SPAN 101

ePortfolio: Integrative Learning Framework Guidelines

 

The ePortfolio is meant to show that you can identify what you learned, show how you learned it, articulate how this knowledge fits within your larger learning experience at ODU, provide archival evidence of your skills, and project how this knowledge may be of use to you in multiple contexts in the future. To give you a working context to start building your ePortfolio, below you have a summary of what skills you have developed and how you have applied those skills during the semester.

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Throughout the semester, this course helped you to:

• Increase proficiency levels to communicate in the language of the people with whom one is interacting (Spanish in this class).

• Understand the products, practices, and perspectives of other cultures.

• Identify cultural differences in situations outside of one’s culture. 

• Develop an awareness, sensitivity, empathy, and knowledge of the perspectives of others.

• Withhold judgment, examining one’s own perspectives as similar to or different from those of people with whom one is interacting.

• Act respectfully according to what is appropriate in the culture and the situation where everyone is not of the same culture or language background.

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By:

• Recognizing the multiplicity of factors that influence who people are and how they communicate.

• Investigating and explaining cultural differences as well as similarities, looking beneath the surface of stereotypes.

• Collaborating to share ideas, discuss topics of common interest, and solve mutual problems.

• Reflecting on one’s personal experiences across cultures to evaluate personal feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and reactions

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To give your ePortfolio a direction related to the skills and content you have acquired, here you have a prompt to help you start thinking about the organization and content:

 

Prompt: How has the content of this course affected the way you communicate in Spanish, interact, understand, and perceive Hispanic culture?

 

• Keep in mind the prompt and structure your responses following the sections you have below (Experience, Discipline, Transfer, Integrated Communication, and Self-assessment). Those sections will let you connect the course content with your personal experience and thoughts. 

 

• Answer the questions in each section thoughtfully and in detail; avoid “checking the box” answers, such as “I learned a lot.” For each assertion, explain what you mean and offer support. Draw on your course materials to support your claims, either hyperlinking to documents, pulling in images, or quoting from your material, acknowledging where this content came from. In other words, show your learning through your work as evidence, explaining how this work has influenced you and will support your future goals.

 

• To show the above, respond to each section below with a paragraph or multiple paragraphs. Be mindful that each question asks for you to give specific examples (again, use artifacts to support and show what you say!!!). 

 

• When building and populating your ePortfolio, try to be specific but giving enough information, so it does not sound like a list. You must decide which things are important and meaningful TO YOU and explain them. 

  • First, draft an outline with the ideas and artifacts you might use for each section, and then decide which ones are more critical and deserve to be included in the ePortfolio. Rank them according to how you feel about them, how significant or relevant they are for you.

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ePortfolio Sections

 

Experience: What are experiences outside the classroom that relate to what you have learned in the class (Go back to the essay prompt)? Please consider:

• co-curricular (internships, study abroad, etc.), 

• extracurricular (student organizations, athletics, etc.)

•  personal experiences (friends/family, community service, hobbies, etc.) that connect in some way to the knowledge or skill set you gained from this course that is meaningful to you. Use specific examples.

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Discipline: Which courses, either in your major/field or outside of it, and course materials most closely connect to what you have learned? In other words, how do you see the knowledge you gained from other courses connecting to information from this course? How does this help you understand your own field/major better? Use specific examples.

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Transfer: Can you apply information or skills you have learned in this class to content from another course or a situation outside this course? What would it be and why? Use specific examples.

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Integrated Communication: How have you or could you structure what you have learned or discovered in the class to be of use to you in the future? What is an example of audio, video, images, or other texts that you have found that could effectively work as an example to demonstrate your learning and skills from this course? Either add such an example from your archive or find one and insert it into this essay. 

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Self-Assessment and Reflection: How do you envision this knowledge or skill set being useful to you in the future? Use specific examples.

 

If you want to check some Portfolios for content, check ODU ePortfolio Gallery. A few examples are 1 and 2.

 

Remember that what is important for your ePortfolio is your PERSONAL thoughts and experiences and not so much data or facts from other people. IT IS HOW YOU SEE THINGS AND PUT THEM TOGETHER WHAT MATTERS. 

 

See that all the different set of questions ask for specific examples. Coming up with a sound example is an indication that you understand what you are saying. 

 

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