Portfolio Packing

After the student has completed the course, all records will be kept at the server. The student may copy, download, retrieve, or access his/her records for continuing education or job employment. Since the packaged records can be used as a pass along portfolio or part of a resume for a job application, they will have to get a certificated copy for accountability and highly credible if they are to be presented as an objective reference. In our system, we chose MD5 (Message Digest) to accomplish this goal.

MD5 (Rivest, 1992) was developed by Professor Ronald L. Rivest at MIT. The algorithm can transform a data chunk of any length into a 128 bit fingerprint or message digest. The basis of this algorithm comes from the following assumption.

Two chunks of data will never produce the same message digest, and given a message digest, it is impossible to reverse it back to the original data. MD5's primary purpose is to be used as a digital signature. Basically, MD5 is a way of checking data integrity and is more reliable than other methods, such as Checksum.

To demonstrate the possible usage, a pictogram is showed in figure 5-1, where there are three actors: the course management system with portfolio, the student, and the interviewer. The scenario is as follows:

1. Student packs and downloads the portfolio at the end of semester. At this time, the system generates the MD5 hash and stores it in the system.

2. Then the student goes on an interview, providing the interviewer with the portfolio. The interviewer can use any MD5 validation tool (there is such a tool provided in this system) to obtain the file's hash string e.g.

43b49a3b8ded5da1dd5e6f6136e509ad

3. Next, the interviewer goes to the system's website, and types in the account access code of the student being interviewed without needing a password. The hash string of the student will be displayed.

4. After comparing the hash string for correctness, the interviewer can be sure that the portfolio provided is the one generated by the system without any modification.

Besides packaging the portfolio for students, our system also enables teachers to pack their teaching materials. The packaged data has many useful applications, such as teacher's evaluation and references for transferring to another institute. The system packs different items of data according to whether the user is a teacher or a student.

The system defaults to pack everything into the portfolio, but the user can choose

specific items they want to pack.

Figure 5-1: packaging and application of portfolio 5.4 Learning status report

The process of learning status report is as follows:

Input:

The parameters are scores of quiz, homework assignment, and any other quantified information associated with a student. The scores may be given by users such as teacher or peers manually or modules such as CRS or mastery learning automatically.

Process:

Whenever a quantified value is generated, do the following computation:

1. Compute the each student’s accumulative score by summing the each weighted score of input item;

2. Put the accumulative score into the student record in database;

3. Compute the mean value of whole class;

4. Compute the maximum and minimum score of this computation;

3. Check if the portfolio to see has been modified

1. The semester ends and student downloads the portfolio 2. Provide the

interviewer with the portfolio

5. Take the each student‘s most recent three scores as parameters, then compute whether the trend is toward the positive or negative direction;

All computed data is stored in database.

Output:

Information provided to students is:

1. A graphic view about a student’s accumulative score, the average score of class, and the two bounds of score,

2. a recommendation message to each student, it comes out with the following rules:

A. if a student’s score is always above the average score of class, then giving positive message, encouragement and keeping the learning pace;

B. if a if a student’s score is always above the average score of class, then giving strong warning message about learning and learning attitude and approach should be adjusted ;

C. if a student’s score oscillates over average score of class, and the learning trend is toward positive, then giving positive message, encouragement and tighten the learning pace;

D. if a student’s score oscillates over average score of class, and the learning trend is toward negative, then giving negative message, encouragement and suggest adjusting the learning pace;

Figure 5- 2: a snapshot of learning status graph 5. 5 Portfolio Package Examples

In order to see if the course management system with portfolio functionality can achieve the objectives, the system was applied to an "Electric Circuitry" summer course at an institute of technology in Taiwan in 2004. We used the content of the portfolio from one of the students to look into the packaging content. The packaged content can be divided into following parts:

z Personal information, grades, and teacher's assessment z Teaching content of the courses

z Scores of each test and assignment

z Class discussion, and data gathered by the user

Figure 5-3: portfolio (Personal Information, Scores, Teacher's Assessment) The first part is personal information, grades, and teacher's assessment. On the top left is the time when the portfolio was generated (figure 5-3). Teacher's assessment contains the evaluation and advice given to the student according to the student's performance. The system was designed to pack the portfolio in zipped XML files, which cannot prevent students from modifying the information. Thus, MD5 is added to prevent data from being modified which makes a portfolio with accountability, hence making it a good reference for job interviews or school application.

The second part contains the content the student has learned during the course (figure 5-4). In order to show the content of the learning activity, the teaching schedule and outline must be included, so the reader of the portfolio clearly understands what was learned by the student during the course. During an interview, the interviewer can ask questions according to the course content to evaluate the student’s understanding of the course.

