experiencing various levels of lecture-capture implementation. Students were most likely to view captured lectures in courses that moved quickly, relied heavily on lecture, were perceived as highly relevant to their future success, and contained information not available in other formats. A greater percentage of students than faculty perceived lecture capture as beneficial to learning. Higher views of captured lectures were associated with higher test scores in disciplines that relied most heavily on a straight-lecture teaching approach and had a basic science – researchteaching context. The number of lecture-capture views was not significantly related to test scores in disciplines that relied less heavily on straight lecture for instruction and had a basic science – applied teaching context.This article is from Computers & Education, 72 (2014); 121-131. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.016. Posted with permission.</p