IDEA Studio Develops New Features, Better Support for College e-Portfolio System - May 1st, 2009

Several years ago, when College of Education faculty asked for a way to allow students to organize, store, and display their coursework online, the Learning Technology Center’s IDEA Studio Coordinator Karen French quickly realized that no commercial product had the set of features needed. So the IDEA Studio began working to create their own e-Portfolio system. Today the e-Portfolio system is used by over 90 students of 11 laptop initiative faculty members to store up to 1 GB of coursework files, create Web pages to organize and display their work, and invite others to view the resulting “online resumes.”

A 2008-2009 Technology Vision Plan project with $18,000 in funding has allowed the IDEA Studio to hire Graduate Research Assistant Shyamala Lakshminarasimhan to continue to improve the e-Portfolio system with expanded features and greater ease of use. A major new feature is the ability to add comments. Instructors, who can see the portfolios of all their students, can send comments on posted work and students can then respond to the instructor, all within the system. Another feature that may eventually be incorporated would allow students to send comments to each other, with a system administrator approving comments first. e-Portfolio users can now also create user profiles containing information such as name, link to a home page, and instructor’s name.

These kinds of features make e-Portfolio, which is based on the content management system Drupal, a Web 2.0 tool. Users can create content and communicate with one another all within the same easy-to-use interface.

The program has also been made easier to use. “Themes” have been created that automatically provide graphics, menus, and a navigation bar of links, while still allowing lots of flexibility in the set up of pages.

Support for students who use e-Portfolio has also been streamlined. The IDEA Studio has trained the Laptop Help team to support users. Students can now visit the Help Desk in SZB 536 for e-Portfolio help anytime during regular LTC hours. There is also an in-depth help section within the system.

Karen says the next stage of the e-Portfolio’s evolution will be to work more closely with the faculty who use it most to continue to refine features. She is also developing policies that more clearly define the system’s purpose and appropriate content. “We want to give faculty and students the kind of system they need, and we want to make sure it is safe and secure.”

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator