This paper explores the use of e-portfolios with a group of students studying in diverse locations. The paper considers how such students might be supported in developing their intercultural competence while studying abroad and examines the use of e-portfolios in achieving this.
The benefits of an international exchange programme are much lauded, yet under theorised (Grünzweig & Rinehart, 2002) with an emphasis on language acquisition through immersion and classes and on the acquisition of intercultural competence, using a “grand tour” model (Lederman, 2007).
The “grand tour” model suggests that exchange students will somehow acquire both language skills and intercultural competence, and has been heavily criticised as insufficient (Engle & Engle, 2002; Jackson, 2015; Lederman, 2007; Vande Berg, 2007). The informal learning process that underpins the model is typically neither codified nor evaluated by sending institutions, yet it is at the heart of the student experience (Hoffa, 2002). In fact, Root and Ngampornchai (2013) found that less than half of the institutions who were committed to the development of intercultural competence as part of the international exchange actually measured it, and that those measures were in themselves problematic - largely consisting of pre-and post- departure questionnaires with little qualitative analysis.
The challenge for educators supporting students studying abroad lies in how to develop a programme that allows students to benefit from time spent in an overseas environment, and to reflect upon that experience in a meaningful way, integrating their international exchange experience into a wider framework. We propose that e-portfolios offer a means of such support, helping to address concerns that the exchange experience should be managed by interventions which occur before departure, during the period and on return (Jackson, 2015; Vande Berg, 2007)
Taking a case study approach (George & Bennett, 2005; Yin, 1989), the paper considers the impact of this intervention on one group of study abroad students.
We explore the use of multimedia technology to develop reflective practice in the student group. Specifically, students were encouraged to select the artefacts that best provided evidence of their achievement of module learning outcomes. Such artefacts included short videos, photos, projects completed while studying abroad, even module descriptors form the host university. The real richness of the portfolios, however, lay in the student’s monthly reflections and we began to see, quite quickly, reflective practice in action.
The e-portfolio tool performed all three of Zubizarreta's (2009) purposes: it allowed our students to document their formal and informal learning; students reflected on that learning with a final entry built on monthly entries which allowed them to see the journey they had undertaken; and a mentoring space where students could consider and respond to monthly tutor feedback.
Finally, we conclude that the e-portfolio tool acted as a “reflection amplifier” (Verpoorten, Westera, & Specht, 2011) – essentially a prompt which offers students the opportunity to consider and assess their own learning.
Topics: Assessment and Feedback in a Digital Age , Topics: Digital Technologies in Disciplinary Contexts
