Author: lorirand

The purpose of this page is to reflect on the process of my ePortfolio project and ePortfolios as a high-impact practice. 

9/25-  In the many years I’ve taught writing courses, from college prep in adult education to developmental and college writing courses at a community college, I only included reflective writing later in my teaching career. Students submitted a paper portfolio that included assignments that showcased their writing skill progress and wrote a short reflection essay about how they’ve improved and highlighted key learning over the semester. Until beginning this FLC, I never thought too deeply about how powerful this could be if reflection was incorporated throughout a course or across courses.  Now working with students during one on one appointments only, I’m wondering how to better help students to be more reflective; a first step is aiming to ask more questions so they reflect on their writing process, at least verbally.

10/2- Interesting to find reflective practice in an article I was reading on how to teach antiracist reading. It seems obvious now, but in our quest to become antiracist, the reflection model is a way to move awareness into action. 

10/8- As I look over the various reflection models, I think about the choices I made over the summer to simplify steps down to three – describe, analyze, reflect. Because it is intended to be a introductory resource,  I did this to make the process accessible, but I’m worried it is over-simplified. I wonder if the reflect step could have been broken into reflect and act (or plan to act). Those ended up getting combined. Action step: revisit the importance of using reflection to take a future action. 

It’s critical for an assignment to be clear about purpose for the ‘analyze’ and ‘reflect’ steps; for example, the resource I helped develop was intended to encourage empathy and awareness of bias. The analysis needs to be clearly related to course outcomes so students see the connection.  I think of analysis as responding to the why and how questions.  The reflection may focus more on the looking at an idea or situation from different angles and perspectives,  and that that, in turn, shifts or expands our own perspectives. Possible action step- create a list of different reflection examples.

10/23- I found an article this week that frames a way to assess levels of reflection writing (posted on my resources page). It includes four categories: habitual non-reflection, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection. I’m realizing that many assignments are focused on “understanding” of concepts. The reflection level shows applications or connections of course content  to personal experience, and critical reflection demonstrates a shift in perception. Next step is to delve more into this critical reflection idea. 

10/29 – Deb and I met today to discuss how our projects were going as well as the four category reflection assessment described above. She noted that the reflection assignment so far was focused on the “understanding” level, and that moving toward reflection would be a goal of the next assignment. We briefly discussed scaffolding vs fitting an entire reflection cycle within one assignment — it really depends on the outcomes. This tool has good potential for clarifying how to assess. We also talked about the use of an example/ model so students can see what reflection steps can look like.  Faculty can be concerned about students simply trying to make their responses look like the example. Perhaps using a model is a good place to start,  and then helping those who need to make a response more their “own” by providing explicit feedback. 

12/2 – As I look back over the past few months, I see three phases of my project: learning about a variety of reflective models, introducing  the why, what and how of reflective practice  to students,  and discovering two ways of assessing reflective writing. The models and assessment approaches can inform assignment prompts and appropriate scaffolding to guide students through their practice. For health professions, it appears that connecting course concepts to practical and personal experience is a focus; this level of thinking falls into the “reflection” level. The “critical reflection” level may be difficult to achieve in one course because it involves a shift in beliefs or assumptions. What I find interesting in the assessment models is the absence of the “taking action” step described by both Dewey and Rogers ( as cited in Eynon & Gambino, p. 49). The ePortfolio can serve a critical function in documenting the process and evolution of student learning, perspective transformation, and experimenting with acting on new ways of thinking. 

Making Reflective Practice More Explicit in ePortfolios

The Power of ePortfolio

Through participating in the ePortfolio as a High Impact Practice FLC, I’ve discovered how ePortfolios offer a powerful and creative way for students to express their learning and make connections among their academic/clinical/life experiences. Using an ePortfolio over time and across courses helps both students and faculty to see evolution of skills and understanding. Reflection is the heart of ePortfolio work, and this FLC project has allowed me to delve into reflective practice specifically. Because reflective assignments can be general in how they ask students to express their thinking, my question at the beginning of this project was, “How do we make the reflection process more explicit to students so they can reflect more deeply in assignments and ePortfolios?”

Description of Project and Process:

In the early stages of the project, I explored various reflection models and identified a few important steps they shared. I began to notice how research articles related to reflective practice consistently acknowledged the challenges of defining, encouraging and assessing reflective practice (see  my Reflective Practice Resources post, which has been  updated and annotated throughout the fall). As I created an introductory reflection video script for a Nutrition course in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies, I saw the clear connection to ePortfolio; the project then began to focus on a rewarding collaboration with Debra Kramlich, Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the ABSN Program in the School of Nursing.

Deb and I decided to work together to help students in her Evidenced-Based Practice I course reflect more deeply about their learning process. Deb’s previous interest in and use of ePortfolio reflective writing allowed us to jump right into looking at her existing course assignments.  Her previous experience in using reflective writing assignments in her courses also gave us an opportunity to compare student responses from the spring semester and the fall semester after introducing information and resources. We met several times over the summer and fall to plan and discuss different stages of the project.

