Institution/ Organisation Name:  Massey University, College of Science

URL: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-sciences

 

What  is unique about this implementation case study

Massey University originated and led on the development of Mahara 2006/7 and then an implementation project, the ePortfolio initiative, from January 2008 to July 2009 set out to implement MyPortfolio in the College of Science (CoS). This was led by a central team providing pedagogic support alongside an ITS team providing technical support with the strong support of a PVC. A maturity model (AeP ) was used as part of the evaluation and implementation increased across the CoS and some use occured elsewhere. Factors to support wider implementation were developed including a draft life long learning strategy. A change in PVC and other priorities such as a change in VLE has led to a lack of focus on further implementation. The importance of a digital culture is highlighted as one factor for success.

 

e-Portfolio tool: Mahara  accessed through the New Zealand MyPortfolio Mahara webservice http://myportfolio.ac.nz/

 

PURPOSE:  The case study presented  here is the result of an 18 month ePortfolio initiative from January 2008 to July 2009 in the College of Science (CoS) at Massey University. The CoS is the largest academic centre at the university comprising eight institutes and schools.   This project had three aims: to establish a CoS lifelong learning policy; to establish an institutional ePortfolio system that is available to all CoS students; and to establish some local initiatives. The purpose of the ePortfolio is to support students in: Personal Development Planning, Transition to/ from the institution,  Work based learning, Employability/ Graduate attributes and Life Long Learning.

 

PROCESSES:  Information capture, information organisation, Information retrieval, Planning, Feedback, Reflection, Collaboration, Presentation, Information Organisation, Self-assessment, Review 

 These are the processes as they are stated in the ePortfolio  

• Link the skills and experiences you develop incourses and postgraduate research -   information  organisation

• Collect and store resources in a single place  -  information capture

• Review your course content and progress -  review

• Learn by reflecting on what you have done  using the evidence of your coursework and assignments  -  reflection

• Link the research skills you develop and showcase your research to others   -   information retrieval, organisation and presentation

• Give others an insight into your studies at university by showing examples of your work and share how you understand the material   -   presentation, collaboration

• Develop self assessment skills and experiences  -   self-assessment

• Plan where and how to further develop your skills  -   planning

• Showcase evidence of your experience to employers  -   information retrieval, organisation  and presentation

 

  

DRIVERS:  The College of Science ePortfolio Initiative (ePortfolios for Lifelong Learning)  was set up in response to a call for e-learning initiatives from the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Science. The project ran from January 2008 to July 2009.

 

A key driver behind the project was an academic staff member in the college Eva Heinrich (a computer science senior lecturer with a strong research interest in elearning and in eportfolios) who proposed the intitiative, She then recruited John Milne and other staff  from CADeL (the Centre for Academic Development and eLearning) to the project.

 

The following quote around broader sector drivers is from a conference paper by Massey Uni. staff involved in the initiative (Milne, Heinrich & Hoong, 2010) 

 

"The tertiary sector has been aware of the importance of lifelong learning in principle for a long time but only, over the past years, has increasingly become aware of the need to actively support its students. For example, graduate profiles for degree programmes describe the skills, including lifelong learning skills, and competencies a graduate will possess. Traditionally, these graduate profiles are developed by academic committees and stored in safe places, never to be looked at again by either teaching staff or students. The current climate of renewed emphasis on lifelong learning skills (see for example the strategy documents of the New Zealand Tertiary Education Strategy, TES, 2008), has affected a shift in thinking. The graduate profiles have been taken off the shelves and skills and competencies are matched against learning outcomes, integrated into teaching and presented directly to students. As part of this move many tertiary institutions have investigated the use of ePortfolio systems, taking advantage of their strengths in reflective and lifelong approaches to learning for students."

