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Department of Communication Sciences
Case Western Reserve University 1/9/2007
SEARCH FOR ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO TOOL
The Department of Communication Sciences has started a search for an effective E-Portfolio tool, in order to comply with requirements by two accreditation bodies: the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). These two accreditations require two different sets of goals, or outcomes, as a reference on the basis of which to examine the progress of the students. Also, different sets of documents are required as content to provide evidence of students’ competency towards the different goals or outcomes, as well as different sets of rubrics for evaluation of the eportfolios by the faculty. In the following, these different sets of goals, contents and rubrics are reviewed, with some other requirements for the optimal software to choose.
The ASHA goals, as set by the Department in preliminary fashion, are going to be constituted by the nine disorders described by ASHA as:
1) Articulation
2) Fluency
3) Voice and resonance, including respiration and phonation
4) Receptive and expressive language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and manual modalities
5) Hearing, including the impact on speech and language
6) Swallowing (oral, pharyngeal, esophageal, and related functions, including oral function for feeding; orofacial myofunction)
7) Cognitive aspects of communication (attention, memory, sequencing, problem-solving, executive functioning
8) Social aspects of communication (challenging behavior, ineffective social skills, lack of communication opportunities)
9) Communication modalities (including oral, manual, augmentative and alternative communication techniques, and assistive technologies
(for further details on the goals, see attached document: “KASA_SummaryForm.pdf”)
Students will have to provide evidence of their competence in terms of knowledge of these disorders and of therapies for adequate treatment of these disorders.
The content that the students will be asked to provide towards compliance against ASHA requirements, has been defined in a preliminary way as 6 examples of work to include prevention, assessment and treatment, for the student’s choice of 3 child examples and 3 adult examples.
The rubrics used by the faculty for evaluation of the ASHA portfolios are the following:
CLINICAL FELLOW: the student is ready to perform in clinic without supervisor
PROFICIENT: Good performance, but needs supervision
EMERGING: needs more improvement
BASIC: Does not meet standard performance yet
The NCATE outcomes are the following:
Outcome 1: Proactive Scholar-Practitioner Philosophy
Outcome 2: Subject Matter Knowledge
Outcome 3: Child Development
Outcome 4: Diversity of Learners
Outcome 5: Instructional Strategies
Outcome 6: Learning Environments
Outcome 7: Communication
Outcome 8: Planning/Integrated Instruction
Outcome 9: Assessment
Outcome 10: Technology
Outcome 11: Self-Reflection/Professional Development
Outcome 12: Community Involvement
The content that the students will be asked to provide towards compliance against NCATE requirements, is defined in the Department of Communication Sciences Teacher Licensure Handbook, with templates for suggested content (lesson plans, planning forms, experience self-evaluation forms, etc.) at p. 23, 49-51 and 58-64. Also, see attached files: “NCATE Eportfolio sample CONTENT.pdf”, and “NCATE Eportfolio sample content templates.pdf”.
The rubrics used by the faculty for evaluation of the NCATE portfolios are the following (same as the ones used by the Department of Music and Department of Art for NCATE evaluations):
DISTINGUISHED: The pre-service teacher demonstrates advanced understanding and maturity for the outcome, prominently and consistently demonstrating exemplary knowledge, skills and dispositions beyond those seen in a typical entry-year teacher
PROFICIENT: The pre-service teacher prominently and consistently demonstrates an understanding of the knowledge, skills and dispositions for the outcome at a level necessary for success as an entry-year teacher.
BASIC: The pre-service teacher demonstrates a growing understanding of the knowledge, skills and dispositions for the outcome, however further development and consistency are needed in order to reach the Proficient level.
UNSATISFACTORY: The pre-service teacher does not demonstrate an understanding of the knowledge, skills and dispositions for the outcome, and may at times demonstrate behaviors incongruent with those required for the outcome.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
As to the size of the portfolio, the following recommendations have been formulated by the Department of Communicaiton Sciences:
- - Each student will be allowed to upload ONLY at most 45 min of video files (probably in .mpeg or .avi format) IN TOTAL.
- - For audio files, students will have mainly .wav, .mp3, or .aiff, for a total of 80 min recordings for portfolio (at most 150 MB, I think).
- - Students will be allowed to upload only up to 50 still pictures, in format .jpg or .gif.
A total of 380MB space for each eportfolio is required.
A LIST OF THE SOFTWAWARE TOOLS EVALUATED SO FAR AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION IN TERMS OF PARAMETERS OF FUNCTIONALITY TOWARDS THE ABOVEMENTIONED OBJECTIVES ARE REPORTED IN THE ATTACHED DOCUMENT: “TOOLS EVALUATED AND REQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS.doc”