Figure 5-4: portfolio (teaching content)

Figure 5-5 depicts the third part. The system records the accumulated score of each student every time the teacher posts a score. From here we can see that, this student was below the class average at all times, thus the learning advice from the teacher was

"Current grade is lower than average, …" (as shown on top of the figure, it is set automatically by system and can be modified by the teacher). From this graph, one can identify the interval between the highest and lowest score, and whether the student is over or below the average, plus whether or not his/her scores are going up toward the highest or down toward the lowest. If the student's score went from below the average line to over the average line, it means that this student is working harder than the rest of the class as shown by the scores. Teachers can then give appropriate encouragement by analyzing the graph.

Figure 5-6: portfolio (grade analysis and learning advices)

The last parts are class discussion and the files collected by the student, includes all files that are for public or private use. Other supplemental materials related to the course are also shared using this method. The portfolio with file and data collected by the student shows how involved he or she is in the class and what has been gained from the course.

5. 6 Summary

Besides assisting teachers in managing the basic work associated with course management, the major aim of this system is to include every part of student's learning and teacher's teaching into the portfolio, thus making it a reference for the next phase of education or as a supplement for job applications. Compared with most portfolio systems, which are more focused on the cross evaluation of students, and portfolio assessment, our system is more focused on assisting teacher and students in correcting learning attitudes and changing direction during the course. We have also focused on allowing the teacher or student to pack and download the portfolio at the end of semester, and achieving the portfolio's accountability through verification-which is one goal we accomplishment that other systems have yet been able to achieve.

Our system is different from many others such as WebCT, and Blackboard. Those systems focus on integration of administrative systems, so that departments can use the system to manage student activities such as student registration management, teaching content management, administration management, etc. Some systems integrate with publishers and libraries to provide more convenient formats for teaching and learning activities. Yet, these systems usually need school funding and integrative support from all departments on campus in order to function. For schools

that do not have fund or lack the technical support, if a teacher is interested in using an IT based system to enhance teaching activities, there's usually no way to do it. The system described in this thesis was built with the intent of using free software, which lets teachers access them without cost. Also, our system is more focused on the interaction of students, especially on letting students know their learning status instantly so they can correct the direction of their learning, while also letting the teacher know if the teaching content needs to be changed. Above all, our system specifically focuses on the recording of student's learning and the arranging, packaging, and verification of the portfolio, which is what makes it different from other systems.

On the grade management side, our system focuses on grade management, and provides students with current grades and grade analysis, letting students know their learning status. We also implemented the creation of analysis graphs, so students can see their status within the class easily while viewing their relationship to the class’s highest, lowest, and average grade. They can then adjust the pace of their learning, thus increasing the effectiveness of their studies. Finally, the system provides the packaging and downloading function for a portfolio, so that students can preserve a semester’s work, which includes course information, teaching content, course announcements, course discussions, grade analysis, teacher's assessment, and files collected with ease. With the verification mechanism designed into the system, providing portfolio for future reference is the first proposed application in portfolio related researches.

Some of the functions of the system described in this thesis will be improved in the future and new ones will be added as they are developed.

The system now focuses on the simple tools needed by teacher to integrate with a

school's administration system. The system will be further developed to use agent technology to integrate with existing campus-wide administrative systems currently used in schools, so that teachers can utilize some of the information acquired from the campus-wide administrative system, i.e. class lists, handing in final grades, etc.

In the current design of the system only the simple method of checking student scores is used to give learning advice. In a more advanced design, the decision would be more intelligent. For example, if two students get the same score at the same time, based upon their learning history, the advice should be different. This requires checking the differences between the two students' records, and using multiple criteria to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses. This part of system requires further research and more complex design to give students intelligent feedback that more closely matches their individual needs.

Chapter 6

Reflective Journal

6.1 Introduction

Conrad & Donaldson (2004) defined engaged learning as a collaborative learning process in which the instructor and learner are partners in building this knowledge base. Engaged learning is not a new instructional approach. It has been named in different terms such as active learning, social cognition, constructivism, and problem-based learning. All of these emphasize student-centered learning within an instructor-facilitated environment. Chamberlain & Vrasidas (2001) stated that learning is interactive when learners are actively engaged in a variety of activities, and along with their peers and teacher, they are coconstructors of knowledge. Constructivism is learner-centered, assuming that learners learn better if they construct knowledge by themselves (Hadjerrouit, 2005). Von Glaserfeld (1994, 1989) advocated constructivism, and held that “acquisition of knowledge is actively constructed by learners”. One of the major components of an engaged learning approach is reflection.

Reflection can provide insight for instructors on their teaching as well as for students on their learning. Instructors can evaluate the effectiveness of student’s experiences in the course by reflective feedback (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). An effective reflective activity requires students to share a synthesis of the learning experience. Participants should be encouraged to share genuine emotions in a non-threatening environment.

Activities that are done quickly are reactive but not reflective. Ascertaining meaning out of a learning situation requires adequate time to contemplate the experience and

synthesize it within the context of other newly acquired knowledge. The instructor must encourage this contemplation to take place as part of the course and the learner must find time to conduct this reflection. In most cases, asynchronous activities accommodate deeper reflection than synchronous activities.

