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Rethinking the Competency Portfolio System

The presentation discusses the challenges and solutions in redesigning the competency portfolio system at Olin. It explores student personas, revealing their varying levels of engagement and proficiency with digital tools. The new approach focuses on creating a user-friendly portfolio experience, promoting customization, and enhancing the marketing value of portfolios. Key goals include simplifying user interactions, integrating portfolios into students' lives, and making them appealing to employers. Ultimately, we aim to foster ownership, motivation, and authentic representation of student competencies.

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Rethinking the Competency Portfolio System

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  1. Will: • Lord of PHP • Supreme Chancellor of SQL • Frances • “The Hammer” • Goddess of CSS • Prescriber of Will’s Paxil • Jake: • Ambassador of Human Empathy • Technophobia Minister Rethinking the Competency Portfolio System

  2. Olin Competency Portfolios(or how good intentions went astray) • Demonstrate student competencies • Allow students to showcase their work to employers and graduate schools • Help intra-Olin communication of “cool stuff” • Knowledge management Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  3. The reality • Students don’t like it. • Must enter each entry 3 times • All entries look the same, ugly • Students don’t contribute to it. • Enforcement impossible. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  4. Our Goals • Empower students. • To make the portfolio system easy to use. • Motivating students is essential to make the system easy to use. • Assign grades. (boo) • Make it fun enough for students to do it voluntary/Make it a procrastination diversion. • Make it valuable to the students. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  5. Surprisingly, we turned to personasfor guidance • Jenny Shannon –bread and butter Olinite • Apathetic about her portfolio • No HTML skills, no desire to learn • bioE Often she’s sober Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  6. 2nd Persona • Liam Doyle – Power User • Wants to use portfolio to display l337 H4X0R skills • WoW fiend, level 52 warlock Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  7. 3rd Persona • Michael Huffman –junior professor • Wants to view advisee’s portfolios • Familiar with HTML and web • Not interested in taking time to explain to less e-competent colleagues • Single and searching Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  8. 4th persona • Frank Lin – backbone of Olin’s administration • Wants to view and present aggregate portfolio data • Wants to create user accounts and access for ABET, others • Nickname in college lacrosse: ‘whack-a-mole’ Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  9. Personas do things in ‘scenarios’ • Jenny • Login, create an entry, attach a file, make it public • Liam • Editing existing entries, more complex formatting and privacy options • Michael • Searching the portfolio library by class, subject, advisees, etc. • Frank • Viewing aggregate data, creating accounts Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  10. What we learned:It’s the wrong interaction Old Portfolio System New Portfolio System Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  11. The Manila Folder • Bureaucratic • Minimalism conveyed a lack of concern for quality • Either the same as everyone else, or too much effort • Dump your files here. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  12. The book model(It’s all about ownership) • Students are the authors of their portfolios. • They can change content and the layout. • They pick the cover. • They set the tone. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  13. How can portfolios be integrated into the lives of Olin Students? • Provide varying levels of commitmentand effort(should take as little or as much time as you want) • As little as possible for some • Quick and easy to begin • Use tools students already know • Take as little time as possible • Powerful and flexible for others • Customizable visual appearance, layout • Make it a valuable as a marketing tool Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  14. Implementing low activation energy • One click to make a new entry. • Default full layouts provided.(Pick one of five flavors to start from) • Fill out as much or as little you want. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  15. Implementing Customization • Easy initial customization – pick favorite default layout template • CSS/HTML controlled • First dabbling is changing colors • Change layout properties • Write your own tags. • Hack the code with <!-- --> marks. Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  16. Implementing Marketing Value • Make portfolios polished enough that students will want to show them employers. • Default templates will be professional and functional. • Give portfolios personality (not clones) Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  17. Implementing More Value - Managing Access • Externally accessible! • Manage access • Students don’t want employers to see everything. • Make it easy for external people to use • Individual Generic access accounts -> access one portfolio (put on resume) • Specific access account -> access multiple portfolios Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  18. Unimplemented Features • Searching • Faculty Pages • Basic Layout Designed • Staff Pages • Identical to Faculty Layout but no advisee links • Guest Users • Annual Reports • CV and Resume Uploading Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  19. Implemented Interaction Flow Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  20. Responding to Lo-Fi prototype • Novel browsing technique: • Scenarios didn’t match personas well • Profs care about advisees and aggregate data, not own courses • Manually filling out CV a bad idea • Preview pane unclear • Search functionality unclear Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  21. Responding To Heuristic • Created separate Profile Manager • Added Google-style quick searching • Feedback Added When • Updating or Deleting Entries • Uploading Files • Warning for unsaved changes to entries • Awkward Phrasing/Order for Mass-Editing • Previous/Next Entry Links include the title of the entry • Consistent Use of Buttons for Style Sheet controls Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  22. Responding To Usability Study • Result of Tests: • Mass-editing organized by functionality and creation of a “style manager” page to add symmetry • Related Corrections: • Lack of User Feedback  Added Messages • Highlight entries that were changed in mass-edits + display message on success • Index Page Had Too Much Content at the Top • Added “Welcome” on first login, but removed all large-font static messages • Users attempt to use the links in the preview plane and navigated away from page • Removed links from toolbar shown in preview plane Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  23. DEMO!

  24. Lessons Learned • Limit Information Overload • When interacting with users, be prepared for anything. • Don’t be ego involved in the design – controlled apathy is your friend (see Jake) • The system should provide more feedback to the user than you think it should Rethinking Competency Portfolios

  25. Questions? Rethinking Competency Portfolios

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