Attempting to implement a university-wide ePortfolio while simultaneously using it as a mechanism through which experiential and service learning based activities can be collected and reflected upon, with assessable products evaluated against psychometrically validated skills rubrics to award proficient students a credential in these skills creates a unique challenge. Completing this as a large, tier 1, research institution while working to formally embed these learning opportunities and scaling them across curricular disciplines sand co-curricular activities, achieving faculty and staff ownership, and successfully engaging them appropriate ePortfolio pedagogical approaches takes this challenge even further.

In 2016, the University of North Texas launched Career Connect to use the ePortfolio as a tool to facilitate collection and connections for students while engaging them metacognitive reflection. In this Socratic style roundtable, we consider strategic staffing decisions that have helped us overcome these barriers to introduce formal ePortfolio requirements to nearly 3,000 students across 60-course sections and multiple co-curricular activities in just 11 months. Additionally, we will discuss how faculty and staff have bought into the process and made pedagogical adjustments to support skills-badging through eligible experiential and real-world learning activities, otherwise known as "Connect activities."

Identifying and implementing experiential learning frameworks (Dewey, 1916; Kolb, 1984) and community-based learning activities across a large tier 1 research institution while also helping students recognize the impact of these learning opportunities creates its host of challenges. Furthermore, engaging faculty and staff across curricular and co-curricular opportunities to identify, track, and implement ePortfolio pedagogy while targeting, developing, and assessing key career skills and learning outcomes in communication, critical thinking, and teamwork. Additionally, implementing a university-wide ePortfolio infrastructure developed to support and cultivate this learning environment requires a transition to new uses of technology and a willingness to re-evaluate the current learning environment.

This round-table discussion will focus on the process of engaging with the University of North Texas (UNT) faculty and staff across disciplines in an effort to identify potential opportunities  based on Dewey (1916), Kolb (1984), and Jones and Pfeiffer’s (1980) research regarding action-based experiential learning activities that also procedurally include student reflection and feedback. This effectively creates an environment for transformative learning (Mezirow, 1997) collected in a university-wide ePortfolio. The ePortfolio serves as the integrative mechanism to allow a student to make connections across their university career, recognizing the ways in which skills can transfer across courses and experiences into their future studies or careers. UNT launched Career Connect in 2016 to institute a university-wide ePortfolio structure focused on identifying and developing experiential learning activities across the courses and extra-curricular opportunities with assessable products collected in the ePortfolio. The UNT ePortfolio was selected as a meta-high impact practice (Watson, Kuh, Rhodes, Light, & Chen, 2016) because of its ability to facilitate reflection while creating a portable and accessible medium through which a broad range of demonstrated knowledge and skills can be displayed. Career Connect has focused its efforts on visiting with departments and faculty, supporting curriculum design and course development to better integrate ePortfolio collection opportunities, as well as high impact experiential learning activities, and offering support on skills assessments based on the AAC&U VALUE rubrics in the three skill areas (communication, critical thinking and teamwork). This discussion will consider lessons-learned and best practices that have allowed this program to grow at an exponential rate. 

Over an 11-month tracking period, the program has grown to include over 60-course sections across over 50% of UNT departments, thereby reaching over 3,000 students all working towards collecting a digital and assessable product attached to an experiential learning activity with a structured critical journal and reflection assignment. Through Socratic discussion, we will explain the approach UNT has utilized, first by developing the ePortfolio infrastructure constraints to eligible activities with critical reflection followed by an office structure that completes a majority of the technology transition on behalf of faculty. Next, considering the requirement that students engage in real-world-like learning activities, internships, or service learning options we will also share how we have supported faculty and staff with focused revision of activities to be more structured, contain an assessable product, and appropriately integrate the ePortfolio and reflection process. 

Dewey, J. (1916/2009). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Lexington, KY: WLC Books.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5-12.

Pfeiffer, J.W., & Jones, J.E. (1980). Introduction to the structured experiences section. In J. W. Pfeiffer and J. E. Jones (Eds.), The 1980 annual handbook for group facilitators. San Diego, CA: University Associates.

Watson, C. E., Kuh, G. D., Rhodes, T., Light, T. P., & Chen, H. L. (2016). Editorial: ePortfolios - The eleventh high impact practice. International Journal of ePortfolio, 6(2), 65-69.

30-Minute Roundtable Session

Launching Transformative Learning