Making “invisible learning” visible (Bass & Eynon, 2009, p. 5).
While Information and Communications Technology (ICT) integration has been a key area of concern in the teaching and learning environment from traditional classroom settings to vocationally delivered programs, technology effectively prepares all learners with the skills and capacities required to become capable and competent learners (Fu, 2013). ICT is an integral educational tool in contemporary education to enhance learning experiences (Jimoyiannis, 2011). When describing ICT in education, there are several types of e-learning. In this blog, I will be discussing the evolved landscape of ePortfolios and how it has contributed to my learners’ development of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) skills.
As an Auslan trainer at a largest Vocational Education and Training provider in Victoria, ePortfolios are increasingly being used in our Auslan accreditation courses. Our Auslan accreditation courses are delivered through blended learning with a combination of face-to-face contact and online study. This includes watching lectures online and uploading assessments using the Moodle platform. In view of the fact that Auslan is a visual language using three-dimensional spaces and signs to represent concept (Johnston & Schembri, 2007), Auslan learners’ learning is enhanced with authentic assessments through the use of filmed ePortfolios. The filmed ePortolios composing of a given topic or storyline promote scaffolding reflection in which the learners will be able to revisit, analyse and expand new developed knowledge. Their Auslan skills are utilised in practice as a result of filmed ePortfolios. From here, the learners are frequently engaging in reflective practice. According to Fenwick and Tennant (2004), engaging in reflective practice enables learners to construct knowledge.
In an attempt to reflect, learners may identify and reflect upon strengths and weaknesses which makes “invisible learning” visible (Bass & Eynon, 2009, p. 5). Our Auslan accreditation courses uses a combination of self and peer assessing learners’ ePortfolios to assess areas of strengths and weaknesses. Collaborative learning with the use of ePortfolios has been found to have several social, psychological and academic benefits. With ePortfolios, learners are not just assessing their learning or assessing for learning, but rather assessing their competences, giving feedback and creating evidence of competences. This promote learners’ feeling of competence, relatedness and autonomy, which are essential for creating motivation and wellbeing (Kunnari & Lipponen, 2010). Laal and Ghodsi (2012) expands that collaborative learning promotes critical thinking skills and establishes the diversity understanding among learners and trainers. As a result, ePortfolios provide a rich resource for both learners and trainers to make connections in learning, gain insights resulting in improvement, and most importantly, strengthens identities as learners.
Vocational Education and Training (VET) can also benefit from the use of ePortfolios to demonstrate competence. According to Eraut (2003, as cited in Mulder et al., 2007), competence is the acquisition of knowledge and the ability to apply the knowledge and skills independently. The filmed ePortfolios demonstrates Auslan learners’ emerging technical knowledge and Auslan vocabulary. These competencies can be used to demonstrate that learners are meeting the accreditation requirements (Reese & Levy, 2009).
Additionally, we can use the ePortfolios to evaluate our Auslan learners’ strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments to our teaching, learning and assessment if necessary to ensure better achieve desired outcomes for learners. As Edwards and Burnham (2009) puts it in, ePortfolios provide a “far richer, far more compelling picture of who we are and what we do” (p. 89). Thus, ePortfolios provide an authentic assessment of learners’ learning and performance and the effectiveness of our Auslan courses.
Despite the effectiveness of ePortfolios, learners may find difficult to understand the need for ePortfolios to reflect upon their learning and to create connections with their learning experiences. Douglas et al., 2019 researched the motivation and confidence for ePortfolios and found many learners perceived ePortfolios as useful tool for their studies, however, there were disadvantages experienced by the learners. In Douglas et al. (2019)’s research, learners stated that completing ePortfolios takes an enormous of time and often experience technical issues. There are still opportunities for further enhancements, as stated by Contreas-Higuera (2016), it is essential to provide learners with ePortfolios expectations and technical support. Otherwise, it may have a significant impact on their perception and motivation utilising ePortfolios in their learning.
As a student who have attended three universities in total, I consider ePortfolios as effective learning tools that have effectively supported and pursed my personal learning growth as a Auslan trainer to this day. As Tosh et al. (2005) emphasised, ePortfolios are a learner-focused activity which enables autonomous learning environments and thus foster engagement and motivation for learners. By creating and fostering learning autonomy with opportunities for learners to partake in collaborative learning through the use of ePortfolios, the invisible learning can now be made visible.
References
Bass, R. & Eynon, B. (2009). Capturing the visible evidence of invisible learning. The Academic Commons, 4–29. https://academiccommons.org/january-2009/capturing-the-visible-evidence-of-invisible-learning/
Contreras-Higuera, W. E., Martínez-Olmo, F., José Rubio-Hurtado, & M., Vilà-Baños, R. (2016). University students’ perceptions of e-portfolios and rubrics as combined assessment tools in education courses. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 54(1), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633115612784
Edwards, T., & Burnham, C. (2009). The promise of eportfolios for institutional assessment. In D. Cambridge, B., Cambridge, & K. Yancey (Eds.), Electronic portfolios 2.0: Emergent research on implementation and impact (pp. 29–35). Stylus Publishing.
Fenwick, T., & Tennant, M. (2004). Understanding adult learners. In Foley, G. (Ed.), Dimensions of adult learning: Adult education and training in a global era (pp. 55–73). Allen & Unwin.
Fu, J. S. (2013). ICT in education: A critical literature review and its implications. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 9(1), 112–125. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285059779_ICT_in_education_A_critical_literature_review_and_its_implications
Jimoyiannis, A. (Ed.). (2011). Research on e-learning and ICT in education. Springer New York.
Johnston, T., & Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511607479
Kunnari, I., & Lipponen, L. (2010). Building teacher-student relationships for wellbeing. Lifelong Learning in Europe, 15(2), 63–71. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305544071_Building_teacher-student_relationships_for_wellbeing
Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091
Mulder, M., Weigel, T., & Collins, K. (2007). The concept of competence in the development of vocational education and training in selected EU member states: A critical analysis. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 59(1), 67–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820601145630
Reese, M.J., & Levy, R. (2009). Assessing the future: E-portfolio trends, uses, and options in higher education. ECAR Research Bulletin, 2009(4), 1–12. https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/33329/ECAR-RB_Eportfolios.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Tosh, D., Penny-Light, T., Fleming, K., & Haywood, J. (2005). Engagement with electronic portfolios: Challenges from the student perspective. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 31(3). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253981691_Engagement_with_Electronic_Portfolios_Challenges_from_the_Student_Perspective