First, we decided what introduction to reflective practice resources would be most helpful to her students. Deb shared the previously mentioned video and script with students in the first week of the course. Next, we met to discuss how assignment prompts could be revised to match the “describe, analyze, reflect” steps in the video; changes were made to make the language and steps more explicit. Here’s  an example of a model commonly used in the health professions:

As I continued my research, I found articles about studies assessing reflection in different ways. We met mid semester and reviewed one framework as a starting point: Kember et al’s (2008, 2010) four levels (non-reflection /habitual response, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection). At the end of the semester, we reviewed the impact of the resources and assignment revisions and continued a conversation about developing rubrics to assess levels of reflection more clearly. We compared Kemper et al.’s (2008, 2010) levels with Ryan’s (2013) scaffolding framework (Report/Respond; Relate; Reason; Reconstruct). During our last meeting, we revisited how to evaluate the impact of resources and assignment revision.

One other unexpected outcome of my resource development work was having a FLC member use the Introduction to Reflection video and other information I shared in a redesigned ePortfolio Education program course.

Because I am not currently working with students in a course, I would summarize my project as more as an investigation into reflective practice and the beginning of developing resources to clarify what it means.

Project Assessment:

Initially, we planned to evaluate through a pre-post survey and Deb noting changes in the development, detail, and clarity of student responses compared to the previous semester. The students were surveyed early in the course (documented in Deb’s final report – her ePortfolio is linked with mine). However, with her students facing a number of pandemic-related challenges at the end of this semester, Deb was concerned about the timing of an end of semester survey and feedback requests.  She did request feedback from 18 of her students and received one response back,  which demonstrated an awareness of deeper reflection:

Q. How did you feel ePortfolio reflections supported achievement of course outcomes, making connections between courses, personal growth, or any other activities this semester? Please provide examples. 

I like the concept of seeing all the courses we have completed on a single website. I also found that writing reflections for courses such as pharmacology and mental health deepen my understanding of the material and find overlaps. This semester pharmacology, mental health, and adult health all focused on some of the same medications/drugs. Sitting down to write about them only reviewed the material once again to my benefit. 

 As an alternative to student feedback, we discussed shifting the assessment focus to her evaluating reflection levels by using the distinction between two levels:  describing/ demonstrating “understanding” of concepts and a more sophisticated discussion of making connections, synthesizing ideas, and articulating new learning or perceptions.

We identified types of few words and phrases in student examples that indicated reflective thinking. After reading final student reflection papers and comparing them to last spring, Deb reported the fall semester’s examples show more developed and detailed reflection responses to their experiences. In her final project reflection video (posted in her ePortfolio), Deb has included a summary of student example work that includes highlights of thinking she was looking for.

My initial project research question was, “How do we make the reflection process more explicit to students so they can reflect more deeply in assignments and ePortfolios?” My response to this question, based on my research so far, is by providing more instruction on the reflection process, creating more detailed assessment tools, and clarifying assignment descriptions to guide students in reaching desired outcomes.

Next Steps:

One of the exciting results of participating in this FLC and project is the inspiration to continue this work on making reflective practice more explicit. Deb and I have proposed a 2021 FLC to build on our learning with others at UNE. I will also be presenting my project to my SASC colleagues at a future staff meeting. A future FLC on Reflective Practice can support  faculty who wish to examine and revise assignment prompts and use ePortfolio for improved reflection outcomes as well as more effectively teach and assess reflective process. A continued conversation will help develop a shared language about reflective practice and promote ePortfolio as an effective reflection tool.

Creating a culture of reflective practice through use of ePortfolio also has implications for how UNE could grow as a learning organization. In High Impact ePortfolio Practice, Eynon and Gambino (2017) offer Proposition 3: ePortfolio reflective practice done well can “catalyze campus cultural and structural change” as well as help universities “build their capacity to respond and adapt to changing conditions and new possibilities” (p. 17). This ePortfolio FLC, through bringing faculty and professional staff together to learn, has provided a strong foundation for future work at the institutional level as well.

FLC Participation:

Along with enjoying learning about effective ePortfolios and reflective practice, I found being a member of this community particularly fulfilling. I see even more clearly how developing relationships and collaborations with others across the university creates better learning opportunities – and good role-modeling —  for students. Jen Gennaco kept us connected and engaged despite the shift to online meetings; I greatly appreciated her thoughtful feedback and facilitation over the past year.

Reflection is a critical aspect of ePortfolio practice as students engage in connecting ideas across various aspects of their academic experience. Reflective practice is a varied and complex process, requiring higher order cognitive processes that students usually have not had the opportunity to practice.

The goal of this project was to help clarify expectations (the why, what and how) of reflection writing with the purpose of the assignment in mind. The project began as an exploration of reflective practice models and identification of key components; an introductory video was made, in collaboration with CGPS, to explain distinct reflection steps. The video and the script were shared with nursing students in Debra Kramlich’s Evidence-Based Practice I course and faculty in the nursing program. Writing assignments in Deb’s class were revised to align with the steps and purpose of the reflection. We also began a conversation about developing a rubric specifying levels of reflective thinking.  At the end of the course, Deb reported seeing more specific reflective thinking in student papers this semester compared to previous semesters.

ePortfolios 

• expand conversations
• have a real audience (develop awareness of rhetorical situation)
• showcase best work / evidence of meeting standards
• include collecting, selecting, connecting, and reflecting
• show growth over time
• encourage creativity through multi-modal design