Importance of Feedback

At the August 2008 Faculty Day session one of the keynote presentations focused on the importance of feedback in facilitating student learning. This blog post will present summaries of some of the research shared in that presentation and we can reflect on the implications for using ePortfolio2.



First of all, formative assessment is any activity that provides sound feedback on student learning. In John Hattie's (1992) review of 8,000 studies, he concluded, "The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback." Feedback definitely deserves our attention.



Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, Kulik, and Morgan's (1991) review of more than 39 studies suggested that some types of feedback are more effective than others. The chart below summarizes their results.

Feedback Type/Effect Size

Right or Wrong /-.08

Provide correct answer/.22

Criteria understood vs not/.41

Explain/.53

Repeat until correct/.53



Fuchs and Fuchs (1989) did a review of 89 studies and made the same conclusion. Here is a table summarizing their results.

Feedback Type/Effect Size

Displaying results graphically/.70

Evaluation by rule/.91



Furthermore, Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, Kulik and Morgan (1991) in their review of 39 studies reported that frequency of feedback is another key factor. Their results for a 15 week term are summarized below in the table.

Number of Assessments/Effect Size

0/ 0

1 /.34

5 /.53

10 /.60

15 /.66

20 /.71

25 /.78

30 /.80

I think we can conclude that more frequent feedback (one or more times per week) will have beneficial results. Some of the feedback may be informal, coming from the instructor, peers, or even the candidate themselves if guided by a rubric. Instructors might encourage the writing process and check drafts at different points in the semester. Peer review and response might be done in class, through using the MyHeritage Forum, or through using the Share function in ePortfolio2.

Candidates might be helped to use Excel to record the scores they receive on the rubrics in order to produce graphs that will help them trace their progress. This has the added benefit of developing a technology skill that will be useful in managing the assessment data they eventually collect from their own students.

Instructors might have candidates complete entry tasks at the beginning of all or most class sessions. These may be brief (1 to 5 questions) and address global/central concepts of the course, basic facts or frameworks needed for higher level thinking, checks on reading assignments, etc. Repeatedly asking key questions while injecting a few new questions each sessions has worked for my candidates. These entry tasks may be graded or not. Candidates appreciate the quick feedback related to how well they are learning the key knowledge of the course. The entry task questions, along with candidate responses become study guides for later exams.

Perhaps one of the advantages to ePortfolio2 is that candidates will have ongoing access to the feedback on key assignments from a variety of instructors. The candidates may consult this collection of feedback from time to time to inform their reflection on their progress and the areas that still need to be developed.

Other ideas? Make a comment.

Organize Artifacts

Have you and your students discovered the benefits of storing and organizing work in Chalk and Wire’s Artifact Library?

In the three weeks leading up to the interviews for candidates applying to student teach, I often hear students lament that they can not find the papers they would like to use in their portfolio. Several circumstances may contribute to this state of near-hysteria. Perhaps the assignment was never returned to them by their instructor. Perhaps they lost their flash drive with all of their work. Perhaps they never developed a digital or paper filing system that would make it easier to find completed assignments. Perhaps they titled all of their instructional plans “Instructional Plan” with no indication of date or draft number. And pity the student who moved during their time in the program – they may not be able to find anything.

Prudent use of Chalk and Wire’s Artifact Library is the answer to the candidates’ dilemma. The Artifact Library allows one to add folders in which one may securely store artifacts. Faculty should encourage candidates to create folders and name them according to a helpful organizational scheme. For example, candidates might choose to create a folder for each course in their program. Any assignment created for a course could be stored in that course’s folder. In addition, if files are given descriptive names, it will be even easier to locate a particular product or trace the development of a type of product. For example, a file name such as Rousculp_Ed 315_UP_Salmon_F08 would help the student realize this is their unit plan about salmon prepared during Ed 315 in the fall semester of 2008.

