University of British Columbia (UBC) Portfolio Community of Practice

• Roselynn Verwoord, Community of Practice Developer – Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth

• Catherine Paul, Community of Practice Facilitator – Office of Learning Technology

ePortfolio Communities of Practices: Sharing Strategies for Collaboration

    Agenda

• Welcome & Introductions• History, Definitions and Hopes of CoP• Current UBC Portfolio project examples • Roundtable discussions• Closing, feedback and follow-up

Brief History of  UBC Portfolio Community of Practice

• Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. 

• A 3-year campus-wide initiative 2003-2006• TLEF funded (Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund)• investigated the pedagogical benefits & resource implications

of implementing e-portfolios for multiple purposes & contexts (course, program, personal)

• 13 projects from multiple disciplines• 2000 students, 91 instructors and 37 staff• strong community of practice (CoP) in parallel

Successes 

• cross-faculty collaboration• research component• engaged different areas of academic environment• encouraged informal learning spaces for students• deep learning

ePortfolio Pilot @ UBC

Challenges during pilot

• technology (no one size fits all!)• sustained support• add-on rather than integration• increased workload for instructors and students

New directions

• currently reviving the Portfolio Community of Practice, a collaborative coordination effort (Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth & Office of Learning Technology)

• regular meetings; highlighting work members are doing• collecting stories• collaborating on workshops• developing resources and a new online space

    Examples from community

 

   Questions for roundtable discussion

• Introduce yourself: name & institution

• What is a challenge/hurdle you are facing in your Institution/Department using portfolios?

• How do we encourage leadership within a community of practice?

• How do we embrace diversity within a community and engage people at different levels of expertise?

• How can we encourage interaction and learning around portfolios in an online environment?

Sustaining community

• Figure: Cambridge, et al (2005) components that make up the iterative ‘rhythm’ of a community

• foster collaborative projects; • send people to events; builds

prestige and encourages these members to give back to community

• don’t forget the important role of coordinator

Resources

**New online presence currently under construction!• General UBC ePortfolio info

o https://www.elearning.ubc.ca - click on ePortfolio• Examples in this session:

o Education Portfolio site: http://efolio.educ.ubc.ca/cpaul/efolio-support/

o General Context: http://efolio.educ.ubc.ca/whyandhow/• Teaching Portfolios:

o http://www.tag.ubc.ca/resources/teachingportfolios/

Contact information

Catherine Paul Community of Practice Facilitator Office of Learning Technologycatherine.paul@ubc.ca(604) 827-5650

Roselynn VerwoordCommunity of Practice Developer Centre for Teaching and Academic Growthtag.copdeveloper@ubc.ca(604) 822-0831