Creating an e-portfolio to evidence your language learning.

This guide should be read in conjunction with the other information available in the e-portfolio support course (epsc) in moodle. You will find a forum there to ask questions and share information. Using the e-portfolio for assessment. You will build up content in your e-portfolio as you go through the first two terms of your course. Those who have to create an e-portfolio assessment view will then have to think carefully about the aspects of that content relevant to telling the story of your language learning to your assessor. Think of the assessment view as a showcase of your learning journey. It needs to be concise and engaging. Use the assessment criteria to help you to build the best view for the assessor. Remember your intended audience, some aspects of your e-portfolio may be personal to you and not suitable for the assessor to see. Help and support. An e-portfolio help group exists in mahara and we recommend that anyone who is required to submit an e-portfolio should join it. You will be able to share ideas and benefit from easy access to support. There is also an e-portfolio support course (epsc) in moodle and you will be enrolled on this automatically if your course includes assessment by e-portfolio. Assessment rationale. Assessed e-portfolios at the Language Centre are used to evaluate the learners awareness of and engagement in the language learning process. We are interested in how you have acquired transferable skills and insights into your learning. The level of your language skills is already adequately assessed elsewhere in our summative language testing regime. To do well you will need to demonstrate that you have identified areas of strength and weakness and make explicit the steps you took to support your learning. We hope that producing an assessment page will also extend your digital literacies and further enrich the learning process. We accept that this is a challenge, but we believe it to be one worth rising to .

Important components of the e-portfolio. When you start your course you will be asked to identify your learning objectives. These may be modified as you go through the learning process, that is fine. Before you submit your e-portfolio assessment view, you should write a short rationale document (see below), insert it clearly labelled into your view. Rationale document for e-portfolio assessment view. Purpose of document: Students are asked to put together a short document making explicit their rationale for the decisions they have made about their assessment view. This will help the assessors to understand your approach. Furthermore this will ensure that you have made explicit the reason/s for including your chosen content. Nature of document: The document should be no longer than 300 words and should be produced in English. It must be your own work. It must be submitted in text form. (e.g.word doc/.pdf/journal entry) and included in your assessment view, clearly labelled Rationale document. What the document should include: The document is to provide an overview of the e-portfolio assessment view that you are submitting. It should include: how the page meets the assessment criteria. important decisions made about selection of material for inclusion. a reflection upon the process of language learning from an individual perspective.

Timeframe: Students may wish to get started on this document in draft form during the second term. There should not be input from your language tutor but you may discuss with each other. Review the document and include it in the e-portfolio assessment view to ensure that it is a coherent summary, when you are ready you will then upload your e-portfolio assessment view in your moodle course as an assignement. 2

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You will submit your assessment view through a moodle course assignment set up by your tutor towards the end of term 2. Please allow sufficient time for the submission process, do not wait to submit at the last minute. The deadline for submission is: Term 2 week 9, Friday 12 noon.
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The The software. Included within the moodle virtual learning environment (VLE) Languages@Warwick there is a system called Mahara. You can see a link to Mahara in your profile page under network servers.

Mahara is an open source e-portfolio fully integrated within the VLE. We suggest that you try out all these possibilities: set up interest groups to share and network with other language learners (maybe a Russian speakers learning French group for example?) export your contributions to fora or assignments directly into your personal space for reflection, blogging and planning of your learning. upload your own files or link with your external networks such as YouTube. create pages of your language learning experience to share with a prospective employer or your tutor to showcase your progress.

As Mahara is fully integrated it will automatically contain your profile information from Moodle, you can edit this or make it more detailed if you wish. You will also see links next to work you have submitted in moodle (assignments/forum posts) which allow you to submit a copy into your mahara area as possible evidence for your e-portfolio assessment view. This facility is available to all users of the Language Centre moodle and we hope that you will find it useful. You can create pages for other purposes as you try out the potential of mahara. All your mahara content is private to you unless you choose to share it by adding permissions to other viewers. View permissions can be added to your pages for external viewers (prospective employers or friends), groups or tutors and these views can be time limited (see the sharing tab). Technical details. Mahara has a control dashboard and you will soon find your way around if you experiment. You will also find some short video guides on our WarwickLanguage channel of YouTube. Bear in mind that making good use of digital tools such as this will be useful for your professional development in an age where learning to manage your online identity is an important skill. Exporting your moodle content to your mahara area: When you submit a thread to a forum or an assignment to your moodle language course, you will notice a link next to it export to e-portfolio. Perhaps this discussion was really helpful or you felt that your contribution was a key learning moment by exporting it to your e-portfolio you will be able to use it as evidence of your ability to reflect upon your learning and take appropriate action. Maybe you will refer to it in a blog post, or it will lead you to explore an area further. Was this the point where you realised you needed to work on tenses? How did you go about that? You could also add to your e-portfolio links to the websites you found useful or mp3/mp4 files of you applying what you have learned in a recorded discussion. You dont need to export everything you do to mahara, just those moments that you think illustrate your progress through your language learning. It is best to make a habit of adding to your e-portfolio as you go along, dont try to do it all at the end of your course. 4

Assessment criteria. This is the e-portfolio assessment form. It will be completed and returned to you by your tutor when the assessment process is complete. Each aspect assessed carries equal weighting. Audience awareness, focus Appropriateness to task student has clearly selected relevant materials for the purpose of assessment, shows understanding of criteria. Page has a suitable tone, student has articulated and evidenced their language learning persona. Assessment view presents a coherent narrative of the learners journey. good use of mahara, some creativity, enhanced with good use of range of media. Highly authentic, personal, engaging and thought provoking, gives the right amount of detail, assessor can see students personal engagement with language learning process and efforts made to address difficulties. extensive reflection and critical analysis, develops a clear personal narrative, shows understanding of experiences and gives plans for future language learning. 1 2.1 2.2 3 F little/no evidence of selection, poor understanding of the purpose of page created for assessment, page does not have suitable tone for task, no real insights into students language learning persona. Assessment view does not present a coherent narrative of the learners journey. minimal use of technical possibilities, evidence and presentation do not enhance the narrative, difficult for assessor to follow, seems contrived/ superficial. Not very interesting and has little impact, story rambles and seems too long/too short or disjointed. No evidence of the application of learning strategies little analysis and reflection, mostly descriptive, lacks explicit personal awareness to apply to future language learning.

Effective use of e-portfolio assessment view for conveying the learning process

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Analysis & Reflection (Why?, So what? Now what?)

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