Evaluating Intentional Integration

The AAC&U VALUE Integrative Learning Rubric

& ePortfolios

J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D.LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

Positioning Integration in the Student’s Experience

One of the great challenges in higher education is to foster students’ abilities to integrate their

learning across contexts and over time. Learning that helps develop integrative

capacities is important because it builds habits of mind that prepare students to make

informed judgments in the conduct of personal, professional, and civic life; such learning is, we believe, at the very heart of liberal education.

~Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings

Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain (2005)

Integrative learning is… (Rubric Definition)

an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus.

Hallmarks of Integrative Learning(Rubric Framing Language)

Connects previous learning to new learning

Occurs as learners address real-world problems, unscripted and sufficiently broad, to require multiple areas of knowledge and multiple modes of inquiry, offering multiple solutions from multiple perspectives

Creates confident, life-long learners

Provides learners with the ability to adapt

Helps learners make connections

…this learning may not be as evident…unless the student…is prompted to draw implications for practice

Connections often surface…in reflective work, self assessment, or creative endeavors of all kinds

Artificial barriers between formal study and informal or tacit learning becomes permeable.

Connects theory & practice towards a greater understanding

Growth ov

er

time

5 Domains

Growth Over Time: e.g. Connections to Discipline

1: When prompted,

presents examples, facts, or theories from more

than one field of study or

perspective.

2: When prompted, connects

examples, facts, or theories from more

than one field of study or

perspective.

3: Independently connects

examples, facts, or theories from more

than one field of study or

perspective. 4: Independently creates wholes out of multiple parts (synthesizes) or

draws conclusions by combining

examples, facts, or theories from more

than one field of study or

perspective.

Karen Glass, Virginia Tech

Fast Facts: End of first year at VT (Spring 2009) Major: Architecture Double Minor: Leadership & Social Change and

Industrial Design ePortfolio features: Personal Profile, Professional

Profile, Core Competencies, Project Showcase, Reflections & Relevant Work

Uses text, images, evaluations, links to social media

Connections to Experience: 2

Connection to Experience & Discipline: 2

Transfer/Integrated Communication: 3

Reflection & Self Assessment: 2

Karen’s Full ePortfolio

https://scholar.vt.edu/access/content/group/97b91a99-7258-44a2-8002-9b7c83a84bd5/WebDev/Website/Gallery/RLC/ePGalleryKarenG/index.html

Pablo Avila, LaGuardia & Hunter

Fast Facts: ePortfolio (end of Fall 2008)// Website (current) Major: Psychology, B. A. ePortfolio features: Welcome, About Me, Classes,

Goals, Resume, Links Uses text, images, personal photography, links to

social media Website: demonstrates continued professional

growth & life-long learning

Initial ePortfolio

Connections to experience: 2 Connections to discipline: 2 Transfer: 2 Integrated Communication: 2 Reflection & Self-Assessment: 2

Pablo’s WebsiteHallmarks of Integrative Learning

Connects previous learning to new learning

Occurs as learners address real-world problems, unscripted and sufficiently broad, to require multiple areas of knowledge and multiple modes of inquiry, offering multiple solutions from multiple perspectives

Creates confident, life-long learners

Provides learners with the ability to adapt

Helps learners make connections

…this learning may not be as evident…unless the student…is prompted to draw implications for practice

Connections often surface…in reflective work, self assessment, or creative endeavors of all kinds

Artificial barriers between formal study and informal or tacit learning becomes permeable.

Connects theory & practice towards a greater understanding

Pablo’s Full ePortfolio

http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/scholars/doc_fa08/eP_Fa08/Pablo.Avila/welcome.html

Pablo’s Website

http://pabloavila.com/

Working on 2 Levels

What kinds of integration do we want to see in our students’ ePortfolios? Why is this particularly important as a key feature of ePortfolios?

Is the VALUE rubric useful for seeing integration more clearly?

References AAC&U and Carnegie Foundation for Teaching &

Learning’s Integrative Learning Project. Campus snapshots and essays on integrative learning. http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/ilp/

AAC&U’s Project Value. Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education. Project information & rubrics: http://www.aacu.org/value/project_description.cfm

Huber, Mary Taylor and Pat Hutchings. Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2005.