Executive Summary of Results

We developed a program specific version of an ePortfolio matrix for use in our graduate psychiatric mental health nursing program. The ePortfolio provides students an electronic archive to store and reflect on their didactic and clinical work for each of the nine core psychiatric mental health nursing courses. Additionally, the matrix provides a place for faculty to reflect on student learning outcomes submitted to the portfolio. Within each course, artifacts are submitted on an activity chosen by the instructor as well as one chosen by the student. Each submission requires a reflection on why the importance of the assignment and how it demonstrates student growth and learning. The reflection component is based on a theory of reflective practice and requires the student to conduct a thoughtful and insightful evaluation of their work and themselves as advanced practice nurses. The matrix is currently being piloted in P515 Psychiatric Assessment, and we are evaluating how effectively this learning tool assesses outcomes for individual students and courses.

Need for the Project

The ePortfolio provides students, preceptors, and faculty a place to reflect on students’ work and their intellectual growth by making connections about their learning across multiple courses, situations, and over time. Because we are working toward the goal of making the Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing program a distance accessible program, there was a need for this pedagogical approach to connect the stakeholders who will be involved in the education of our students.

Use of Technology

• How did the project take advantage of IU’s learning environment?
• Did the project lead to collaboration that will help IU improve or expand classroom   and online learning environment?   
• How did the project make use of instructional technology and design?

Faculty worked closely with staff in the Office of Professional Development’s Center for Teaching and Learning to ensure a quality product was developed that utilized the latest technology available. Moreover, we helped discover strengths and limitations of the current existing technology. As a result, the design team made modifications to the ePortfolio matrix to support future needs of faculty.

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

• What student learning outcomes were expected?
• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide  feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration? 
• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.) What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)
• Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

The overall pedagogical approach to student learning was to establish a professional portfolio in which students, faculty, preceptors, and other potential stakeholders (employers, deans, department chairs) could evaluate and provide feedback to the student. Therefore, the outcomes included: using technology to promote productive use of time; creating a convenient archive of student learning; promoting active participation in learning; providing feedback; promoting student-faculty interaction; promoting interaction with peers; and providing for diverse ways of learning. As indicated previously, faculty consulted with two staff in the Office of Professional Development’s Center for Teaching and Learning throughout this project. Because of this collaboration, we were able to create an ePortfolio that could be easily understood and executed by other faculty. In addition, based on the positive response to a presentation of this project at a conference, we believe other schools would be interested in adopting a similar product.  

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

• Fostered depth of learning
• Supported efforts to improve retention
• Fostered  the learning of large numbers of students
• Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments

Due to the limitations of the current technology, development of ePortfolio took longer than originally anticipated. The faculty ideas were actually ahead of the technology during portions of this project. Therefore, we are currently in the pilot phase of the project and evaluation data related to student learning is not yet available.

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of assessment was used?
• How did your approach obtain measures of performance?
• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?
• What were the student learning outcomes?

As previously stated, we are just beginning to evaluate the project. However, evaluation plans include both formative and summative approaches. Evaluation of the project will be based on the Evaluating Educational Uses of the Web in Nursing (EEUWIN) model.  The EEUWIN model assesses three areas associated with education:  Technology Supports Learning; Best Practices in Teaching and Learning; and Program/Course Outcomes. These three main conceptual areas encompass the outcomes described previously. The EEUWIN is a 57-item instrument with both quantitative and qualitative questions and has been found to be valid and reliable in past research.

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues  

     planning similar projects? 

• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
• What tips would you offer?

All of the graduate psychiatric mental health faculty have been instructed on the pedagogical and technical use of the ePortfolio matrix. Faculty were asked to choose the assignment from their courses that they would like students to submit to the matrix. This feedback was incorporated during the development of the matrix, and created an inclusive and collaborative work environment toward this project among the faculty.

This project contributed to the IU knowledge base regarding ePortfolio by helping the developers to understand our needs related to the functionality of the technology. More specifically, we discovered the limitations of the current system and challenged the developers to incorporate and improve the application for future use. Based on our experiences, we would recommend to others before they initiate similar projects, to have a clear vision of what they want ePortfolio to do for students. While the technology may not be able to accommodate that vision, it will help the staff to help faculty create the most technologically advanced product available. 

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?
• What, if anything, would you do differently?
• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?4 May, 2007uggestions would you offer to complete this report?

Our original proposal asked for two years of funding; however, this funding source provided just one year of support. Given our program runs on a two-year cycle, it was not possible to evaluate this project until the end of year two when ePortfolio could be incorporated in to all nine core courses. Moreover, development took longer than anticipated as previously described. We do feel confident that we have created a quality product that is currently being piloted and will be evaluated in the coming year.   Preliminarily, the matrix has been well received by both our colleagues and students, and we anticipate its full integration in our program. We have also received positive feedback from nursing peers from other universities throughout the Midwest region of the United States. They await our publication of these results so that they may integrate similar technology in their programs.

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Last updated: 18 May, 2007

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