Another organizational scheme that might be helpful would be to organize folders by student-teacher-interview required artifacts. For example, since the candidate knows from their first education course that they will be required to provide unit plans and instructional plans in their interview portfolio, they could create folders for each of these types of artifact required. The list might include educational philosophy, unit plans, instructional plans, classroom management plans, parent involvement plans, plans for demonstrating positive impact on student learning, and evaluations of teaching performance. With descriptive file names as explained above, the candidate would have a much easier time locating and selecting pieces for their student teaching interview portfolio.

The time and stress saved through advance organization could be better used in reflection on one’s development.

New Tools

New Tools for Helping Students Upload Assignments on Chalk and Wire

Several faculty members have reported that the printed instructions available on the Faculty Resource Manual site (http://www.heritageu.org/eportfolio.htm) have been very helpful in providing students with clear instruction for uploading an assignment and submitting the assignment for assessment.

Now, one of our HU Tri-Cities students, Josh Gourley, has developed an online video that walks students through the whole process right on their computer screen. The video tutorial is available here. Thanks, Josh.

Paul Dowdy, HU faculty member and Director of the Tri-Cities Regional Site, shared that he had excellent results when he provided students with the printed instructions and had them view the video tutorial in class.

Add New Portfolio

Have your students follow these steps to add a new portfolio. One portfolio is used for all of the Professional Core classes in the Residency Certification Program (Ed 305, Ed 310, Ed 315, Ed 325, Ed 347a and b, Ed 402, Ed 405, and BLE 409). Another portfolio is used for courses in the Humanities and English. See step 3 below on selecting the correct Table of Contents for the correct portfolio.



1. After logging in and entering the ePortfolio through the logo at the lower left corner of the page, select the link for "Add New Portfolio."



2. The default title is your name.



3. It is very important to select the correct Table of Contents (TOC).

• Click on the drop down menu to be sure you are selecting the correct TOC.

• If in a core course in Education, select "Residency Teacher Certification."

• If in a Humanities course, select "Humanities."

4. Select a theme that will define the general "look" of your ePortfolio by clicking in the circle below the theme.

5. Go to the bottom of the page and click on OK.

6. Click on your course number in the navigation bar.

7. Click on the link for the key assignment you want to submit.

8. If you just want to upload work to your Artifact Library, click on the Artifact Library file tab at the top of the page.

The Vision

Last spring the College of Education and Psychology developed and approved a vision statement to guide our work with our ePortfolio system. Here is the statement. If you have questions, ideas, other comments, please post a comment.

Vision Statement
Heritage University
College of Education and Psychology
ePortfolio System

Building Community while Constructing Knowledge
to Serve a Pluralistic Society

The vision for integrating ePortfolio2 into the programs of the College of Education and Psychology at Heritage University emerges from careful consideration of the mission of the institution and, more specifically, the conceptual framework of the College. Consequently, the ePortfolio system, along with the Heritage Learning Management System, must facilitate building community in support of constructing knowledge in order to better serve our pluralistic society. This also reflects the conclusions of the Study Group of the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, which states, "Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not to reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues.”

The ePortfolio system must provide a virtual space where learners may access resources, seek formative feedback from peers, instructors, and practitioners in the field, review standards-based criteria, reflect on their progress in light of faculty assessment, and plan for further development. Reflection and planning should occur within courses and across courses in a program and should facilitate development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions critical to the profession.

For faculty, the ePortfolio system must provide standardized descriptions of key activities and rubrics, allow opportunities to give learners rich formative and summative feedback, and provide information related to the faculty member's relationship with other faculty in terms of inter-rater reliability. This requires an institutional commitment to ongoing training of faculty in relation to the assessment system, rubrics, and use of the ePortfolio system itself. Feedback from the program level will help faculty adjust curriculum, methods, and assessment to better serve learners.

The various programs of the College of Education and Psychology must draw on the wealth of demographic and performance data provided by the ePortfolio system to allow faculty to identify program strengths and needs for program improvement.

Help Students Upload and Submit Assignments for Assessment

You will find on the HU Faculty Resource Manual site a document that will help students upload their artifacts, place them on the appropriate page of their ePortfolio, and submit the artifact for assessment. The document provides detailed instruction for first time users and short cuts for experienced users.

