Christine D'Onofrio, CIRCLe 2018

1. LEARNING PORTFOLIO:
FROM PRODUCTS TO PROGRESS
CHRISTINE D’ONOFRIO | VISUAL ARTS

2. ▸ VISA 110: Introduction to Digital Visual Art
▸ 100 first year students
▸ Co-ordinated Arts Program, Media Studies Stream
▸ Cohort program
▸ Approximately 1/2 the class are declared Bachelor of Media
Studies majors in their first year
▸ I have incorporated Learning Portfolios in 2 iterations of the
class, here is my story….
E-PORTFOLIO PROJECT

3. GOALS FOR LEARNING PORTFOLIO
I integrated a learning portfolio to address teaching goals of:
‣transformative learning, wherein individual students activate a
cognitive restructuring and integration of experiences, actions,
artifacts and structured reflection (Mezirow, 1990, 2000)
‣distinguishing and articulating disciplinary methods, overlaps
and differences, and how to best use disciplinary viewpoints in
the interdisciplinary subject of media studies (Middendorf &
Pace, 2004)
‣cultivate student mindfulness of online self-representation and
personal agency, both as a critical dissection of enacting course
content of media literacy, but also generative/productive ways
one can occupy online spaces by personalizing tools

4. ▸ At first, I wanted to stress the reflective process of “learning”
and have students articulate the process of making in the
visual arts.
▸ In recognition of the type of student taking this program,
(embracing of media, wanting a deliberate & purposeful
portfolio set out) I realized I would try to work with their
desires and changed the purpose of the ePortfolio towards
being a showcase
▸ Eventually, the results of the first year led me to go back to
my first focus -reflection, more on this later….
TRAJECTORY

5. FIRST YEAR ASSESSMENT (MOST SATISFACTORY)
The evaluation report indicated the top most satisfactory parts of creating the
portfolio were:
‣ an easy place to showcase/share work/interests (37 of 110 responses)
‣ creative and felt freedom (33 of 110 responses)
‣ the potential role of the portfolio beyond the course (32 of 110 responses)
Select quote from student responses in the evaluation report:
“I really enjoyed the entire process of it; finding, exploring and trying to
communicate my style, interests and work was especially inspiring and helped
me discover different creative aspects and sides to me I didn’t know I had.
Getting to customize and make it my OWN helped my find out the true meaning
of individuality and helped me grow as a designer and artist.”

6. FIRST YEAR ASSESSMENT (MOST CHALLENGING)
The assessment also indicated areas that the VISA 110 students found challenging
were:
‣ developing or obtaining a satisfying/personal project/layout (40 of 108
responses)
‣ technology (limited functionality) (24 of 108 responses)
‣ choosing the right materials/artifacts to post (21 of 108 responses)
Excerpt of student response in the evaluation report:
“Choosing what to put, where to put it and how to communicate exactly what I
wanted was slightly challenging; making it relevant to my audience, and still
keeping the personal/individual touch, and not getting too carried away by the
already existing formats and expressing my own style was hard too.”

7. FIRST YEAR ASSESSMENT (PERSONAL TEACHING REFLECTION)
Upon completion, I found that I need to further consider:
‣ Students used and indicated a desire to use external platforms because it
brought ‘individuality’ yet the slick and gimmicky interface design templates
became a substitute for the students from figuring out how to do this
themselves to meaningfully articulated content. The result was great graphic
work on the part of the external providers (wix gets an “A”!) but not very well
developed considerations on behalf of the students. As a result, process and
proof of learning was limited, and the templates revealed themselves as
lacking uniqueness. For example, there was an abundance of stock images,
wixFree logos, formatting presets, unimaginative headings and lack of
descriptions .
‣ Portrayal of ‘self’ online was not deconstructed, instead perpetuated a
surface level representation. How do I enable a more critical dissection of
what this portrayal means and how to do it, when the purpose of the project
is to create an online portfolio to “display” themselves?

