Creating an e-portfolio to evidence your language learning.

This guide should be read in conjunction with the other information available in the MyPortfolio group SMLC assessed e-portfolio help. You will find a files
area and a forum there to ask questions and share information.

Using the e-portfolio for assessment.

You will build up content in your e-portfolio as you go through the first two terms of your course. To create an e-portfolio assessment view for submission
you will have to think carefully about the aspects of that content relevant to telling the story of your language learning to your assessor. Think of the
assessment view as a showcase of your learning journey. It needs to be concise and engaging. Use the assessment criteria to help you to build the best
view for the assessor. Remember your intended audience, some aspects of your e-portfolio may be personal to you and not suitable for the assessor to
see.

Help and support.

The SMLC assessed e-portfolio help group exists in MyPortfolio and we recommend that anyone who is required to submit an e-portfolio join it. Just sign in
to MyPortfolio use this link to join the group. You will be able to share ideas and benefit from easy access to support.

Assessment rationale.

Assessed e-portfolios at the Language Centre are used to evaluate the learner’s awareness of and engagement in the language learning process. We are
interested in how you have acquired transferable skills and insights into your learning. The level of your language skills is already adequately assessed
elsewhere in our summative language testing regime. To do well you will need to demonstrate that you have identified areas of strength and weakness and
make explicit the steps you took to support your learning. We hope that producing an e-portfolio will also extend your digital literacies and further enrich
the learning process. We accept that this is a challenge, but we believe it to be one worth rising to.

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Important components of the e-portfolio.

When you start your course you will be asked to identify your learning objectives. These may be modified as you go through the learning process, which is
fine. Before you submit your e-portfolio assessment view, you should write a short rationale document (see below), insert it clearly labelled into your
assessment view.

Rationale document for e-portfolio assessment view.

Purpose of document:

Students are asked to put together a short document making explicit their rationale for the decisions they have made about their assessment view. This will
help the assessors to understand your approach. Furthermore, this will ensure that you have made explicit the reason/s for including your chosen content.

Nature of document:

The document should be no longer than 300 words and should be produced in English. It must be your own work. It must be submitted in text form. (e.g.
word doc/.pdf/journal entry) and included in your assessment view, clearly labelled Rationale document.

What the document should include:

The document is to provide an overview of the e-portfolio assessment view that you are submitting. It should include:

 how the page meets the assessment criteria.

 important decisions made about selection of material for inclusion.
 a reflection upon the process of language learning from an individual perspective.

Timeframe:

 Students may wish to get started on this document in draft form during the second term. There should not be input from your language tutor but
you may discuss with each other. Review the document and include it in the e-portfolio assessment view to ensure that it is a coherent summary.
 You will submit your assessment view through a course assignment in your Moodle course set up by your tutor towards the end of term 2. Please
allow sufficient time for the submission process, do not wait to submit at the last minute. The deadline for submission is: Term 2 week 9, Thursday
8th March 12 noon.

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The software.

The e-portfolio tool you will use has been branded as MyPortfolio and is powered by Mahara. When you first log in you can use the help link (top right) to
locate some useful resources to find your way around.

Mahara is an open source e-portfolio tool. We suggest that you try out all these possibilities:

 set up interest groups to share and network with other language learners (maybe a Russian speakers learning French group for example)
 export your contributions to fora or assignments directly into your personal space for reflection, blogging and planning of your learning.
 upload your own files or link with your external networks such as YouTube.
 create pages of your language learning experience to share with a prospective employer or your tutor to showcase your progress.

By default, it is a private space where you control your content. You can create pages for other purposes as you try out the potential of mahara. All your
mahara content is private to you unless you choose to share it by adding permissions to other viewers. View permissions can be added to your pages for
external viewers (prospective employers or friends), groups or tutors and these views can be time limited (see the sharing tab).

Technical details.

Mahara has a control dashboard and you will soon find your way around if you experiment. You will also find some short video guides on our
WarwickLanguage channel of YouTube or in the tutorials shared in the help area. Bear in mind that making good use of digital tools such as this will be
useful for your professional development in an age where learning to manage your online identity is an important skill.

Collecting content in your Mahara area:

During Term 1 try to collect examples of key learning moments, for example activities, feedback, interactions. Maybe you will refer to them in a journal
entry, capture what you did as a result to explore an area further. Was this the point where you realised you needed to work on tenses? How did you go
about that? You could also add to your e-portfolio links to the websites you found useful or mp3/mp4 files of you applying what you have learned in a
recorded discussion. You don’t need to export everything you do to mahara, just those moments that you think illustrate your progress through your
language learning. You can include links, audio or video, images and screenshots. It is best to make a habit of adding to your e-portfolio as you go along,
don’t try to do it all at the end of your course.

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During the first term you should focus on collecting evidence of your learning through the Mahara interface, capturing your thoughts and aspects of your
work. These will then be available for you to reflect on and display during the second term when you put your page or collection together for assessment.

In the second term you will reflect on the language learning you have done, write your rationale document and create an assessment submission, usually
made of one page or several pages together, known as a collection. Your tutor will read your Rationale document first and will spend about 30 mins.
evaluating your submission. The e-portfolio should be personal and individual to you and tell an authentic story of your language learning experiences, good
or bad. Take time reading the assessment criteria below in order to understand what we are looking for.

Mahara itself is not designed to hold large files such as audio and video but you can embed or link them from other sources such as YouTube, Sound Cloud,
Vimeo etc. For more information check out the video tutorials we have made. When uploading images we suggest that you first compress them using a free
tool such as Tiny.png .

There are drop-in sessions to support your use of Mahara, these are advertised through the support group. You can also post to the help forum there or
email techsupport.languages@warwick.ac.uk if you need advice.

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Assessment criteria.
This is the e-portfolio assessment form. It will be completed and returned to you by your tutor when the assessment process is complete. Each aspect
assessed carries equal weighting.
Audience awareness, focus
Appropriateness to task
Effective use of e-portfolio
assessment view for conveying the
learning process
Analysis & Reflection
(Why?, So what? Now what?)
student has clearly selected relevant
materials for the purpose of
assessment, shows understanding
of criteria. Page has a suitable tone,
student has articulated and
evidenced their language learning
persona. Assessment view presents
a coherent narrative of the learner’s
journey.
good use of mahara, some
creativity, enhanced with good use
of range of media. Highly authentic,
personal, engaging and thought
provoking, gives the right amount of
detail, assessor can see student’s
personal engagement with language
learning process and efforts made
to address difficulties.
extensive reflection and critical
analysis, develops a clear personal
narrative, shows understanding of
experiences and gives plans for
future language learning.
1 2.1 2.2 3 F little/no evidence of selection, poor
understanding of the purpose of
page created for assessment, page
does not have suitable tone for task,
no real insights into student’s
language learning persona.
Assessment view does not present a
coherent narrative of the learner’s
journey.
1 2.1 2.2 3 F minimal use of technical
possibilities, evidence and
presentation do not enhance the
narrative, difficult for assessor to
follow, seems contrived/ superficial.
Not very engaging and has little
impact, story rambles and seems
too long/too short or disjointed.
Little or no evidence of the
application of learning strategies
1 2.1 2.2 3 F little reflection and analysis and,
mostly descriptive, lacks explicit
personal awareness to apply to
future language learning.