University of Peradeniya - A Unique Approach to Develop Both Faculty and Students through ePortfolio

Why UPDN Chose CN

The University of Peradeniya has embarked on a journey to promote personal growth and instill a sense of responsibility and the value of learning in a community of learners. UPDN believes in the power of portfolio-based education in promoting self-directed and self-reflective learning and professional development. During the selection of the ePortfolio tool, “We were trying out several ePortfolio tools, including those that come as part of LMS (Learning Management Systems). However, we were not very successful or happy about their performance and outlook of other ePortfolio products. Augustana University’s CN ePortfolio webinar was convincing for us to consider CN ePortfolio as an option for the University of Peradeniya”, said Roshan, the Head of the Computer Engineering Department at the University of Peradeniya. The university chose CN ePortfolio for several key reasons:

• Ease-of-use: The user-friendly interface of CN ePortfolio, along with Augustana University’s success with the platform, convinced the university that it was the right tool to consider.
• Holistic Representation: Traditional resumes and academic reports often fall short of representing students' diverse experiences. CN ePortfolio offered a solution to showcase not only academic accomplishments but also extracurricular activities, leadership roles, and critical 21st Century competencies
• Career Development Tool: Recognizing the need for career development beyond academics, the university aimed to promote CN ePortfolio as a valuable tool for students to gain a competitive edge in the job market.
• Assessment and Mentorship Tool: Since ePortfolio captures authentic student data about learning and growth, the university envisioned faculty leveraging it as a new tool to assess and mentor students.

Seamless Implementation and Integration

After signing the MOU to be one of the first CN World member institutions in February 2023, UPDN quickly embarked on the implementation journey. The institution-wide ePortfolio initiative was chaired by Dr. Mudiyanse Rasnayaka, Director of the Staff Development Center, and Dr. Roshan Ragel, Professor of Computer Engineering with untiring voluntary support of Dr. Kapila Wijayaratne, Ms. Roshani Fernando and many others. They started by defining the overall project goals, which were:

• To promote the practice of portfolios by adopting ePortfolio
• To encourage the practice of mentoring
• To promote expanding the horizon of learning by incorporating competencies into portfolios and authentic assessments
• To create a community of collaborative learners

In supporting these overall goals, they also identified objectives of the first year and a series of strategies to ensure and measure success along the way.

The solid foundational work done by the UPDN leadership paved the way for the CN team to design and deliver fully customized training. An admin training was first delivered to the university leadership and IT staff, followed by the successful installation of the CN ePortfolio LTI tool into the UPDN’s Moodle LMS. This integration enabled automatic user account and course creation, drastically reducing the IT staff’s system administrative workload and maximizing platform adoption. Subsequent pedagogical training was delivered in March via Zoom. Nearly 50 enthusiastic faculty leads attended this training - some already had experience with other ePortfolio platforms and ePortfolio practices firsthand. Many faculty members were very excited to start building their CN ePortfolios right during the training. The CN team not only introduced CN ePortfolio features but also shared diverse ePortfolio examples and assignment resources (e.g., assignment templates and assessment rubrics) readily for faculty to adopt.

UPDN took a unique way of incorporating CN ePortfolio: implementing the ePortfolio with their faculty and staff as the first step, then introducing it to their students. Through this approach, they anticipated maximum faculty involvement and support, which would lead to the successful utilization of the ePortfolio as a new tool for student assessment and mentorship.

Since the initial pedagogical training, the university has continued to organize and deliver train-the-trainer sessions through its Staff Development Center. By September 2023, more than 100 trainers had been trained. In addition to continuing to train faculty and staff, the university has started introducing the ePortfolio to students. The first group of students were from degree programs where ePortfolio is part of their curriculum and assessment scheme. In parallel, the university is also promoting CN ePortfolio as a career development tool through the career development arms of all the degree programs at Peradeniya. Because of the intuitiveness of the platform and reliable system performance, the scaling process has been extremely smooth with minimal support from the CN team.