Screenside Chats
Two support meetings, called “screenside chats”, were held each semester. In Fall 2017, in the months of September and November. In Spring 2018, in the months of February and March.
During each support meeting, the current cohort of instructors were asked a series of questions to kickstart discussion about any problems or victories they may want to discuss. These questions were centered around the themes of the following:
- Introducing the Template and ePortfolios
- Student Reponses
- Problems
- Advice for Future Courses
Introducing the Template and ePortfolios
Many instructors introduced the template and ePortfolio in the early weeks of the semester and had students return to the ePortfolio throughout the semester. In discussing how they introduced it, instructors often shared their own handouts and materials and joined in conversation about how best to approach the subject with students. Instructors also repeatedly mentioned how they were anchoring the ePortfolio as part of a larger program and writing journey for the student, noting how they could use it for a space for reflection and to showcase the work they would complete during the course and potentially beyond.
In using this approach, a common theme developed of instructors referencing or even explicitly mentioning digital identity of their students. Some instructors shared how they would introduce ePortfolios in their course alongside discussions of how students viewed themselves and other might perceive them based on their online activity and posting of material. These same instructors shared in the support meeting on how they would show their students existing samples given to them during the workshop training session with them and others they had found at different institutions.
In the rarer cases of instructors having used ePortfolios in the past, those instructors were able to secure the permission of past students and shared successful narratives of students in the previous semester. Several instructors expressed that they would also plan to do this as situations allowed and create their own set of internal examples to share with future students, looking at the transition between ENGL 110C and ENGL 211C as an example of where such examples would prove most useful.
Student Responses
Nearly all instructors responded that their students were excited to create and use websites and were eager to begin early in the semester. In those cases where the students were not as excited, they had already created an ePortfolio in another course and were anxious about either posting new content there or in creating a separate site. In a few cases, we recommended that students continue to build on their own created spaces instead of using the template and creating a new site.
In the second support meeting each semester, some instructors relayed that older or returning students sometimes struggled with learning to use the ePortfolio technology but had found helping the existing support services at ODU. In those cases, instructors shared how they had spoken with these students separately and advised them with additional documentation, help, and specialized guidance to existing support services.
Problems
Instructors frequently cited, in the cases of students not given explicit instructions throughout the semester, how students sometimes “lost sight” of the ePortfolio. However, those instructors found that revisiting the computer lab and the ePortoflio itself multiple times helped to mitigate that. It was also harder, instructors shared, for ENGL 11C students (often incoming and first-time students) to think of the ePortfolio in the long-term or across semesters if this was their first.
Another solution to students “losing sight” was to remind them to post or add to their sites multiple times in the course. This stopped them from “being overwhelmed” at the end and had them building across and throughout the semester.
Advice for Future Courses
For those instructors who did not have explicit reminders built into their course, they highly recommended doing so. Many more students seemed to “lose sight” when not given instructions to revisit and improve upon their site over the semester. Many instructors also suggested having “checkpoints” where they could view and give feedback on student portfolios. These could be paired, some suggested, with peer feedback cycles and help direct how students thought about their audience for their writing as both other students and the instructors themselves.
After using the “Mind the Gap” WordPress template, some instructors felt that one created for their courses or prepared with student-learning objectives of both lower and upper-level writing courses, as the template was for this grant, could really help students connect with their writing over time. They hoped such design could help position the ePortoflio as a site for students as a place for past, present, and future reflection on their writing and changes to its process over time.