Blog is a very popular service on the web. People can express their thinking, feelings and experiences on blogs and intend to share with anyone who is interested in this blog. This web-based service serves as a platform of many activities. Engaging students into an active learning environment is an objective of this thesis. Lin & Yuan (2006) brought blog into various teaching activities and found that a positive correlation between students’ learning performance and the number of learning reflection entries on a blog. They found that students who have better learning performance tend to make more reflections on their learning. In this thesis, we will investigate if high level thinking exists in blog-based reflective journals; will thinking levels affect student’s learning attitude, and finally will it result in better learning performance.

In the following paragraph, a brief review of background knowledge is introduced which is followed by methods used for problems stated, then the results of teaching experiment are given. Finally, some conclusion remarks are given.

6.2 Reviews

Chang & Lo (2000) viewed from Von Glasersfeld’s point and concluded that if learners do not actively participate in the learning activity, the learning process is hardly to happen no matter how hard teachers work. From a learners’ point of view, learners should adjust their learning direction by understanding their learning situation through reflection during knowledge construction process. In this way, the predefined objectives are likely achieved. This viewpoint conforms to Yancy’s viewpoint (1998).

Yancy described reflection as simultaneously looking forward (to goal that might be obtained) and looking backward (to see what has been accomplished).

Educational institutions have been implementing 'reflective journals' for more than a decade around the world (Woodward, 1998). Occasionally, people use other similar terms such as learning reflection, learning reflection, log-book entry, diary writing, or simply personal journals. Woodward (1998) developed an assessment procedure through the use of reflective journals and portfolios that allows final semester students to track their growth. In this settlement, students who have accomplished this assessment commented that they have learned more through this assessment than from any other activity. Kember et al. (1999) claimed that successful professionals need to reflect upon their actions has been widely accepted. The reason is that most tasks they perform involve novel elements to which there are no defined solutions.

Accordingly, developing students’ abilities to reflect upon their actions is one of the points that course educating professionals should aim to achieve. Shuman, Besterfield-Sacre, & Miller (2005) explained that reflective journals could be kept electronically and coded using qualitative analysis software. Lin & Yuan (2006) took a preliminary study on using blogs as a platform for learning reflection and found that students are willing to use such a networked based platform. Using blogs as a platform for reflective journal has at least three advantages over the traditional approach: publicity, citation, and RSS function. From Constructionism and a social learning point of view, share one’s own and view other’s journal is part of collaborative learning (Bandura, 1989). It is difficult to share with peers and view a peer’s journal in a traditional paper and pencil approach. In blogs, articles are arranged in an easy to access and easy viewing manner. People may classify articles into folders in a normal way, or in a chorological view. In addition, bloggers are used

to sharing ideas or thinking publicly, and view other blogger’s articles. In such a way, the objective of social learning is achieved. The major difference between blogs and discussion forums is that blogs are a private space in general but belongs to a public domain. People share common space and exchange ideas with other participants at a public area in a discussion forum. In contrast, bloggers publish their articles or thinking on their own blog. A citation (Trackback) function can be used to cross link some articles which have similar content and form a forum. In other words, blogs let blogger be private enough but keeps a flexibility to join a public forum. If any one is interested in someone’s blog, he/she may wish to view an article once it is published.

For example, a student has a very good learning performance, and he/she always expresses deep thought on learning. If peers want to read this student’s article as soon as it is published, then they should always keep watch on this student’s blog. With RSS function, peers can subscribe this student’s blog with RSS feeds; and they will be notified once a new article has been published. The above three advantages makes a blog a better platform for reflective journal than a traditional one.

6.3 Experiment 1

Experiment description

An experiment was conducted at a college in Taiwan. The course period was 18 weeks during the fall semester of 2004 and the course title was The Principles of Microprocessor. The students were junior and Automation Engineering major. There were 76 students, 75 of them male. At the beginning of the course, the teacher requested that students record in their learning reflection blog weekly. In addition, every student was to give feedback to their peer’s learning reflection. The teacher also encouraged the students to extensively study the learning content, and share with

classmates through this mechanism. In order to encourage students to take a chance in reflecting and recording in their learning blog, a reward was promised to all those who participated fully.

The teacher sent students a questionnaire about system usage after eighth week in order to analyze their responses and comments. At the same time, the first assessment of learning performance was conducted. This assessment had two parts. The first part was about the midterm exam and was an ordinary assessment; in the second part, the number of meaningful reflections (messages) or feedback messages each student made were quantitatively counted. The teacher also reminded the students that the activity in the blog was part of the learning activity and would be included in their

The teacher sent students a questionnaire about system usage after eighth week in order to analyze their responses and comments. At the same time, the first assessment of learning performance was conducted. This assessment had two parts. The first part was about the midterm exam and was an ordinary assessment; in the second part, the number of meaningful reflections (messages) or feedback messages each student made were quantitatively counted. The teacher also reminded the students that the activity in the blog was part of the learning activity and would be included in their