Work in progress: using e-portfolios to assess communication skills

摘要

With communication skills crucial to workplace success and communication-in-the-disciplines programs gaining popularity, educators need effective mechanisms to assess student learning in this area. Traditional product-based assessments in individual courses reflect students' mastery of assignments, but provide no means to evaluate their understanding of how to develop documents based on situational constraints or to track student progress and curricular effectiveness across a multi-year program. Portfolio assessments offer one solution, and the advent of Web-based e-portfolio systems provide added gains. This project explores the potential of e-portfolios in assessing both student and programmatic success. Preliminary results of a pilot project suggest that while the interface, which is still in development, has some usability issues, the e-portfolio system, with appropriate pedagogical support, is a feasible alternative to paper portfolios.