Assessment – Page 7 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Academic integrity is defined as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values; honesty, trust, fairness, respect responsibility and courage” (Fishman, 2014). It is a concept that has always been important in higher education but in recent years has garnered more attention around the world as institutions report a rise in plagiarism, contract cheating, and other dishonest practices by students and academic staff.

The Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) has been proactive with a strong educational focus on academic integrity as a priority area of work for some time now. Our efforts include commissioning a literature review into the area (Egan, 2018), designing a suite of principles for embedding academic integrity in assessment design, developing and launching an Academic Integrity Hub for DCU staff to learn more about the issues, and running various professional development events internally and externally. Many of the resources were developed primarily as part of an Erasmus+ project and are all available from the INTEGRITY project website under creative commons license.

Introduction to the INTEGRITY project

In October 2019 the TEU ran an academic integrity awareness campaign over the course of a week, based around the International Center for Academic Integrity’s day of action. We repeated it this year, and with the support of DCU Library, Students’ Union, and academic staff, ran an enhanced campaign during 19 – 23 October 2020. This week-long initiative comprised a number of synchronous and asynchronous online events for students and staff to prompt them to think about academic integrity, understand its importance, and learn about how they can uphold it. You can view the full programme on the dedicated section of TEU website. Although in 2019 DCU was the only Irish institution to participate in the day of action, this year there was a greater emphasis across the sector thanks to the work of NAIN, chaired by Billy Kelly, DCU Dean of Teaching and Learning.

Some of the highlights of the week include over 1,500 students engaged in both academic integrity and library challenges. Almost 350 students pledged their commitment to academic integrity in the collaborative declaration bank. Some excellent examples of student declarations can also be found on the TEU website. Almost 100 staff and students took part in the spotlight panel webinar to discuss the ethics of academic integrity.

DCU and the TEU team in particular looks forward to continuing the conversation around academic integrity throughout the remainder of the academic year with all of its stakeholders.

By Dr Orna Farrell

This short blog post traces the history of the (e)portfolio drawing on a recent publication. It recognises that…

The portfolio is now an ubiquitous assessment in higher education, but asks where does it come from?

The word portfolio’s etymology derives from the Italian word portafoglio. This was a case or folder for carrying loose papers and pictures. The portfolio concept has its origins in Renaissance Italy, where artists and architects collated examples of their work. One early example of a historical portfolio from the Renaissance time are the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. These notebooks were loose folios, later bound together as books.

The Vitruvian Man, one of Leonardo’s Folios. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Over time the meaning of portfolio has evolved from its origins as a case for holding loose papers to other contexts such as finance, government and education. Portfolios have evolved from paper to electronic, from local networks to the world wide web.

Conception of a portfolio on the world wide web, Watkins (1996: 224)

The decade from 2000–2010 was a period when digital technology began to have a wider impact on our everyday lives and educational technology became part of mainstream higher education. The growth of portfolios was a part of this post millenium EdTech movement, with initiatives spread around the world. A shift in focus has occurred in eportfolio research and practice in the last decade; there has been more emphasis on pedagogy and student learning and less focus on digital technology as it became ubiquitous.

It’s a statement of fact that the Covid-19 pandemic forced the higher education system to swiftly go online, and to reimagine assessment. Alternative assessment approaches such as use of eportfolio, blogs, online presentations, wikis, podcasts, and videos became mainstream or the new normal in the blink of an eye. However, the question is…

Will this shift in higher education thinking towards alternative assessment such as use of eportfolio become permanent after the pandemic?

This question will be answered in time, but if you would like to learn more about how the concept of portfolio in higher education evolved and lessons that can be learned for the future, then we invite you to read this recent journal article.

Full article

Farrell, O. (2020). From Portafoglio to Eportfolio: The Evolution of Portfolio in Higher Education. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, (1), p.19. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.574