Lessons from Two Years of ePortfolio Implementation in Engineering Technology Courses

In an undergraduate as well as in a graduate academic setting, an ePortfolio is a collection of student work designed to exhibit student’s achievements, which often includes student’s reflective commentaries. While in academia ePortfolios are used to document the student learning process over time, they have been also well received by employers as work portfolios or showcases. This paper provides detailed explanations of two years of implementation of ePortfolio activities in junior and senior level engineering technology courses. The goal of the paper is to present to the community the best practices learned during the implementation and to provide information on how the ePortfolios can be integrated with other course assignments, enhancing the course outcomes but without raising the burden from the instructor perspective. Class material samples are provided in the Appendix. The best received implementation was observed when: 1) scaffolding of the activity was done along the semester and was aligned with the pre-existing course activities (such as test, HW assignments, etc.), 2) the eP project was made optional for extra credit, 3) detailed instructions were provided, and 4) a website template was provided. Introduction Although there is a generalized consensus of the positive outcomes of ePortfolios and ABET has identified portfolios as a way for documenting and assessing student outcomes since 2000, there are still discussions related to storage and administration, time and effort from faculty, assessment, and student participation especially among engineering students (there is evidence that students in vocationally oriented courses are more inclined to participate than in other areas1). There has been a number of engineering college initiatives addressing all or some of those issues in order to successfully implement ePortfolios college wide. To name a few, Rogers and Williams2 presented the results of their implementation in Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology back in 1999. They designed their own ePortfolio system and outlined the stages of such eP development from the initial concept to its testing through a Pilot Project with students at sophomore level. In 2004, when ePortfolios in engineering education was still in its infancy, Knott et al.3 described a pilot implementation in Virginia Tech at freshman level with their own developed system. Sargison et al.4 in 2005 presented the results of the first trial of introducing some form of ePortfolio to 1st year engineering students as part of an initiative of University of Tasmania. It was used for the students to track their development skills and to help them in their career planning. Unfortunately, in all those cases, they just described the initial implementation and nothing on how they dealt with any issues that might have raised during the implementation. There has been also some implementation initiative in specific engineering programs. Christy and Fasina5 compared the eP implementation in two undergraduate biosystems/biological engineering programs, one from Ohio State University and another one from Auburn University. They looked into timing (i.e., how to implement it in a period of time), website platforms, faculty buy-in, and student buy-in. The authors looked at timing by implementing it in a one-time effort in a single course and in a distributed one spread over years and several courses. They noticed that the timing is not a critical aspect on the impact of eP on students. They mentioned that it is more challenging to implement ePortfolio in courses with specific technical content such as Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics. As for student buy-in, they noticed that for some students who find ePortfolio uncomfortable, their motivation can be stimulated by the gain in visibility that ePortfolios bring in front of potential employers, and by the increased success rates in job applications. Goodrich et al.6 implemented ePortfolios in a 1st year engineering program to measure student engagement in the class. They measured the engagement by monitoring the number of ePortfolio hits and logins. They also continued monitoring for 3 years to assess student retention. Unfortunately, none of the ePortfolio program implementations described any issues at specific course level and how they overcame them. There have been implementations at engineering graduate programs as well7,8,9 but the focus of this paper is at undergraduate level, which has a completely different student population. Few authors have published in regards with course level ePortfolio implementation. Pakala and Bose10 discussed their observation on developing content for ePortfolios using mobile learning strategies in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics courses. The students created videos demonstrating course material summaries and problem-solving techniques using iPads. The authors focused only on the student perception of the implementation. Prather et al.11 described their experience implementing ePortfolio in a RF Systems Laboratory, which could be different to an implementation in a theoretical course. Jovanovic et al.12 described the ePortfolio initiative at Old Dominion University and the first eP implementation in a senior course on Computer Integrated Manufacturing in summer 2015. With a single semester implementation, they suggested to introduce ePortfolio early in the semester, provide examples, and links to learn about website tools. In the last two years, the authors of this paper introduced ePortfolio activities in Engineering Technology Courses at junior and senior level at Old Dominion University (ODU). The initial idea of the implementation was to provide students with a tool to better market themselves in front of potential employers, providing a way to display their academic projects and industrial expertise. However, during the ePortfolio implementation, the tool became an extraordinary rich learning experience for the students. Junior and senior level courses were considered for this study, and ePortfolio implementations at this level have been less documented in the literature. In the particular case discussed here, there is also a wide diversity among students participating in the study, including traditional students, students in different age groups (with a large group of students returning to school after a long break period), full-time workers, active military students, veterans, students of underrepresented groups, and transfer students from community colleges. This diverse student body is atypical in most of ePortfolio implementation studies. The main objective of this paper is to share the lessons learned during the two years period of the ePortfolio implementation. Why implementing ePortfolios? The 3 credits courses chosen for the implementation were Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Applications, Heat Transfer, and Air Conditioning Systems. All of them are part of the engineering technology program at Old Dominion University (ODU). As part of the performance evaluation in each course, the course includes a final engineering project where the students must demonstrate their ability to use the concepts learned in the class for solving real world engineering problems. Over the years the feedback the faculty has received from former students regarding the projects was excellent. The latest email from a former student regarding the projects reads as follow: “I wanted to reach out to you and give you a sort of update from a former student. I accepted last Tuesday, and will be starting this coming Monday, an offer from The Bell Company as a Project Engineer. I'll be moving to Charleston, SC to finish up a $24M contract they have with the Naval Weapons Station there, upgrading their Nuclear Power Training Unit. I definitely have to say, and feel free to blast this to all of your current students, the projects you had us complete in all of your courses helped immensely with not just getting the job but feeling comfortable walking into it next week. The HVAC and Heat Transfer courses were incredibly beneficial, as well, since I'll be overseeing massive HVAC installs. Being able to walk into an interview and recite numerous projects you did relating to real world situations showed not just the knowledge, but the determination it took to complete such hefty assignments. So, a big thank you to you for instilling both knowledge and commitment during your courses. I hope all is going well there and I definitely intent on keeping in touch.” The student’s message shows that the students find the projects to be extremely beneficial in pursuing a job. It gives them confidence. Since the class projects have been such a success, and since these projects are the best artifacts to present students’ expertise and capabilities, it is natural to consider them as first choice for an ePortfolio showcase. This is where the idea started, to provide students with a tool to better market themselves in front of potential employers, providing a way to display their projects and industrial expertise.