Technical writing teachers have always struggled with understanding how to best deal with pedagogical issues including rapidly changing technology, audience construction, and transposing an academic ethos into a professional one. The expanding online world complicates these issues by increasing the pace of digital change, making the potential audience both more diffuse and more remote, and creating a more complex online rhetorical situation. E-portfolios provide a vivid way to examine this complex technological situation, and in this study, the author examines four cases of students creating online portfolios in a technical communication classroom. The author looks at both their e-portfolio process as well as their product, interviewing them to get a sense of how they used rhetoric, identity, and technology in an attempt to form a coherent professional presentation through a technological medium. In addition, the author looks at some issues inherent in e-portfolios themselves that may be applicable to a technical communication classroom, as this medium becomes ever more popular as a way of assessing both programs and the students themselves.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of electronic portfolio building in development of self-directed learning by fostering reflective thinking through electronic journals and by compelling individual to take responsibility and control of one&rsquo / s own learning in a practicum course among pre-service teachers from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Middle East Technical University. A qualitative case study research method was applied to analyze the data gathered from pre- and post-ICT surveys, pre- and post Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scales, interviews, and the electronic journals and artifacts demonstrated in pre-service teachers&rsquo / web-based electronic portfolios. The data were collected from eight 4th grade undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in School Experience course of the English Language Teaching program at METU during 2008-2009 Fall Term. Electronic portfolios, having the opportunity to provide multimedia displays, allow the pre-service teachers to monitor the outcomes of their learning goals and strategies regularly and by monitoring their studies and reflections they review their own work and have a chance to evaluate their learning and teaching process. Essentially, portfolios transfer the responsibility of learning and decision making to the student with its dynamic process / when students are required to reflect on the information they acquire and on how they acquire this information, they begin to accept their learning practice as a process under their control. This study recognizes the notion that information and communication technologies are crucial to teacher education for both learning and teaching / and takes the constructivist stance that using ICTs tools, mainly electronic portfolios in this case, enhances reflective thinking, authentic self-assessment, self-management, and ownership over learning process and facilitates technological competence which all in all foster self-direction in learning.

Co-chairs: Dr. Donna Baumbach Dr. Gail West Background: Electronic portfolios are increasingly used to make critical decisions about teacher candidates and program accreditation. Adoption rates for portfolios are at nearly 90% for schools, colleges, and departments of education (Salzman, Denner, & Harris, 2002). Over 50% of institutions who rated themselves or were nominated by others as exemplary users of electronic portfolios use web-based database-driven electronic portfolio systems (Strudler & Wetzel, 2005b; Wetzel & Strudler, 2005b). There is a paucity of theory-driven, systematic, rigorous research on electronic portfolios and a need for in-depth, context-aware research on such initiatives. Purpose: To explicate the differential impact of different portfolios systems on preservice teachers. The overarching research question was, "What are the preservice teachers' experiences using tools to create an electronic portfolio?" Setting: The Teachers College at a large university and the Education Department at a small liberal arts college. Participants: Six preservice teachers at each institution served as key participants. Informal interviews with numerous other participants provided additional data. Research Design: Qualitative multi-site case study informed by Engeström's Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 1987). Data Collection and Analysis: Document analysis, focus group interviews, individual interviews, thinkaloud work sessions, and lab and classroom observations provided data. Qualitative data analysis was informed by Creswell's "data analysis spiral" and Engeström's CHAT. Findings: Visits at both institutions presented several of the key ideas in the CHAT framework including the networked nature of activity, the portfolio as a boundary activity, contradictions within the portfolio activity, and changes to the portfolio activity system. Additional themes included transition, creativity, reflection, and resources.

