Create. Share. Engage.

Dr Bobbi Kamil was Associate Dean at State University of New York, Empire State College, when it was founded in 1971. Together with the founding team, she was instrumental in establishing the vision for the college to provide adult learners with the opportunity to earn a degree by having their prior learning taken into consideration and creating their own degrees.

In this episode we explore the beginnings of that work and the role portfolios played for both faculty and students.

Click through to the episode notes for the transcript.

Connect with Bobbi on LinkedIn

Resources

• 'A prospectus for a new university college: Objectives, process, structure and establishment,' which established the foundations for SUNY Empire State College
• 'Reflections on Origins III The Experience of an Experiment: An Interview with tom Clark' by Richard Bonnabeau in 'All About Mentoring', 2020
• Association of Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL)

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr John Ittelson, Professor Emeritus at California State University, Monterey Bay, has been researching and working with portfolios for many decades. He has an illustrious academic career, working with educational technologies and using them with students to document their learning.

In this episode, John shares stories from his long career and also reveals the roots of his passion for portfolios, going all the way back to the sixth grade.

Click through to the episode notes for the transcript.

Connect with John on LinkedIn

Resources

• Book 'Documenting Learning with ePortfolios: A Guide for College Instructors', co-authored with Dr Helen Chen and Dr Tracy Penny Light
• Association of Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL)
• ePortfolio Action and Communication (EPAC)
• Dr Helen Barrett's extensive portfolio resources

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Kate Mitchell, MEd, works at the University of Melbourne, Australia, as Learning Designer and co-founded TELedvisors, a community of practice for educational designers. In her role as Learning Designer, she is constantly exploring new ways of supporting learners and is iterating over her experiments. Most recently, she's been interested in deliberate and programmatic design for portfolios to integrate portfolios more into the course design.

Connect with Kate

• Fediverse
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Resources

• PARE sessions from ePortfolios Australia
• TELedvisors
• Eportfolio Forum 2023 shortened, peer reviewed paper 'Authentic, personalised, and programmatic: (Re)considering deliberate design for ePortfolios' and slides
• Article 'Reflecting, Refining, and Resourcing: A Framework for Building and
  Supporting ePortfolios in a Post-COVID19 Landscape'
• University of Melbourne's ePortfolio guide
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principles
• TPACK keynote by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler in 2018
• Information about CMALT and CMALT Boot Camp
• Reflective practice: History and frameworks (Tryskiel, 2017)
• University of Edinburgh Reflection Toolkit
• UX journey mapping resources
  • Shift Elearning: Learner Experience Mapping: Personalized 'Learner-centric' experiences
  • Trainingzone: How to use Journey Mapping in Learning Design
  • Interaction Design Foundation: Customer Journey Maps
  • Adobe: User Experience mapping
  • Boagworld: Customer journey mapping: Your definitive guide

Click through to the episode notes for the transcript.

Note: Kate is not affiliated with the Mahara community. University of Melbourne uses a different portfolio platform.

Transcription support provided by kris wehipeihana

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Christine Slade (University of Queensland) and Dr Kevin Kelly (San Francisco State University; Independent Consultant) explore the concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and decolonisation (DEIBD) in portfolio practice, having been members on the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force since 2019. They share their reasons for joining the task force, why DEIBD is important to them, and what learning designers, instructors, and learners can do to incorporate them into their own practice.

This is the second episode with members of the Digital Ethics Task Force.  Episode 12 looks at the principle of 'Visibility of Labor' with Dr Amy Cicchino, Dr Megan Mize, and Dr Sarah Zurhellen.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Christine

• Christine on LinkedIn
• Christine on Twitter

Connect with Kevin

• Kevin on LinkedIn
• Kevin on Twitter

Resources

• Christine's research and publications
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principles
• AAEEBL Task Force webinar on DEIBD (recording)
• ePortfolio Mapping Survey - participate to have your voice heard
• Book 'Documenting learning with ePortfolios: A guide for college instructors' by John Ittelson, Helen Chen, and Tracy Penny Light
• Kevin's book 'Advancing online teaching: Creating equity-based digital learning environments', co-authored with Todd Zakrajsek
• ePortfolios Australia
• PARE sessions from ePortfolios Australia to work on your portfolio
• Shari Bowker's feedback tools

Note: Interviewees are not affiliated with the Mahara community. They use different technologies.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Sarah Zurhellen (Appalachian State University), Dr Megan Mize (Old Dominion University), and Dr Amy Cicchino (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) talk digital ethics in portfolio practice. The main focus is on the AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principle 'Visibility of Labor', and how that impacts educators and students alike.

