How ePortfolio Transformed our Students, Faculty and Program

1. How ePortfolio Transformed our Students, Faculty and Program Brooklyn College SEEK Program’s “Benchmarks for Success” Martha J. Bell Tracy Daraviras Longfeng Gao Robert J. Kelly Sharona A. Levy SEEK Department Brooklyn College / CUNY http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pub/departments/seek/

2. Why are you here?????

3. What attracted you to this workshop?

4. What do you want to transform in your program/classroom/college?What’s missing? Lacking? Frustrating? What do you wish you were doing/doing more of/stopped doing?What do you wish you knew?

5. What are the BC SEEK Benchmarks for Success? All SEEK students must submit a portfolio assessing their growth in academic, college and personal development at particular points in their college career. These Benchmarks detail the behaviors and skills deemed necessary by the SEEK Department for student success at Brooklyn College. Each individual benchmark requires a “Writing Response” and “Supporting Evidence” of completion. BC SEEK Department, Benchmarks for Success – Freshman Benchmarks brochure, 2009

6. Why Benchmarks? Makes goals of program transparent Encourages students to evaluate their own learning Provides guidelines for student success Puts responsibility in the hands of the learner Establishes forum for systematic, on-going program assessment and evaluation Builds consensus on what is important to program and its constituents

7. Brooklyn College The City University of New York

8. Brooklyn College • 17,094 undergrads • 4-star ranking for academics in 2000 Fiske Guide to Colleges • "America's Best Colleges 2001" by U.S. News & World Report • 2007 edition of America's Best Value Colleges • 2009 Princeton Review’sBest 368 Colleges • 3rd most diverse student pop, Princeton Review

9. SEEK Program • =Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge • NYS legislatively-mandated higher education opportunity program at CUNY’s senior colleges for educationally and economically disadvantaged students • Est. 1966 • Provides special academic, financial and counseling assistance to entering, 1st-time students who graduate from NYS public schools • Comparable programs at public and private colleges (EOP & HEOP) in NY, CA, NJ & PA

10. SEEK Income & educational disadvantage 1.5x federal poverty level Educational disadvantage Ineligible through regular admissions criteria SEEK Benchmarks for Success

11. SEEK at Brooklyn College Comprehensive services from admission to graduation: Admissions Pre- and Post-freshman summer program First-Year learning communities Counseling and CUNY CAPs Financial aid Tutoring/Supplemental Instruction Benchmarks for Success ePortfolios Honors and scholars programs Community service Leadership training SEEK Student Organization Department status 3 FIPSE grants

12. SEEK at Brooklyn College (2009) 854 students 65.7% Female 34.3% Male Ethnicity White – 17.2% Black – 25.2% Hispanic – 24.8% Asian – 32.8% 221 Freshmen SEEK Benchmarks for Success

13. SEEK Program pre-1995 • 25% of the students on probation • Low pass rates on remedial reading, writing and math tests • Low graduation and retention rates • Program under fire internally and externally 1st FIPSE Grant

14. Curriculum Model M. Sobelman and M. Bell, 1977

15. Critical Inquiry • Set of active reading strategies that compel students to preview texts, take layers of notes, and formulate questions • Take control of own learning • Reading as construction of meaning through multiple drafts • Introduced in Pre-Freshman Summer Program

16. Critical Inquiry Method • Multiple reads • Annotating • Questioning

17. Critical Inquiry

18. Critical Inquiry  Benchmarks • Critical Inquiry highly effective • Extended to non-remedial • Drop off seen in 1st year  renewed emphasis • 2nd FIPSE – disseminate CI • Counseling courses unaffected • Student resistance to course

19. DEP FIPSE II: Making the Core a Reality for Disadvantaged Students (1998-2000) 9 Transportable Elements • Critical Inquiry • Multicultural perspective • Core materials • Block programs, learning communities • Collaborative learning • Theme-centered instruction • Tutoring/supplemental instruction • Outcomes/Benchmarks for Success • Summer bridge program

20. Development of Benchmarks • Counseling course • Over time consensus over which issues were to be covered • Counselors had goals but weren’t explicit • “Why do we have to take this?” • Counselors asked to articulate goals • Instructors invited into the conversation