Three education reform themes concerning the preparation. of teachers for the 21st Century converge in this study: teacher accountability to professional certification standards, authentic assessment, and the use of advanced technologies. The question of how to use technology effectively in the assessment of teacher candidates to demonstrate achievement of course objectives based on state certification standards led to the development of the electronic portfolio project in a small university teacher credential program. The process of preparing an electronic portfolio using computer and multimedia technology was examined from the perspective of twelve teacher candidates enrolled in a multiple subject reading methods classes. This research was a multiple case study in which qualitative data was obtained through open-ended interviews with the teacher candidates, the course professor, and the computer lab technician, as well as through analysis of the electronic portfolio product. Whether the electronic portfolio could be considered an effective tool for documenting teacher candidate performance and the achievement of course objectives was the primary question investigated in this study. Themes and patterns that emerged from interviews, portfolio reflections, and field records kept by the researcher were examined through Ethnograph, a qualitative data software analysis program, in order to gather information concerning the teacher candidate's experience of collecting and preserving digital artifacts to be used as evidence of demonstrating competencies. The teacher candidate's perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the software and hardware problems encountered during the electronic portfolio process, were explored. Written reflections within the electronic portfolio framework were examined to gain insight into the student's process of self-reflection and self-assessment. A computer literacy questionnaire was administered prior to the study in order to determine previous experience with and attitude toward technology. The researcher's process of creating templates in hypertext markup language (HTML) and Hyperstudio, a multimedia authoring software program, provided further insight into the design and implementation of the electronic portfolio project.

Little research has been undertaken investigating e-portfolios as a strategy in the development of self-directed learning skills in young learners. This dissertation aims to contribute to this area of research. Self-directed learning is considered an important skill in assisting learners to prepare for a future where the skill set required is undetermined for many roles. Eportfolios have been shown to assist students in development of their reflective thinking and self-assessment skills. Self-assessment and reflection are both key skills in selfdirected learners. Research into e-portfolios has primarily been focused at tertiary level and has not focused on the development of the indicators of self-directed learning. This study is a qualitative case study of four Year 1 students which takes place over three months at a private international school in Hong Kong. The intervention (eportfolio) was introduced into the context of expressive oral reading. Each student produced an e-portfolio documenting their learning. The indicators of self-directed learning were assessed prior to the intervention, during and post intervention through interviews, document and observations. Results strongly indicated that e-portfolios were effective in developing selfdirected learning skills. In particular there was a clear emergence of the indicators intrinsic motivation, self-assessment, ownership of learning and celebration of learning. Surprisingly creativity, self-confidence, and self-esteem also emerged to significant levels. It was concluded that e-portfolios were an effective way to develop self-directed learning skills. It is recommended that e-portfolios are used with young learners as an effective way of engaging students in their own learning process. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning in higher education. The use of technology in higher education, particularly in the ODL environment, has brought some changes on how we teach and assess students. The traditional assessment practices needed to be reviewed and reconfigured to meet the requirements of the 21st century assessment practices. The purpose of this doctoral study was to design a framework to guide the assessment of an E-portfolio as an alternative assessment approach in an ODL context. The integrated theoretical framework of the learning theories (behaviourism, cognitive and constructivist) and the ODL theories (connectivist, online collaborative and self-directed) underpinned the study. This integrated framework explored lecturer and student experiences in the use of Eportfolio, as an alternative assessment to enhance self-directed learning. In striving to get in-depth insight into this study, the pragmatism paradigm, which calls for the mixed methods research design, was employed for the collection and analysis of data. The sample was drawn from a cohort of six participants and fifty-six respondents in the three colleges of the university. This sequential exploratory mixed methods design employed semi-structured interviews, document analysis for qualitative data collection while a Likert scale of an online questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. The findings of this research indicated that the E-portfolio can be of greater use as an alternative assessment approach and was able to empower students with higher order thinking skills, critical thinking skills and self-directed learning equipping them with the 21st century skills. Several challenges were experienced during the implementation of the E-portfolio, which included lack of digital literacies and technical assistance, nonsynchronisation of the learning management system for hosting E-portfolio (myUnisa), UNISA’s policies which do not include E-portfolio assessment processes and procedures. In conclusion, the literature study, the findings of the empirical research and the recommendation of this study formed the basis for designing the framework to guide the assessment of an E-portfolio as an alternative assessment strategy for an ODL context. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / Ph. D. (Curriculum Studies)