The place of ePortfolio at LaGuardia is changing and growing quickly. Thousands of our entering students are now using ePortfolio in First-Year Seminars, combining an introduction to their major with “College 101” skills, exploration of goals, and structured educational planning. Building on the FYS experience, academic programs are strengthening existing strategies, and building new ones, for longitudinal use of ePortfolios from the First-Year Seminar to the capstone course.  And implementation of the Integrative Learning Core Competency and Digital Communication ability across curricula is highlighting ePortfolio’s capacity to connect diverse experiences and strengthen student-centered online learning.

In the Connected Learning seminar, participants will actively explore key pedagogical concepts in the field, such as integrative learning, reflective practice, and learner-centered approaches to disciplinary knowledge. They will pursue both conceptual and practical goals while creating their own seminar and course-based ePortfolios and becoming adept users of the Digication platform. The seminar intentionally models a classroom environment in which principles of inquiry, reflection, and integration organize participants’ activities and instructional design. Participants learn about the varieties of ePortfolio practice at LaGuardia and at other colleges, and will spend the Fall 2015 semester preparing a pedagogical strategy for active delivery in Spring 2016. Specific areas of emphasis include using ePortfolio to overcome fragmentation of learning, to enable stronger student connections with faculty, peers, and external audiences, and to integrate diverse learning experiences inside and outside the classroom. The Connected Learning seminar prepares faculty to implement pedagogies with a proven record of raising students’ performance while strengthening their sense of self and purpose, both academic and personal.