  

Key words: Massey University, New Zealand, HE,  Mahara, Life-long Learning, Life-wide Learning, College of Sciences, within course use, distance learning, PVC, central unit, maturity model, evaluation

 

Brief overview of the organisation and its current e-portfolio use:  

Massey University has grown from a small agricultural college in Palmerston North to become New Zealand's largest residential university spread over three cities. Granted university status in 1963, Massey grew within two years into a multi-faculty institution comprising Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Technology, Veterinary Science, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences. Distance  teaching was also introduced. Massey University now has three campuses in the North Island, and the highest number of distance students. Massey offers the only veterinary science programmes in New Zealand. Massey also offers the only Bachelor of Aviation degree in New Zealand. Massey University qualifications are recognised worldwide and several programmes have international accreditation. From 85 students in the first year, Massey now has over 35,000 internal and extramural students. The College of Sciences has continued this theme of academia and in 1997 reconstituted its facilities (now spanning 3 campuses in Manawatu, Wellington and Albany) into a series of research-based Institutes, reaffirming the commitment of the College to research-led higher learning.

(Source: University Website http://www.massey.ac.nz/?hac064210y)

 

The history of use of e-portfolios

Prior to the ePortfolios for Lifelong Learning project in the college of science (2008-2009), there were a few lecturers using ePortfolios  at Massey. Mahara, the ePortfolio system that the CoS use originated at Massey in 2006 and Massey University led a nationally funded collaborative project to develop a new e-portfolio tool   http://wiki.mahara.org/History . Since the initiative began (using the MyPortfolio instantiation of Mahara), the support provided by IT Services (ITS) and the eLearning development team (CADeL) for the project has facilitated some adoption by other faculties within the university. Since the end of the project, there has been no further promotion of ePortfolios or 'official' support as the attention of the PV-C Academic has been occupied by other eLearning projects - notably a change of LMS and academic reform. Use of MyPortfolio continues in the College of Science despite the current lack of official support and promotion activities. The ePortfolio initiative website is still available and MyPortfolio is available for use elsewhere in the university and the number of students with ePortfolio accounts continues to grow. The Lifelong learning policy is still in draft form.

 

What are they used for and by whom

At the end of the initiative in July 2009 there were 630 students who had MyPortfolio accounts. There had been about 150 accounts at the start of the project. At the end of 2010 there were over 1400 accounts.

 

The implementation jouney outlines some of the courses that use MyPortfolios.

 

Evaluation - evidence of value  

The Project used a Maturity Model drawn from the Australian ePortfolio Project 2008 to evaluate the capability of the College of Science to embed ePortfolios in their practice at the time of the study. Details are provided in the description of the implementation journey. Also a detailed evaluation of a specific course is reported based on the following structure:

 

• Practicalities: did the ePortfolio system perform well on a technical level, how much support did students require;

• Lecturer’s view on the learning effect: do the reflections the students have provided indicate increased understanding;

• Students’ views on the learning effect: do students think that the ePortfolio activity has helped their learning.

 

The results of the evaluation are reported in exemplars of use within the interim report December 2008

 

Key factors for successful implementation

Within courses

http://science.massey.ac.nz/eportfolios/criticalSuccessFactors.asp

Across the institution

There is a need for :

• An institutional (lifelong learning) strategy that is developed at programme level as well. ( For the pilot project some staff were wary of becoming involved because they did not see the longer term strategy. They were concerned about the level of support that will occur when the Initiative finished in mid 2009. They were concerned about encouraging students to invest in a system that has uncertain future availability).
• A senior managment champion (Changes in senior management personnel can lead to changes in priorities - if this is the culture then this can lead to staff not being willing to commit to new technologies).
• A central unit supporting implementation (Led by a knowledgeable champion)
• Support for lecturers on technical and pedagogical levels and support students on skills that are often new to them such as how to reflect.
• Fostering reflective practice among university staff, facilitated by the use of ePortfolio systems. This includes maintaining of teaching portfolios and sharing with colleagues around the university and beyond. Staff modelling lifelong learning are the best role models to get the message of importance of lifelong learning across to students.(This seems to have been problematic).
• A digital culture (Lack of use of digital resources and familiarity  with e-processes i.e. assessment are a barrier).
• The quality of teaching to be rewarded (As well as research). 

 

The future 

 

 

 Exemplars of use  

The implementation journey