Why use the OSP? The Learning Matrix of ePort was initially developed at IUPUI as an in-house way to document, assess, and enhance student learning. In particular, the default learning matrix is based on our Principles of Undergraduate Learning, which articulate not only our approach to general education, but also skills and ways of knowing that are part of every academic program. Working with the OSP has enabled us to transform our original vision by enabling multiple iterations of our learning matrix. What this means is that departments, programs, and even individual courses may customize their own matrices, each one providing ways for students to document their curricular and co-curricular learning in relation to discipline-specific, professional-specific, or personally defined academic goals. In addition to these customizable matrix features, the OSP will provide a rich array of functions to enhance the use of ePort at IUPUI. One element in particular is the use of automated messages to students as they progress through their matrices, such as motivational messages when they begin a new cell on the matrix, congratulatory messages when they complete a cell, prompts to write a reflection or take a survey, and so on. Other helpful functionality includes the presentation tool, enabling students to customize resumes and graduate school applications, the reporting tool, enabling course directors, chairs, and deans to access aggregated information about student learning,, and the advising tool, which has yet to be developed. In conclusion, there are many reasons to use the OSP as we move forward with developing our ePort at IUPUI.

Background and Context IUPUI is a large metropolitan research campus with almost 30,000 students, over 2000 faculty, and twenty-two different schools offering over 185 different degree programs. Rather than having a core curriculum, IUPUI has a common set of learning goals, called our Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs). They focus on skills and ways of knowing that are consistent with and integral to all academic programs on our campus, such as oral and written communication, understanding and interpreting text, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, critical thinking, integration and application of knowledge, breadth, depth, and adaptiveness of knowledge, understanding society and culture, and values and ethics.. The intention is that, as students learn the discipline-specific knowledge of their major, they are also provided with opportunities to improve their understanding of the PULs. ePort was developed as a vehicle for students to document their growing understanding of the PULs in relation to their major, and as a means for IUPUI to assess the effectiveness of integration of the PULs into the campus curricula. The Principles of Undergraduate Learning at IUPUI To see our Principles of Undergraduate Learning, upon which our learning matrix is based, please click on this URL. The Principle-Based ePort Learning Matrix This link shows two views of our PUL-based learning matrix. The first view demonstrates how icons and numbers will demonstrate what is in each cell. The more expanded view shows the current form of the matrix, with the first Principle expanded to anable students to document each of the core skills.

Goals, Users, Processes, and Activities Our ePort goals are as follows: To empower students by enabling them to access all learning resources anywhere, anyplace, anytime work smarter and more efficiently discover and demonstrate logical pathways to academic success To enable faculty to partner in student progress provide rich content with greater ease To enrich learning experiences through learning across courses and co-curricular activities to make document meaningful connections with the community and the workplace Our ePort users are students using the system to track, document and reflect upon their learning, and to create cutomized resumes and applications for future needs; faculty using the system to monitor student learning, mentor students, and adjust curricula and pedagogy where warranted; academic staff gathering data for institutional analysis; program admissions committees to select which students best meet qualifying criteria. Processes: We are still in very early implementation stages, using a combination of willing early adopters in themed learning communities, willing volunteers in large gateway courses and capstone courses, and departments willing to plan how to use ePort throughout their academic program. We have a very small grants program to provide some incentive and reward for these willing faculty. Activities: We provide a robust faculty development program for early adopters and for those interested in learning more about ePort. Our "ePort Airport" (for pilot faculty) is a day-long workshop that engages faculty not only in the technological aspects of ePort, but also in the curricular and pedagogical implications of ePort. Faculty also have access to shorter one and two hour focused workshops, as well as to one-on-one consultations about ePort. Students also have access to a rich array of supportive activities, such as online help, a 24/7 help desk, and classes offered by our Instructional Technologies program. Short Introduction to ePort for Faculty This 10-minute power point presentation using captivate provides an introduction to ePort that any faculty member may use to introduce ePort to colleagues across the campus. Its main function is to provide a consistent initial message about ePort to different audiences.

Impact of Use Assessment of the initial pilots has included student focus groups, faculty focus groups, and surveys completed by students and faculty. The focus groups concentrated primarily on the technological infrastructure, and provided good suggestions for refining the technological aspects. The most consistent positive comment concerned both faculty and student awareness of potential benefits of ePort once it is finally fully operable. In particular, students referred to the future capacity of ePort to create customized resumes. Faculty affirmed that value, and added that the ability to customize the matrix to suit the particular needs of their respective department and course goals will be very helpful. We also administered a pre-survey and post-survey referencing student awareness of our Principles of Undergraduate Learning, and adding in some relevant questions from NSSE. We have statistically significant data indicating that students using ePort consider written communication to be much more important to their learning than do non-users of ePort. Similarly, they considered themselves more directly engaged in their learning. While these data are likely more correlative than causative, with the kind of faculty member who volunteers to teach in a themed learning community and to pilot an ePortfolio being also the kind of faculty member who successfully engages students in writing and thinking, they nonetheless do indicate very positive trends. Impact of ePort on Student Learning A grant from the National Post Secondary Education Cooperative and the Association of Institutional Research enabled IUPUI to guage the impact of a pilot ePort program on student engagement, performance, and retention. This URL accesses the final report of that study. Student Views of ePort in an English Capstone These student responses are based on a one-semester ePort pilot with seniors. The technological infrastructure was not quite ready at the start of the semester, which resulted in some frustration. Even so, almost all students wished they had been able to begin working on ePort much earlier in their academic career. Customized Matrix for English Capstone This shows the flexibility of OSP to customize a matrix to meet the needs of a particular course.

Challenges, Issues, and Innovations An electronic student portfolio is so much more than a technological infrastructure. It makes student learning public, for one thing, and therefore makes teaching public in ways that faculty have never before experienced. The results of their teaching and their students' learning are made much more accessible to a much wider audience than ever before. This change challenges their comfort zone, and results in considerable resistance. Fortunately, faculy resistance is balanced by the fact that most faculty want what is best for their students. Our faculty have said that if we can prove that ePort is beneficial to our students, they will endorse it and use it. Meeting this challenge requires that we conduct research to demonstrate empirically that ePort does positively influence student engagement, learning, and retention. It also requires that we develop and provide engaging faculty workshops to support the pedagogical and curricular implications that result from documenting learning according to agreed upon expectations for learning. What we have learned above all is to move incrementally and informationally. Bit by bit, working first through early adopters, then through large gateway courses, and finally through departments, we are building up a number of faculy and academic units who use and value ePort. It is not the timline we initially envisioned, but moving slowly and carefully works more effectively on on our campus. We have tried to provide mini-grants to support faculty willing to pilot ePort, and have developed an exciting "ePort Airport" for those pilot faculty -- a daylong workshop to introduce not only the technological infrastructure but also the curricular and pedagogical implications. We are all eagerly awaiting the OSP development of the forms and templates necessary to create customized resumes, applications, and other presentations. We are also eagerly awaiting the development of the reporting tool to aggregate information, and the advising tool.

Recommendations The OSP is providing a powerful set of functionalities to optimize the usefulness of our ePort. Working with so many institutions, the OSP of necessity moves slowly, deliberatively, and carefully. But we are learning at IUPUI that patience with this process pays off. Our best recommendation, if you are considering the adoption of the OSP for your campus ePortfolio, is to focus on what you want for your institution, work with the OSP development team, and you will have an amazing functionality to document, assess, and even enhance student learning.

Technical Information about this OSP Implementation Project OSP 2.x running on Sakai 2.0.1 Redhat Enterprise Linux running in VMWare cluster Java 1.4.2 Oracle 10g