Tips for First Class Meeting when Using ePortfolio2

First, you may want to discuss the benefits for students of using ePortfolio2.
1. Secure storage of artifacts with professional backup.
2. Ability to organize artifacts in files within the Artifacts Library.
3. Easily share drafts with peers, faculty member(s), teacher in the field.
4. Receive quick feedback on assignments.
5. Easily track progress for each type of product according to criteria in a rubric which is also linked to standards.
6. Construct multiple e-Portfolios for different purposes.
7. Learn to use a tool that will increasingly be required in K-12 schools.

Be sure to let students know that not all assignments will be submitted via Chalk and Wire. You will want to explain to them the way you will indicate in the syllabus which assignments are to be submitted using Chalk and Wire. For example, you may want to type an (eP) after those assignments that are to be submitted using Chalk and Wire.

Last, be sure that students know we’re in this together.

Tips for Faculty Using ePortfolio2

Though Chalk and Wire’s ePortfolio2 is pretty straight forward and easy to use, there is a learning curve and even a couple of small speed bumps for faculty new to the system. Here are some things I’ve learned from interacting with the faculty members who began to use ePortfolio2 in the Spring 2008 semester.

The ePortfolio2 allows faculty assessors to view the artifact to be assessed within the same screen as the relevant rubric, though one must choose whether to have this occur within one window or two, and whether the document and rubric should be placed one above the other, or side by side. The ePortfolio2 allows assessors to make these two important decisions before beginning assessments. The first involves students and the way in which the faculty member chooses to have artifacts posted to the portfolio pages. The students may post the pages as a Word document link or they may choose to cut and paste from their original document into a text box provided within the ePortfolio. This decision will have implications for ease of use and flexibility later in the assessment process.

Both of these factors are a matter of personal preference. Having artifacts posted as Word document links allows the faculty member to enter comments, highlights, etc. in the body of the document more easily, though it will mean the document will flip behind the browser window when one switches to enter a rating and comment in the rubric. One will need to just click on the tab for the document at the bottom of the screen to bring it forward again. Pasting the document into the text box has the advantage of keeping the artifact and rubric open within the same window during assessment, and, therefore, always in view together. However, we’ve found some problems with text formatting when pasted into the text box, leading to more work for students before they make their final submission.

The second key decision for faculty should involve some exploration and testing on the part of the faculty member. One needs to determine their own preference for having the program position the rubric to the left of the artifact or above the artifact. Just decide what works best for you.

A third factor to consider and to discuss with students relates to the file format one wishes for students to use. For example, many students are now using Office 2007, while University computers (and many of our personal computers) still use Office 2003. If a student saves their file in Word 2007 and posts it as a link on their ePortfolio page, the faculty member will not be able to open it to read. The best thing to do during this period of transition from one edition of Word to another is to ask students to save their files as Word 97-2003 files or as RTF files. We’ve also learned that some students don’t know what this means, so if one can demonstrate the process for them, it helps.

A fourth consideration in making the assessment process as smooth as possible involves the monitor one uses. Though browsers and word processing files allow one to resize documents on the screen, most find it easier to work with the document and rubric side by side if the screen is a wide screen format. In addition, the setting for screen resolution may need to be changed to allow for best results. This can be done from within Control Panel, Appearance.

Most faculty have reported that the first time they do online assessment, the process takes longer than it would have with hard copy documents. However, many also report that once they have some experience under their belts, the online process is actually faster.

Faculty also find themselves wrestling with the challenge of making their comments in the rubric specific enough that they will be as helpful to students as the previously handwritten comments made within the context of the hard copy paper. The good news is that students can now actually read our comments without deciphering our handwriting.

Don’t be afraid to explore and determine what works best for you. Share what you learn with others by commenting to this blog.

My Intentions

I plan to periodically blog about the challenges and successes we experience at HU while implementing the Chalk and Wire ePortfolio2 system. I'll speak from my own experience, the experiences of my students, and the experiences of other HU faculty using ePortfolio2. Folks will be encouraged to continue the conversations through comments.