FREE: Two ePortfolio webinars

Webcast: Work-Based Folios in the UK and USA
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 13th at 8-9:30 a.m. PT/11-12:30 p.m.
ET/4-5:30 p.m. GMT

Description: This unique transatlantic webinar will feature presenters from both the UK and USA who will deliver 4 short presentations on the growing use of web based eportfolios for use in "work based learning.” JISC Regional Support Center East and West Midlands have teamed up with EPAC to exchange experiences of how eportfolios are being used in this growing area of higher education. Attendees will be given the opportunity to interact with presenters and networking with colleagues via the use of voting and chat features in this live session.

AAEEBL is still finalizing our presenters from the U.S. and have confirmed Jill Lumsden, Career Development Coordinator of the Florida State University Career Portfolio. Presenters from the UK will include Mick Gilroy is e-learning manager at Lincoln Academy (trading
as Isis training), a work-based training provider that delivers earning and assessment programmes for over 400 apprentices across rural Lincolnshire in the east of England.

Webcast: Virginia Tech University
Date and Time: Thursday, January 14th at 10-11 a.m. PT/1-2 p.m. ET

Program description:
Title: Telling the learning story: Students' authentic experiences used to assess learning

Description: For the past several years, Virginia Tech has been engaged in a campus-wide effort to explore and adopt ePortfolio technology in appropriate places in its curriculum. From a handful of interested faculty in 2007, the ePortfolio Initiatives Office has grown to be working with more than 60 different projects across seven colleges. A large part of our success, we think, is not to focus too much on the technology for ePortfolio deployment, but to focus instead on using the technology to encourage student learning and assessment of that learning. Though we have a variety of ePortfolio projects, we find that our most successful and vibrant projects are those that engage with authentic activities that use the students' creative voices to analyze experiences from their perspectives. In this way, assessment of that learning, by the student, the instructor, and the institution, is enhanced by including qualitative, individual pictures
of each student's different experiences with the curriculum. In this webcast, several examples of these projects will be reviewed, including our next big focus: our first-year experiences. As part of its regional re-accreditation efforts, Virginia Tech is planning to focus on first-year experiences in order to enhance overall institutional quality and effectiveness by improving student learning. In order to facilitate synthetic, reflective learning across a variety of experiences, ePortfolios will be one among other tools used. In this session, we will discuss how and why we chose to use ePortfolios, and how they will assist us in assessing the elements of the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics. Our presenters will be Marc Zaldivar, Director of the ePortfolio Initiatives, an office of the Learning Technologies Department at Virginia Tech, and his Assistant Director, Teggin Summers, both of whom will discuss some of the student-centered activities used in our ePortfolio projects. Also from Learning Technologies is C. Edward Watson, Director of Professional Development and Strategic initiatives, who will provide information about the history and future potentials of the ePortfolio Initiatives. Finally, from the Office of Academic Assessment, Kate McConnell will talk about our adoption of the AACU VALUE Metarubrics and our plans for assessment of the First-Year Experiences.

EPAC webcasts are free to attend and are open to anyone interested in ePortfolios. Space may be limited for some of the events and pre-registration may be required. More information on where and how to join the webcasts will be posted shortly on the EPAC blog and wiki at
http://epaccop.blogspot.com/ and http://epac.pbworks.com/.