21. Development of Benchmarks • Students to provide portfolio/evidence of achievement of goals • Counselors reluctant to take this on • Solution:  CUNY CAPs  • Instituted Summer 1997 • Pamphlets given out with rewards for completion • Not a success • rewards insufficient incentive • didn’t take it seriously

22. Development of Benchmarks • Summer 1998 • Carrot and stick approach • Consequences to not doing it • No Benchmarks, No Registration • Folder given out along with pamphlet • Structure and concreteness

23. Development of Benchmarks • 1998-2000 • FIPSE II – extend and disseminate CI model • Development of Sophomore Benchmarks • 2001-2005 • FIPSE III • Demonstrating student growth • Institutionalizing benchmarks • Development of Probation and Transfer benchmarks

24. Impressions of Benchmarks

25. Development of Benchmarks • 2005 • Brooklyn College adapts Benchmarks for their First-Year College program • 2008 • Freshman Benchmarks move to ePortfolio • 2010 • Sophomore Benchmarks ⇛ ePortfolio

26. SEEK Benchmarks for Success • Currently • Development of Upperclassman and Transfer Benchmarks • Ongoing revision of benchmarks at department retreats • Sophomore in January • Freshman in June

27. Pre-Freshman Summer Program Introduce Benchmarks Examine, Discuss, Revise Benchmarks May Department Retreat Fall Semester Freshman Benchmarks Sophomore Benchmarks Spring Semester Intersession Department Retreat Pedagogy & IT Discussion SEEK Annual Benchmark Cycle

28. Who reads and evaluates them? Counseling Assistantship Program (CUNY CAP) • Matriculated grad students with bachelor’s from a CUNY college • $10 per hour + tuition waiver for 6 CUNY graduate credits fall and spring semesters • Eligible for health insurance • BC SEEK CAPs all former SEEK students

29. Evaluation Procedure CUNY CAPs meet with Department Chair • Pre-submission • Develop rubrics for evaluation • Norming • Identify specific benchmarks relevant for current academic year • Post-submission • Discuss problems and issues • Identify “best” benchmarks • Evaluate and improve process

30. Benchmarks for Success ePortfolio on Blackboard 8.0’s Expo LX

31. Difference ePortfolio Makes • Ease of use • Ease of access • Storage & retrieval • Ease of editing and changing • Comfort level • Assessment • Showcasing • More collaborative • Highly structured • Format problems • Proofs • Platform • Permissions • Technology difficulties • Cheating easier, but easier to detect

32. Goals of Benchmarks Provides forum for feedback Encourages student responsibility Integrates and synthesizes best practices Allows for flexible, collaborative and comprehensive response to internal and external pressures annually

33. Other Benchmarks: Transfer and Probation Conceptual Framework for BC SEEK’s Benchmarks for Success

34. SEEK Freshman Experience

35. Your response to the Freshman Benchmarks • What questions would you ask? • Which benchmarks do you like? • Which benchmarks seem pointless? • What kinds of proof would you provide for each benchmark?

36. 8th CUNY IT Conference, Dec. 4, 2009 SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

37. SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

38. SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

39. SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

40. 8th CUNY IT Conference, Dec. 4, 2009 SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

41. SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

42. SEEK Department, Brooklyn College

43. Personal Benchmark C - Writing Response

44. Personal Benchmark C - Supporting Evidence

45. Benchmarks & YOU

46. Create your own benchmarks Context: your responses to our initial questions

47. Powerful Tool • Interactive and flexible • Learning process as dynamic not static • Conversation among all stakeholders • Metacognitive • Holistic • Authentic • Model for job/grad school portfolios

48. Pedagogical Tool • Shows learning not just done in class and not just tied to grade • Reflects on total college experience • Connects disparate learning and experience – integrative • Defines what it means to be educated and responsible community member • Makes explicit contract between student and program

49. Greatest Impact (1) • Academic • Monitoring Critical Inquiry • Concrete changes in curriculum and program • Students see connections to other classes • Emphasis on its importance • Generated reflections on own analysis of CI and how and why they were using it • Results: doing better in core, electives and CPE

50. Greatest Impact (2) • Advisement and College Life • “High-impact practices” •  involvement in college •  and more timely satisfying of requirements •  fewer students on probation and more students graduating before financial aid runs out