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Everyday Project Management Products Archived as e-Portfolio: Evidence of Social Learning in an Engineering Design Curriculum

Abstract

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) have steadily increased in popularity in recent years as a platform for students, teachers and programs to collect, reflect on and revise their work. E- Portfolios in education are ideally student-centered and outcomes-based, i.e. students use e- portfolios to evidence learning that showcases authentic work, connections between ideas and courses over time, and culminating achievements. However, on-the-ground implementation of e- portfolios poses some practical challenges in meeting these goals. First, introducing e-portfolio typically means introducing a new platform into the curriculum. This requires new technology skills and training for students and faculty. Second, e-portfolio platforms that emphasize student learning, reflection, and assessment often marginally support the actual work of producing artifacts. The added workload and technical learning curve students and faculty face in bridging the portfolio-work tool gap can be a significant barrier to adopting new, innovative e-portfolio platforms.

The purpose of this study is to determine how student learning can be evidenced using the project management (PM) and knowledge management (KM) platforms already used in a capstone engineering design course as e-portfolio archives. Specifically, we look at the artifacts, reflections and revisions produced during the regular course of business using PM software and a group wiki for KM. We want to know how KM and PM tools perform as e-portfolios and how to improve the methods and instruments we use to assess student learning by integrating what we know from e-portfolio research with existing data from student and industrial partner assessments. In order to accomplish this, we first identify major themes in the e-portfolio literature. Next, we use a backward-design approach to analyze existing course assessment data according to these themes. Finally, we identify the strengths, areas for improvement and future research using e-portfolios in engineering design.

1. Introduction

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolio) have emerged as a hot education research topic in recent years. The ubiquity of new web-based technologies and the trend in higher education towards outcomes-based assessment of student learning has resulted in a number of institutions initiating e-portfolio projects. Many of these projects focus on the development of new e-portfolio platforms for meeting a wide range of student, faculty, and accreditation needs.1 Others focus on the implementation of existing open-source, third-party, or in-house platforms that meet student learning and assessment objectives.2 For these projects, the research questions tend to focus on answering: what artifacts, whose artifacts, for what purpose, and how? Our research questions stem from a reverse approach: What are the e-portfolio attributes of social, management, and communication technologies already in use in active learning environments? How can we leverage the e-portfolio attributes of these electronic archives to improve student work, learning, and assessment and to reduce faculty workload?

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Pezeshki, C., & Racicot, K. (2007, June), Everyday Project Management Products Archived As E Portfolio: Evidence Of Social Learning In An Engineering Design Curriculum Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1732