This is the first episode with members of the Digital Ethics Task Force.  The next one will look at the principle of 'Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Decolonization' (DEIBD) with Dr Christine Slade and Dr Kevin Kelly.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Amy

• Amy on LinkedIn
• Amy on Twitter

Connect with Megan

• Megan on LinkedIn
• Megan on Twitter

Connect with Sarah on Twitter

Resources

• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principles
• AAEEBL Task Force webinar on sustainable ePortfolio practice
• ePortfolio Mapping Survey - participate to have your voice heard
• Folio thinking post by Vicky Suter, inspired by Helen L. Chen's definition shared in 'Documenting Learning'
• AAC&U High Impact Practices
• 3-part podcast conversation on 'Digication Scholars' exploring the Digital Ethics Principles
• WAC/WID Mapping Project
• Upcoming AAEEBL events

Note: Interviewees are not affiliated with the Mahara community. They use different technologies.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Edd Bolton, MA, is Learning Technologist at Solent University in Southampton, UK. He's been working with portfolios for many years now, supporting students and academic in their practice. He's particularly interested in competency portfolios and how to integrate them into apprenticeship degrees to assist students progressing through university and gain the competencies they need for their future job.

Edd shares his practice and why he loves the SmartEvidence functionality in Mahara that allows you to map competency standards to portfolio elements.

Go to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Edd via LinkedIn

Resources

• Presentation on SmartEvidence for an overview of the functionality
• SmartEvidence documentation in the Mahara manual
• Enhancement proposal for SmartEvidence
• Interview by Roger Emergy with Olivia Farrell about employability portfolios at Solent University

Transcription support by kris wehipeihana

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Ingrid D'Souza, MA, holds degrees in Midwifery and Education, and is currently an Educational Designer in the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She has extensive experience with portfolios, both in her own midwifery practice and supporting students and faculty in higher education.

Since publishing the episode, Ingrid has earned her doctorate.

In this interview, Ingrid shares her portfolio journey, how versatile portfolios are, from assessment to employability, digital posters, and connecting students with their own families, making it a valuable lifelong practice that reaches beyond the classroom.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Ingrid via LinkedIn

Resources

• Presentation 'Student Curated Learning - Process to Product' by Dr Zala Volcic and Ingrid D'Souza, MA, at Monash University's Learning & Teaching Conference in July 2021
• Student portfolio examples from Monash University, Faculty of Arts
• Interview with Breanna Edebohls, a student at Monash University in 2021, about her experience with portfolios in the Faculty of Arts

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Maia Miller, BA Honours, is the Accessibility Services Manager at Catalyst IT, where she works with clients and our own teams to train them in web accessibility practices in all stages of the software development life cycle and content creation via various training programmes, peer reviews, and audits.

In this episode we talk about the importance of web accessibility, how you can make media content available accessibly so that it's not just text that you can add to your portfolio. We also talk about Maia's career path and how she got into tech with a bachelor's degree in humanities.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Maia via LinkedIn

Resources

• Catalyst's accessibility services
• Accessibility statement for Mahara
• WCAG 2.0
• WCAG 2.1
• Webaim colour contrast checker
• International Association of Accessibility Professionals

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Bas Bakker, MScBA, is an independent learning designer, working for different Dutch institutions of higher education. He has a long history of supporting and using Mahara for learning and assessment, but also has experiences with other portfolio platforms.

In this episode, Bas shares his views on how his marketing  background helps him as education designer, how portfolios can be better integrated at organisations, and where portfolios are at in Dutch institutions of higher education.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Bas

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Resources

• JISC report 'Learning analytics in higher education'
• Proposal to enhance SmartEvidence in Mahara, with an earlier iteration that shows the spider diagram / radar graph
• Outcomes portfolio (to be released in Mahara 23.04)
• Other proposals for Mahara

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Mandia Mentis and Dr Wendy Holley-Boen work in the Institute of Education at Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand. They have been using portfolios in their teaching for more than 20 years, appreciating the affordances that the pedagogy and technology have in terms of personalising the learning for their students and giving students the chance to bring in their authentic selves.

In this episode, Mandia and Wendy talk about the many benefits portfolios have for their learners and how they help their learners to make the most out of them.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Mandia

• Mandia on Twitter
• Mandia on LinkedIn

Connect with Wendy

• Wendy on Twitter
• Wendy on LinkedIn

Resources

• Massey University's portfolio site
• The art gallery or museum metaphor
• Presentation 'Evidencing course competencies alongside soft skills in ePortfolios to rethink professional identity and employability'
• Mandia's research
• Wendy's research

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward