Making Connections An ePortfolio Mini-Grant

							   Making Connections: ePortfolio Mini-Grant & Seminar Program, 2009
          General Education, Fine Arts, and Allied Health & Science Programs
                ** Application Deadline: Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008 **
                              LaGuardia Community College (CUNY)
     The Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), US Department of Education


                   http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ctl/mc/cohort2.htm

About the Mini-Grant & Seminar Program
Summary: ePortfolios have emerged as a valuable tool for supporting enriched student learning and new
approaches to assessment and accreditation. Nationwide, more than 250 campuses now use ePortfolio.
LaGuardia Community College is widely recognized as a leader in this growing field. Building on this
momentum and seeking to secure its benefits for students in urban higher education, LaGuardia is pleased
to offer Making Connections: An ePortfolio MiniGrant & Seminar Program, designed to help NYC
metropolitan educators to advance their use of ePortfolio for learning, assessment and transfer.

ePortfolio as a Tool for Learning & Assessment: ePortfolios are a rich educational resource with potential
to benefit both students and faculty. As students build ePortfolios, they collect classwork and reflect on their
learning processes. Examining their learning and manifesting their growth in rich, web-based
presentations, students spotlight their academic progress and personal change. ePortfolio is also a tool for
enriched faculty learning. As students share longitudinal learning histories, they generate rich evidence that
gives educators new ways of understanding and assessing the learning process.

A National Discourse: Currently working with more than 8,000 ePortfolio students, LaGuardia is a
founding member of the Inter/National Coalition for ePortfolio Research, along with Stanford and
Clemson. For the past three years, this network (now up to 40 universities) has studied the use of ePortfolio
on their campuses. LaGuardia’s findings will be highlighted in a Coalition collection, Electronic Portfolios:
Emergent Findings about Learning and Engagement, due out in Fall 2008. LaGuardia’s national ePortfolio
conference, held in April 2008, drew 600 educators from 30 states and 5 different countries.

Making Connections: An ePortfolio Mini-Grant & Seminar Program draws on LaGuardia’s experience
and a growing literature to help colleges and universities in the metropolitan NYC area advance their use of
ePortfolio to support enhanced engagement, learning, and assessment. The Fund for Improvement of Post-
Secondary Education (FIPSE) has provided three years of funding to Making Connections, supporting
faculty and programs at higher education institutions (community colleges through research universities) to
move forward with ePortfolio implementation.

The first year of Making Connections was highly successful. Ten colleges (from Norwalk Community
College to Queens College and St. John’s University) benefited from the program’s resources. Now NYC
area colleges are invited to apply to join the second cohort, scheduled to begin meeting in February 2009.

A Year-Long Seminar program: The Making Connections program supports participating colleges in two
ways. The first is a year-long seminar that helps schools work together to advance their understanding and
use of ePortfolio. Building a dialogue that joins two- and four-year schools, the seminar highlights new ways
to enhance student learning and address issues of transfer, articulation, and assessment. Issues to be
explored include:
o What is the state of the literature on ePortfolio? What are the key questions? Who is leading the field?
What do we know from case studies? What findings and evidence have shaped the emerging discourse?



o How can ePortfolio be used to enrich and transform student learning? What kinds of pedagogies
are most effective in using ePortfolio as a learning tool? How can ePortfolio support integrative
learning strategies? What is the role of reflection? What do we know about the impact of ePortfolio on
student engagement? On student learning outcomes?

o How can ePortfolio be used to support new approaches to assessment? Can ePortfolio be an
effective tool to help colleges and programs meet the demands of outcomes assessment,
accountability, and accreditation? What are the challenges related to this usage? What are
examples of good practice in this area?

o What are the possibilities of student use of ePortfolio for transfer? What would colleges need to do to be
able to recognize and use an ePortfolio in the transfer process? How can colleges begin to facilitate this
usage of ePortfolio?

o What technology tools are available for ePortfolio? What tools and systems are most user friendly?
Most effective for enhanced learning? For assessment? What are the costs involved? What are the
possibilities for use of new Open Source technologies?

o How can an institution move forward in implementing ePortfolios? What are the key questions?
What kinds of resources are required? What models and strategies have proven to be effective?

Led by an experienced ePortfolio faculty/staff team from LaGuardia, the Making Connections Seminar
engages teams of educators in a collective inquiry process. The program’s second cohort will meet
monthly, from February--December 2009, drawing on questions, insights and experiences from
participating campuses and the growing national literature. Participants will use their learning to advance
the ePortfolio work taking place in their classrooms and campuses: setting their own goals, documenting
their innovations, and evaluating progress at year’s end.

