TechEDge | California Community Colleges

ePortfolio California To Co-Host PESC Summit

Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 November 2010 Written by Sandoval Chagoya Wednesday, 08 September 2010

< EDITOR'S NOTE: An update to this story has been added as a comment below. >

ePortfolio California will join the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) on October 11, 2010 for a day of working sessions dedicated to standards development, implementation and interoperability of academic electronic portfolios. Registration for the event is now open.

The day of working sessions will be held as part of the PESC Fall 2010 Data Summit, October 11-12, 2010. The sessions will focus on the collaborative standards development work of the PESC Academic ePortfolio Workgroup and ePortfolio California, a California Virtual Campus project.

According to Dr. John Ittelson, Professor Emeritus of Information Technology and Communications Design at California State University, Monterey Bay, "Most colleges and universities today depend on transcripts that identify courses and grades as the record of a students’ academic achievement. Many of these postsecondary institutions are interested in integrating academic electronic portfolio software (ePortfolios), which would include information useful to registrars and those that make the decisions for student admittance, as well as to organizations charged with institutional accreditation." Ittelson serves as Director of Communication, Collaboration and Outreach for the California Virtual Campus and ePortfolio California. He is also co-chair of PESC's national Academic ePortfolio Workgroup.

ePortfolio software allows users to build an electronic collection of content elements—often including rich media—that are typically referred to as artifacts. ePortfolio software also allows its users to reflect on and share their artifacts with friends, colleagues, teachers and prospective employers, with the administrative controls for sharing artifacts given to the creator of the ePortfolio.

Sophisticated ePortfolio software is being utilized today for integrating course assignments with learning outcomes. The assignments are scored using well designed rubrics, and the data from these scores are then aggregated and disaggregated into reports showing how individuals, courses, programs and departments are performing on a wide variety of student learning outcomes. In addition to helping to manage accreditation systems, these reports help to drive positive change in the way teachers teach and students learn. ePortfolios are also being used for counseling and advising students, for building individual learning plans, and for career development purposes.

When PESC launched its national Academic ePortfolio Workgroup, Ittelson said, "A challenge for the ongoing and future development and efficacy of academic ePortfolios is the establishment of interoperability standards and data sharing capabilities that would allow today’s typically mobile learners—including the growing segment of online learners across the country with more options than ever—to easily take their academic ePortfolio with them wherever they happen to enroll and learn."

ePortfolio California sessions at the PESC Fall 2010 Data Summit on October 11 will focus on the following efforts and topics:

• Functional needs and requirements for successful implementations
• Strategic planning for broader acceptance and adoption across California
• Student-centric vs. institutional needs overlap
• Articulation between institutions and workforce development
• Portability and interoperability
• Strategies for developing Communities of Practice

Faculty, staff, and administrators from all postsecondary institutions are invited to attend. Seating is limited.

More information about the event and about sponsorship opportunities, as well as a link to online registration are available at the ePortfolio California website.<>

Sandoval Chagoya is the TechEDge Managing Editor and a Project Manager
for the California Community Colleges Technology Center and the California Virtual Campus.