Capture, Integrate, Reflect and Connect Learning with ePortfolios (CIRCle 2018)

Event Date & Time

  • May 1, 2018
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm

Event Description

CIRCLe 2018 is a one-day conference hosted by UBC Faculty of Arts, partnering with the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), that explores the role of e-portfolios in higher education and professional practices. We will inquire into how e-portfolios might be used to create a bridge between academic learning and professional identity and how educators can cultivate an e-portfolio culture in disciplines where this does not exist. Sessions consist of presentations by faculty and students from all disciplines, and employers, on topics including reflective and collaborative processes, digital literacy and online ethics, distinguishing between personal and professional identities.

Schedule of events:

CIRCLe 2018 Keynote Address: Dr. Tracy Penny Light, “Documenting Learning with ePortfolios”
9:40 am to 10:30 am

Dr. Tracy Penny Light, Associate Professor of History and former Executive Director of the Centre for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation at Thompson Rivers University, is a leading scholar in the field of e-portfolios and learning. Her ongoing educational research focuses on e-portfolios as a pedagogical approach to learner engagement and transformation. Prior to becoming a professor, Tracy worked in areas of faculty development and instructional technologies. In addition to using e-portfolios in her own courses, she has worked with other institutions, faculty and staff to implement e-portfolios. She has co-authored with Helen Chen two books on e-portfolios: Electronic Portfolios and Student Success (2010) and Documenting Learning with ePortfolios (2011).

Capturing and Reflecting the Learning Process through ePortfolios
11:00 am to 12:15 pm

Presentations by faculty and students, followed by audience group discussions. This session addresses how learning can be processed and represented using e-portfolios and online platforms. What do online platforms capture that other forms might not? What is problematic about using digital spaces for reflective practices? How can students use e-portfolios in more critical and reflexive ways? How should educators pedagogically distinguish between using e-portfolios as a tool for personal versus professional identity development? What are some best practices for documenting difficult, authentic, and complex learning experiences?

Presenters: Christine D’Onofrio (Instructor, Department of Art, Visual Art and Theory), Letitia Henville (Educational Programmer, Arts Co-op Program), Christa Yeung (Student, Geography major), David Gaertner (Instructor, First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program), and Christina Hendricks (Professor of Teaching in the Department of Philosophy and Deputy Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC)

A light lunch will be provided
12:15 pm to 1:30pm

Select. Synthesize. Showcase: Capilano University’s ePortfolio Project
12:45 pm to 1:15 pm

Dr. Aurelea Mahood, faculty member in English and Coordinator of the Liberal Studies Program, is project lead on Capilano University’s E-Portfolio Project since 2015. Aurelea has extensive experience with program and curriculum development, playing a lead role in developing Capilano’s Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies and coordinating that program since its inception in Fall 2011. In this session, she will discuss the pedagogical and technological aspects of implementing an e-portfolio program, including the successes and challenges of building a community of support. Co-presenting with Dr. Mahood will be one of the students from Capilano’s peer mentoring program.

Networking ePortfolios: Integrating Technology with Learning and Connecting to the Real World
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Presentations by faculty, students and employers, followed by audience group discussions. This session addresses complex notions of integration and connection in relation to technology, curriculum, pedagogy, and life outside of academia. We will discuss the challenge of bridging the gap between school and the real world, in regards to how e-portfolios are perceived and used. How can educators encourage students to make connections between their academic work and life experiences? How might we better integrate e-portfolios in courses to improve student engagement? What kinds of projects get students to use the technology effectively, both during and after the course? What are the shared overlaps and differences between learning portfolios and career portfolios?

Presenters: Siobhán McPhee (Instructor, Geography and Vantage College), Duncan McHugh (Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems and Digital Media Specialist in the LFS Learning Centre), Hugh Knapp (Student, Sociology major), and Tommy Lewis (Technical Evangelism Manager, Microsoft)

Learning through Assessment and the Future of ePortfolios
3:15 pm to 4:30 pm

Presentations by faculty, students and employers, followed by audience group discussions. This session focuses on the following main overarching questions: 1) What might institutional learning cultures (academic, universities, colleges) learn from e-portfolio cultures (professional careers, visual arts, performing arts) regarding approaches to assessment? and, 2) What are best practices for creating ‘folio cultures’ for the future of education? We will discuss ways in which e-portfolios can be used in courses or programs as a tool for assessment. What are the incentives, benefits and challenges for faculty, students and programs to use e-portfolios or personal web spaces? and, What can we do to get more value from these digital tools?

Presenters: Fred Cutler (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Director, Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology), Meghan Aubé (Director, Academic Services, UBC Extended Learning), Meike Wernicke (Lecturer, Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education) & Yvonne Dawydiak (Instructional Specialist, Faculty of Education), and Tracy Penny Light (Associate Professor of History and former Executive Director of the Center for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation, Thompson Rivers University)

For more information please visit the CIRCLe Symposium website