Australian e-Portfolio Showcase - QUT - Wed 6 Feb 08

Below are my notes from this event. My reflection will come in another post:

e-Portfolio Showcase – Wednesday 6 February 2008

Queensland University of Technology – Gardens Point Campus

Good starting point when considering ePortfolios: What do you want out of your ePortfolio? What are your educational institutes' needs?

Sakai Project: Darren Cambridge, Inter/National Coalition for ePortfolio Research
- open sourced software, but not free - expensive to establish but very flexible
- Open Source Portfolio (OSP) Initiative - started in 2003 - a collaborative approach between a large number of institutes - Community Source Choices
- 60 institutions in 8 countries using Sakai
- OSP tools - Resources, Forms, Wizards, Matrices, Evaluations, Portfolios: layouts, templates sytles, Goal Management
- layers of customisation required - End User, XML, Code
- Sakai has a 'community library' which allows users to share customisations
- University of Michigan major playing in this platform
- Uses: personal representation, teaching and learning, assessment and accreditation
OSP website: http://osportfolio.org
OSP wiki: http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/OSP/
OSP Community Library: http://osportfolio.org/library

Pae Ulu, Pae Kukulu, Pae Huaka'i Pae Pae - Hawaiian stages of building a boat


Open Source: Carole Hunter, Centre for Enhancing Learning and Teaching, Charles Sturt University
- chunter@csu.edu.au
- using Sakai as their LMS, OSP Portfolios are linked to Sakai
Lesson 1
- Our users are a varied groups of people - spoke to their students, and what they were doing with paperbased portfolios
- One end of group of users wanted 'guidance' and the other end group wanted a 'blank' page approach (ie those who had some web design skills). Others wanted highly reflective portfolio - others a 'resume'. Ways of recording reflection included written, as well as video/mp4 / audio/mp3.
Lesson 2
- OpenSource is empowering ... once you get started. Getting started can be very daunting
- 1st portfolios - started working with Academics and Educational Designers - so they could model the use of portfolios - to encourage student uptake. Research has proven this as an effective way of increasing student participation.
- places for public and private reflection was requested by the users
- Philip Uys puys@csu.edu.au

Mahara: Richard Wyles, Flexible Learning Networks, NZ
- private learning and development company - www.flexible.co.nz
- Mahara - Maori for 'think' or 'thought'
- www.mahara.org - to be released on 1 March 2008
- not as mature at Sakai
- designed for flexibility to accommodate range of eportfolio models: reflective learning, assessment and certifcation, and showcase for employment
- has social networking capability
- Can be inter-operability with a range of LMS's ie Blackboard, but inspired by Moodle
- Mahara Framework: various selected 'views' - friends, potential employers, file repository
- can have flickr/YouTube filtering into Mahara
- Massey Univ, Ackland Uni of Technology, The Open Polytechnic of NZ using
- Mahara is being used as a National Portfolio: myportfolio.ac.nz
- Single sign-on with Moodle/Mahara
- richard@flexible.co.nz

Blackboard: Tony Maguire, Blackboard International
- Career Portfolios, Institutional Portfolios, Presentation Portfolios, K12-20 needs are often differnt to Higher Ed requirements
- Personal * Classroom * Campus * Global * Lifelong
- Individual * Course * Program * Institution
- able to integrate with a variety of LMSs
- Signon with Blackboard
- Portfolio tool within the Blackboard Content System
- Reflection is a 'key driver' behind an e-Portfolio system
- Stand alone e-Portfolio product - link artifacts from LMS to outcome statements
- include mp3/graphics etc
- Tony.Maguire@blackboard.com

ePortfolios at the University of Wollongong, Sarah Lambert, Student e-Portfolio Project Manager, University of Wollongong
- slambert@uow.edu.au
- Home grown database product built in 2002/03
- 'Matrix at a glance interaction' is important for viewing the Record summary
- Using it as 'Academic Integration' was very important
- UoW using a multi-e-Portfolio approach ie wikis, blogs, Blackboard Portfolio for Vista, word/ppt, LMS, and still using paper-based portfolios
- Offering a choices of tools in 2008 - looking Pebblepad and OSP
- Looking at Carrick Institute research in national interoperability
- It's about developing the 'culture' around using e-Portfolios

PebblesPad, Shane Sutherland/Colin Dalziel, Pebble Learning, UK
- Social Learning Tools (web2.0) (PLE) vs Institutional Learning (CMS, LMS) (VLE) = developing a 'Bridging Learning' or Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
- Wanting to produce a PLE that is powerful but User friendly, not tied to formal learning and cater for informal learning
- Asset Store - can tag, private or public, shared/published, exportable as HTML and printable, uploadable, 'Action Plan' wizards in create, edit and review, PD Activity record, Profile/Matrix, link to RSS feeds
- Matrix/Profile allows for 'self auditing' of 'employability skills'
- www.pebblepad.co.uk
- very easy to learn - very little 'training' - very simple to use

Desire2Learn, Ian Smissen, Desire2Learn
- www.Desire2Learn.com - to be released in the next few weeks
- Learner Centred - it's about learning and teaching, but not exclusively - collect, reflect, organise, feedback, review, assess (self, peer, SME)
- Common platform preferred for interoperability and can stand alone
- user-centred, tracking and evaluation, match to competencies and assessment, collaborative learning and social networking, multiple purposes, multiple audiences, lifelong learning, integration, flexible/freedom to choose
- Ian.Smissen@Desire2Learn.com

CareerHub, Darren Hughes, CareerHub
- Making it simple and usable
- Portfolio to manage employment opportunities - used by a lot of Australian and New Zealand Universities
- good for developing an online resume

Student e-Portfolio, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Col McCowan, Careers & Employment, QUT
- structed, learning showcase
- start with a small group of students to trial and increase
- experiences, artifacts, targeted views, release views
- 512mb file limit per student
- built around skills areas and incorporate non-University situations ie personal life and work
- being used in a large number of ways across the University - Voluntary to Compulsory - Serendiptiy to Embedded -
- Community Services Courses are fully embedding into their course