[Portfolio] OSP Community contribution to the Learning Capabilities Google document

[janice.smith]

Hi David

At our Monday meeting, I was asked by the OSP Community to translate our Confluence page on Portfolio-related Vignettes for addition to the Learning Capabilities page. Given that the categories across our two pages are very different, I am rewriting and reorganizing and will transfer the results all at one time today or tomorrow. We recognize that the many portfolio-like items you list below are already in the document and that some of what we suggest will be somewhat redundant, but choose to add our approximately twenty items rather than edit what is already there. Thank you for encouraging us to contribute!

Janice

Janice A. Smith, Ph.D.
2009 Sakai Foundation Fellow
Three Canoes
1204 Laurel Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104, USA
651-642-9069, 207-841-6262 (cell)
janice.smith at threecanoes.com
jasmith at mm.com

Subject: [Portfolio] Learning Capabilities spreadsheet
From: David Goodrum <davidgoodrum at rocketmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:40:37 -0800 (PST)
To: portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org

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There's been an increasing awareness of the brainstorming activity reflected in the Learning Capabilities spreadsheet: 
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlfbHxo2qpHEdHRuSnowVGMwWE9HY1MtVjFpY1dtS0E&hl=en

 It's been interesting to see the level of collaboration the document has seen and how it has evolved because of that collaboration. According to Google docs, there's been at least 15 collaborators on the document... likely more, since no login is required to edit it -- it is a totally open brainstorming document right now.


The spreadsheet is certainly not exhaustive nor complete, nor is that the intent for this phase. It currently does not necessarily reflect the best capabilities of Sakai 2.x; it does not reflect what all is missing or frustrating about Sakai 2.x; it does not reflect all of what Sakai 3 should aspire to; it doesn't even fully represent what teaching and learning goals should be supported in Sakai 3. So what's the point?


With 60+ rows right now, it begins to represent a fair cross section of many ambitions Sakai 3 perhaps ought to have in the teaching and learning space.  


And it attempts to show how different levels of complexity and functional capabilities both link together and link back to a basic teaching and learning goal, hopefully expressed in everyday language.


Perhaps a bad analogy for the document would be the recent cell coverage maps...  Ideally, our teaching and learning map would look like Verizon's 3G map... with nearly the whole map filled in.  This brainstorming document today is more like the AT&T 3G coverage map: a lot of white space still to be filled in, but there is coverage of many core areas and outlines of many others.


For now it's a place to play out some ideas.


Got a teaching and learning idea? Something instructors want their students to do? Something students wish instructors would do?  Something that develops collaboration and cooperation among students, encourages active learning, gives prompt feedback, emphasizes time on task, communicates high expectations, or respects diverse talents and ways of learning?  Then add it to the brainstorm. 




And here are some ideas/language already in the document that seem related to Portfolio concepts (including an explicit reference/link in the last item to the important vignette development the OSP group has been refining):


Current row 9 "I need to track student learning"



I need to track student learning 

Show details of expectations and levels of accomplishment  Provide guidance, examples, rubrics. Link to portfolios of previous students of this course (with permission)  

Publish and subscribe to goals; map heirarchical relationships between goals  
Organize and track lifelong learning for the individual and the institution; track student progress over their entire academic career





Current row 19 "I want to give my students grades" 



I want to provide feedback on submitted work; I want students to review and critique each other's work as well. 

Feedback / comment with rich-text formatting and attachments for any object  
Any object can receive a comment or grade; Grouping of objects (e.g., portfolio) that receive feedback; both open and structured feedback   

Grades are a special case of feedback and non-numerical assessment should be supported; Instructor feedback; self feedback; peer feedback; external to class review; external to system review; multitude of permissions for who can see what 

Current row 41 "I want to represent specific campus/school/program learning goals (and associated grading/assessment rubrics) as a framework for a large set of courses."



Goals and rubrics can be a way for an institution to differentiate itself through standards for excellence from other institutions and for showing that program X complies with Association Y's expectations. 

Some goals and rubrics are rather specific must be approved by an "assessment coordinator" for educational QA purposes as part of a larger assessment system strategy. Changing the assessment/rubric in this case involves more than just an individual instructor. 

Goals created by others (the individual student or instructor or a particular program) can be mapped to larger campus/school goals. Some rubrics may be general purpose rubrics that are NOT tied to an assessment, but the dissemination of these approved rubrics may be a strategy of an institution to push forward an agenda of best practice for assessment by providing a handy reference library of general purpose writing, mathematics and science rubrics (for example). While the choice whether or not to use one of these "off the shelf" rubrics (and which one) is left to the teacher, providing some information to the teacher about the schools expectations of its students at different stages (and perhaps suggesting an appropriate rubric for this grade level/stage of development) would make this service more valuable. 

Some items in the library of "off the shelf" goals and rubrics are merely starting points. There is not a priority to ensure that everyone is doing assessment the exact same way. When a teacher uses one of these rubrics, they can easily edit the performance indicators to suit their needs and create a new rubric, just for their new assignment. Goals and rubrics can be shared with others. This is a bottom up approach to establishing "best practice". As the teachers create their own rubrics against goals, they have the opportunity to publish them as part of the "reusable" library so other teachers can use/edit/republish them.
[note that this was largely copied and paste from a posting Sean Keesler made to one of the lists]



Current line 43 "I want to encourage and at times require students to reflect on the task I have them doing. 



I want to add a guided metacognitive aspect to tasks I give students. 

This might be an open ended reflection.  But this might be also a structured reflection, for example ask them to rate their confidence in a task (or even for an individual question I've asked them), or to classify their contribution to a task or discussion (e.g., claim, reason, evidence, warrant, or acknowledgement/response).



Current line 52 "I want to create an analytic rubric or holistic, share it with my students,  and use it to grade and/or evaluate an open-ended assignment"



Tool for generating analytic and holstic rubrics.  Instructor enters criteria, rating scale, and characterisics of work associated with each point on the scale.  Rubric can be attached to any example of student work and isntructor can opt to display to students before submission.  To grade or evaluate, instructor clicks or selects the rating for each criterion.  Students see a read only version of the rubric with the instructions rating selections.

Instructors can easily classify and share rubrics with specific colleagues, their department, program, campus , and/or the public.  Rubrics can be associated with learning outcomes/goals.



Current line 56 "I want my students to keep a log or journal on their experience in this course."




Current line 70 "I want to continue to have access to all of my work products after the class and even after I graduate."


Current line 72 "Support for wide range of portfolio related activities: Guide, Collect, Reflect, Tag, Associate, Evaluate, Share, Report, Flow, Assess, Present, Customize, Preserve, Document, Collaborate, Own, Empower, Re-purpose, Port, Express, Migrate"



See Portfolio vignettes:http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/UX/Portfolio-related+vignettes


So please feel free to add to or expand something already there. Or at least take a look and see how this brainstorming exercise is evolving. This activity may help to identify functions that various Sakai groups are exploring.




Regards - David
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