research in the wild

October 10, 2006 Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research

Research in the Wild:

Principles for Successful Practitioner Research from the

Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research

Darren CambridgeGeorge Mason University


Overview

• History • Findings• Campus principles• Coalition principles


Coalition Exigency

• Rapid growth in use of electronic portfolios in the United States

• Wide diversity of models • Considerable potential to impact

learning and engagement• Evidence uneven and unintegrated


Coalition Structure

• Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research established in 2003

• Led by Barbara Cambridge (AAHE/NCTE), Kathleen Yancey (Clemson/FSU), Darren Cambridge (EDUCAUSE/GMU)

• Three cohorts of about ten campuses– Cohort One, 2003-2006 – Cohort Two, 2004-2007– Cohort Three, 2006-2009– Cohort Four, 2006-


Coalition Activities

• Individual questions and collaborative themes

• Two meetings a year• Blog, newsletter, and monthly chats • Interaction between cohorts • Consultations with Coalition

leadership• Coordinated dissemination


Cohort One Members

• Alverno College (MI)

• Bowling Green (OH) • IUPUI (IN) • LaGuardia

Community College (NY)

• Northern Illinois (IL)

• Portland State University (OR)

• Stanford University (CA)

• Virginia Tech (VA)

• University of Washington (WA)


Cohort Two Members

• Clemson University (SC)

• George Mason University (VA)

• Kapi’olani Community College (HI)

• Ohio State University (OH)

• St. Olaf College (MN) • Thomas College (NY)

• University of Georgia (GA)

• University of Illinois (IL)

• University of Nebraska Omaha (NE)

• University of Texas San Antonio (TX)

• Washington State University (WA)


Cohort Three Members

• Arizona State University (AZ)

• California State Universities (CA)

• Framingham State University (MA)

• George Mason University (VA)

• IUPUI (IN)• University of

Massachusetts Dartmouth (MA)

• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MN)

• Penn State University (PN) • University of San Diego

(CA)• Seaton Hall University (NJ) • Sheffield Hallam

University (UK) • University of Waterloo

(CA)• University of

Wolverhampton (UK)


Cohort Three

• Focus on out-of-classroom learning– Co-curricular / extra-curricular – Informal

• Collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs

• International


Findings from One and Two

• Taking off and taking hold are both important, and attention to taking hold often leads to taking off (NIU; LaG; Thomas)

• Re-iterating (as opposed to revising) a portfolio fosters development (from the LaGuardia study on reflection)

• Scaffolding is a feature in some models, by design or to assist in transition and provides another kind of transparency characteristic of 21st century learning and teaching (IL; WA)


Findings (2)

• Inclusion of the self: portfolio as a site for multiple selves, and questions around the “facebook effect” (LaG, GA, and I/NCEPR Facebook group)

• Portfolios as vehicles for bridging context: variation on the bio theme (Thomas)

• Models of development in reflection applicable more widely? (Alverno, Portland State)


Findings (3)

• The circulation of portfolios seems to work best when F2F is included as well as the digital: embedding the eportfolio in a public presentation context fosters development (IL and LaG)

• Competencies can play a heuristic, rather than normative, role (GMU and Kapi’olani)


Findings and Your Questions

• How might your research questions (and results) connect with these emergent findings? – How could you build on them?– How might you problematize them?


Intra-campus Practices

• Diverse team • Space for forming• Narrow but open question• Balance between intellectual and

pragmatic purposes


Diverse Team

• Both people who have research in their job title and those who don’t

• Reflective of the range of people involved in portfolio practice on the campus– Include administrators– Include students

• Portland State: Administrators, students, faculty from multiple disciplines


Space for Forming

• Need sufficient time and space to develop– Shared expectations– Shared conceptual framework– Personal relationships within team

• Alverno: Frameworks for analyzing reflection drawn from faculty practice


Narrow but Open Question

• Well-focused research question• Openness to the data taking you

elsewhere• Ohio State: Statewide mobility

focus on writing in urban schools • Stanford: Correlation to grades

detailed analysis of a single site to figure out why


Intellectual and Pragmatic Purposes

• Clear sense of audiences and purposes of research

• Practitioner research doesn’t have to be just evaluation

• Balance between what you need to justify your work and what’s intellectually meaningful

• IUPUI: Linking “matrix thinking” to NSSE results

• Washington: From contest to work with departments


Diversity and Balance

• Who might you ask to join your team you’ve not previously considered?

• What aspects of your project can you expand or emphasize to balance intellectual and pragmatic value?


Inter-campus Practices

• Senior administrative support • Triangulation rather than

replication • Collaborative exploration of

methodologies• Regular conversations with

neutral experts • Multiple genres of reporting out


Senior Administrative Support

• Three-year commitment of travel funding from institutional budget– Confirmation of commitment to

portfolio practice

• Regular updates and notes of thanks

• Ideally, member of the team


Triangulation

• Triangulation rather than replication • Enough structure to focus and connect,

but not restrict– No one strict definition of “research” – Shared themes but not a mandated

research question• Cohorts One and Two: Catalog and taxonomy of

reflective artifacts

• Critical friends


Collaborative Exploration of Methodology

• Guided exploration of research methodologies and methods

• Both a way to plan the project and a way to develop shared understanding of research

• Breaking out of received notions of research through conversations– Across disciplines– Across campuses


Conversations with Experts

• Quarterly conference calls with a Coalition leader

• Periodic occasions for reviewing and asking questions

• The questioning is probably more important than the advice


Multiple Reporting Genres

• Variety of forms of reporting– One-pagers– Blue Skies questions– Thick descriptions of artifacts– Presentations of evidence – Chats

• Helps to stimulate creativity and accommodate multiple styles


Making Connections

• Which other campuses represented here might you wish to make a connection with?

• In what context?– The fourth cohort? – An ePortfolio system users’ group? – Somewhere else?


Contact Information

Darren [email protected]+1-202-703-993-4318

Inter/National Coalition Websitehttp://ncepr.org/ncepr/drupal

research in the wild

Education

research questions

students portland state

campuses cohort

coalition leadership

portfolio fosters development

development il

team alverno

emergent findings