Mini Grants: In addition to the collaborative support provided by the seminar process, Making
Connections provides each participating college with a mini-grant of $5,000 to be used to advance
their work with ePortfolio during the first year of participation. Members of participating faculty/staff team
receive an additional $1,000 individual stipend in the first year to recognize their participation and campus
leadership role. (Limit of three per college.) Teams that successfully complete the first year are eligible to
apply for a second year of participation and support. (A mini-grant of $2,500 will be provided to teams
during their second year of participation in the seminar.)

Applications: Please use the attached form to prepare an application for the 2009 Making Connections
program. For questions and assistance, please contact LaGuardia’s Making Connections coordinator,
Susan Lambert SLambert@lagcc.cuny.edu or PHONE ##.


                 Application Deadline: Thursday, November 20, 5:00
                                  See attached materials for more information
        Making Connections: An ePortfolio Mini-Grant & Seminar Program, 2009
                                      Application Materials
           General Education, Fine Arts, and Allied Health & Science Programs

Eligibility:
Teams from two- and four-year colleges and universities from the New York metropolitan area interested in
or already actively using ePortfolio. The thematic focus of Year II of Making Connections is General
Education, Fine Arts, and Allied Health & Science. Teams must include two or three representatives, who
can be either faculty or staff; at least one person on each team must be faculty. We welcome teams from
campuses where ePortfolio is still in the planning stage as well as campuses where ePortfolio is well
established.

NOTE: Colleges with teams participating as Cohort I of Making Connections are eligible to apply for to
include a second team as part of Cohort II, so long as the focus of the Cohort II group is distinct and
appropriate to the thematic emphasis on Fine Arts, Allied Health & Science, or General Education.
(Colleges participating in Cohort I are: Bronx Community College, City College of New York, College of St.
Rose, CUNY Online BA, LaGuardia Community College, Lehman College, Norwalk Community College,
Queens College, Queensborough Community College, and St. John’s University.)

Spring 2009 Seminar Schedule                Fall 2009 Seminar Schedule
Fridays 9 am – 1 pm                         Fridays 9 am – 1 pm
February 6, 2009                            September 25, 2009
March 13, 2009                              October 16, 2009
April 24, 2009                              November 20, 2009
May 15, 2009                                December 11, 2009

Summer Institute
9 am to 4 pm
June 16, 17, 18, 2009

Application Process:
Teams complete application and return to Susan Lambert (slambert@lagcc.cuny.edu) by 5:00 pm on
November 20, 2008. For more information, contact: Making Connections coordinator Susan Lambert
(slambert@lagcc.cuny.edu ). Dean Bret Eynon (beynon@lagcc.cuny.edu) and Prof. Max Rodriguez
(rodriguez@lagcc.cuny.edu), and Prof. Clarence Chan (cchan@lagcc.cuny.edu) can also answer
questions. Application review will be conducted by LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning.

As a part of your application, please provide the following information:
    1. College/ University
    2. Focus Department or Program
    3. Participating Faculty/Staff: name, title, and contact information (mailing address, telephone, and
        email).
    4. Application Essay (See below)
    5. Budget and Budget Narrative (Please detail your proposed usage of the $5,000 mini-grant, using
        the attached budget form.
    6. Commitment to seminar participation. (“We have checked seminar dates listed above and we can
       commit to attendance and participation in program-related learning, collaboration and
       documentation.”)
    7. Signatures of Participating Faculty/Staff
    8. Signature of Supervising Administrator (Chair, Dean, or Vice President, as appropriate)


Application Narrative: no more than 1,000 words addressing the following questions:

     A. Briefly describe your campus’ work with ePortfolio. How is ePortfolio currently used? How could it
        be utilized in the future? What plans exist for advancing this work? What evidence suggests the
        degree of institutional interest in ePortfolio?
     B. What experiences and qualifications do the individuals on the team bring to the seminar? What
        roles do you play on campus that would help you advance the use of ePortfolio? What in your
        background will help you contribute to the seminar and the program?
     C. Why do you, as members of this team, want to participate in this seminar? What are your goals?
        What aspects of ePortfolio most interest you? What do you hope to learn?
     D. If a team from your institution is already participating in the first cohort of Making Connections,
        how will you plan to work together to help advance the project on your campus?


                                      Making Connections Mini-Grants
                                            Budget Information

Please detail your proposed use of the $5,000 mini-grant, using a form based upon the Sample Budget
Form, below. Please include a Budget Narrative to provide necessary information that does not fit easily
into the budget itself.
Category                                 Explanatory Information                     Amount
                                       (Titles, individuals, specific
                                     items, cost-estimate formulas,
                                                    etc.)

Personnel
Salary
Fringe Benefits
Stipend/Honoraria

OTPS
Local Travel
Books and Other Research
Materials
Meeting & Office Supplies
Other (please explain)

TOTAL
Please identify the fiscal agent or office for the grant, including contact information: