This qualitative study sampled 30 university websites across Canada to identify which Canadian universities offer ePortfolio activities to students and faculty members. The researchers from Athabasca University identified eight institutions as offering ePortfolio activities and aimed to explore how faculty or instructors of such ePortfolio activities were selected and what professional development (PD) opportunities were available to them. The study included 11 participants from the eight Canadian universities identified during our search of university websites mentioning ePortfolios. Through a descriptive and interpretive process in a series of 60–90-minute interviews with faculty, educational developers, and instructional designers at the identified universities, the four researchers explored the type of professional development offered to faculty members who are involved or will be involved in ePortfolio use and program integration. The main focus of their interviews was on 1) the nature and type of development offered; 2) how it has been organized; 3) to what extent it has been effective; 4) how faculty members are chosen to teach ePortfolio courses; 5) what lessons have been learned about these factors; and 6) what recommendations are offered or proposed by PD developers, facilitators, and faculty participants. Given that the use of ePortfolios is a rapidly emerging pedagogy in higher education, it is not surprising, perhaps, that faculty development has not kept pace with the practice of ePortfolio introduction. Preliminary results have revealed variations of ePortfolio use (or lack thereof) in higher education. The findings have also revealed the need for a Canadian ePortfolio community to enable practitioners, proponents, and researchers to build on each other’s knowledge, share experiences, and engage in the dissemination of open education resources housed in ePortfolio projects.
During this pandemic, as educational institutions worldwide shifted their teaching approaches, the realization has strengthened of the need for flexible, learner-centred, authentic assessment. As learning interventions that promote reflection and self-regulation, ePortfolios are considered alternative methods of assessment in classrooms that are in-person, blended, or entirely online. In facilitated instruction, ePortfolios are deployed to enhance educational experiences since they enable students to express their learning in various modes – text, audio, video, visual. The flexibility that eportfolios offer: online and/or offline, on desktops, laptops, or mobile, make them accessible to learners worldwide, thus providing educators with a pedagogical approach that is inclusive, collaborative, and innovative. Critical elements of ePortfolios include students documenting and reflecting on learning of skills, knowledge and competencies, linking formal and workplace learning, participating in communities of learning, and developing multi-modal digital literacies and communication skills.
This poster illustrates the findings of my recent qualitative study that adopted a reflexive narrative methodology to explore whether electronic nonverbal cues (eNVC) can contribute to deeper learning through interaction and engagement in the online course discussion forums. The rationale for focusing on asynchronous discussions emanates from their absence from the list of instructional strategies used during the pandemic-forced pivot to remote teaching. Although discussion forums constitute the primary tool for distance education offered online, studies to date suggest that instructors not only rely on video technologies for emergency teaching, but also anticipate continued use of video conferencing tools post-pandemic. Narratives gathered throughout this study suggest that such tools can add to the frustrations of students facing various challenges such as: needing more time to process information before responding, having limited access to electricity and internet connection, or living in a crowded/noisy physical space that prevents them from focusing. While discussion forums can address some of these issues by liberating the learning environment from its spaciotemporal constraints, they are often perceived as lacking the level of interaction embedded in nonverbal cues exchanged during face-to-face communication. However, an examination of the categories of nonverbal cues reveals that some of them can infiltrate asynchronous, text-based communication as eNVC, including but not limited to: chronemics, absence or pauses in communication, and visual expressions. These eNVC are interwoven with written words like strands in a tapestry, and they have the potential of influencing the learners’ and instructor’s interaction and engagement that promote deeper learning. In the last decade, the term deeper learning emerged as an umbrella term for desirable attributes of twenty-first-century secondary education that prepare learners to succeed in education, career, and civic life. Scholars also describe deeper learning as an ever-evolving spiral that emerges at the intersection of mastery, identity, and creativity. The spiral analogy is pivotal to this study, along with the symbolism of the tapestry. The poster visually represents these imageries, connecting them with the participants’ recommendations for providing every student with opportunities to experience deeper learning through interaction and engagement in the online course asynchronous discussions.
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