8. 11 Things we Fake in Our Social Media Lives
By: Lexi Herrick
‣ Appearance
‣ Relationships
‣ Partying
‣ Traveling
‣ Food
‣ Diet
‣ Fitness
‣ Babies and pets
‣ Coolness
‣ Clothing
‣ Perfection
HUFFINGTON POST

9. ▸ As a Visual Arts researcher, I engage in the methodology of
process and doing or making to activate new knowledge,
and a Learning Portfolio would be a way for students to
examine the process of making as a research method
Creativity is:
a process
an iterative process
about experimentation, chance and play, therefore mistakes
and failures
activated by self-imposed parameters
exploration of materials
social interaction and communication
a critically reflective process
PERSPECTIVE

10. POTENTIALS
Looking forward, I am excited about the potential of a
learning portfolio in connecting
‣ the maker
the practitioner, learner, maker, reflecting
‣ to the making
learning, communicating process and conceptual
frameworks
‣ and the made
evidence, artifacts, demonstrations
(Jones-Woodham, 2009)

11. RESULTING CHANGES
After much consideration, and in anticipation for the
upcoming year, I decided to make the following changes:
‣ have students use the UBC platform, that way energy
and attention on shallow decisions could be
refocused to reflection on learning and growth
‣ added an assignment to the course where students
would create 10 personal research questions
‣ adjusted already existing curriculum and rubrics to
refocus attention on substance and content rather
than design

12. E-PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT STRUCTURE
Multiple curricular components scaffolded towards the development of the ePortfolio
project, they were:
1st year 2nd year
▸ Preliminary Assumptions
▸ “Looking” Workshop
▸ Analysis Presentation
▸ Post-Reflection
▸ Plan/Map Mid-Term check-in
▸ Final ePortfolio
▸ Preliminary Assumptions
▸ 10 Research Questions
▸ “Looking” Workshop REVISED
▸ Analysis Presentation REVISED
▸ Post-Reflection
▸ Plan/Map Mid-Term check-in REVISED
▸ Final ePortfolio REVISED Rubric

13. “LOOKING” WORKSHOP
After putting the class into groups of 5, I assigned each
group 4 very different ePortfolios to look at as a group. A
couple weeks later, each group member was to chose a
specific “aspect” of ePortfolios to focus on, and present on
the examples assigned specifically to their group.

14. “LOOKING” WORKSHOP
The different aspects with some guiding questions were:
Aesthetic/Formal
What aesthetic and/or formal choices has each person made? What
do these choices say about each person? How wide-ranging is the
spectrum of aesthetic or formal choices—that is, do all the sites look
roughly the same, or are they vastly different?
Self-Representation
How does each person represent themselves, both in a biographic
statement (sometimes called “About” or “Bio”) and through the site
as a whole?
Headings
What is notable about the heading and subheadings that are used?
How does the organization of the site and the categories it uses
contribute to your understanding of each person? How wide-
ranging is the spectrum of heading and subheading choices—that is,
are all the sites organized in roughly the same way, or are they vastly
different? Is there a pattern as to who choose what kind of heading?
Structure
How is the site structured? How does the navigation work? What
does this structure say about the person who has made the site?
How does it work in various displays?
Content
How does the content of the text and images contribute to your
understanding of the author?
Artifact Critique
Choose one object (ie - a piece of work, a work
sample, an artifact) in the portfolio. How does the
artist describe that object? What is notable about the
way they describe their work? What does their
description reveal about their process and approach?
What 'question' do you think the object is trying to
answer? Do you understand what the piece is about
and why it is there? How much do you understand
about the piece by how it is described, versus
imaged? Note: for your object critique, ensure that
you select a complex object – one that has depth and
nuance, one that you can get your teeth into!
Organization
How is the site structured? What does this
structure say about the person who has made
the site? What is notable about the heading
and subheadings that are used? How does the
organization of the site and the categories it
uses contribute to your understanding of each
person? How wide-ranging is the spectrum of
heading and subheading choices—that is, are
all the sites organized in roughly the same way,
or are they vastly different? Is there a pattern
as to who choose what kind of heading? What
kind of language/vocabulary do they use?

15. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
At the start of the class, for purpose of the “why” in regards to the class and
resulting portfolios, I assigned 10 research questions:
Please derive 10 research questions about ideas that provoke or motivate
you, and you have a great investment (care) in towards how one/yourself
can understand the world through them. The questions should be what you
will uncover academically, and also present a contemporary
understanding, therefore it must be relevant to the times we are living in,
and your own interests as they informed by our present moment.
For example, some questions might be:
Why do humans act as if they are above animals?
Can nature ever conquer nurture, and how does this speak to how I understand my
desires?
Can artificial intelligence ever reach the point where it can be creative as humans are?
How has journalism been taken over by social media as a popular source of news and
what does this mean to the content?
What constitutes “equality” of the genders, and can it ever happen?