Article: The Limitations of Portfolios (10/16/09)

October 16, 2009
Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/16/shavelson

Electronic collections help show the range of students' work, but are not standardized or scalable enough to be used for broad assessment purposes, write Richard Shavelson, Stephen Klein and Roger Benjamin.

A provoking perspective...thoughts, comments, reactions? The comments to the article are also worth reading as are AAC&U President's Carol Schneider's response here: http://blog.aacu.org/index.php/2009/10/19/the-proof-is-in-the-portfolio/ and Dr. Helen Barrett's blog posting here: http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/2009/10/limitations-of-portfolios.html

Inside Higher Ed's Blog U: The Importance of Getting It Wrong

Inside Higher Ed's Blog U: Technology and Learning: A space for conversation and debate about learning and technology
The Importance of Getting It Wrong
August 27, 2009

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/the_importance_of_getting_it_wrong

This posting highlights an instructor's experience introducing "disruptive innovations" into an introductory sociology course. Two lessons learned that relate to ePortfolio implementations:

"The first thing learned from this experience was that when having classes create media projects (as opposed to traditional papers) it is necessary to set very hard limits on the numbers of these projects...the time and energy spent producing the media projects crowded out time and energy to work with the curriculum."

"The second lesson I learned was that in introducing new teaching methods it is necessary to enforce limits on students technological use, as they will gravitate to the more robust and time intensive tools if you let them."

Competencies in Medical Education - Are ePortfolios not far behind?

Competencies Over Courses in Medical Education
Inside Higher Ed
June 5, 2009
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/05/medical

The American Association of Medical Colleges, in collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, on Thursday released a report aimed at defining scientific competencies for doctors. The paper, "Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians," identifies eight competencies in the medical school curriculum and eight in pre-med programs that all students should master on their way to becoming doctors.

This clearly follows the trend we're seeing in higher education towards outcomes-based assessment. The article mentions both Alverno College (one of the earliest institutions to implement ePortfolios) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) which is already developing a learning portfolio tool for residents.