Assignment task: Can you summarize the response instead of using bullet points for the questions?
What do you think of the notion of using a portfolio to evaluate student learning? What is your response to using work products, or samples of learning outcomes, to measure performance, rather than examinations?
Opening Case:
Can you picture a college that assesses student performance but does not use examinations? You would if you were enrolled at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Alverno focuses on liberal arts education for female undergraduates. Since the 1970s, it has emphasized an "ability-based curriculum" that emphasizes abilities such as communication, analysis, problem solving, social interaction, a global perspective, and effective citizenship. The key to making this work is that samples of student performance are collected to demonstrate that each student has mastered the expected outcomes from particular courses and from the student's program of study as a whole.
Central to this effort is the notion of a portfolio. Portfolios have been common in higher education, but only for some students; for example, art, English, or education majors. However, the idea at Alverno is that all students and all majors are evaluated based on samples of student work. There are no examinations-or grades! The university maintains a digital or ePortfolio for every student. This portfolio contains evidence of mastery of relevant abilities, primarily through self-assessment and feedback. Faculty and trained volunteers serve as assessors of the quality of the work submitted. The digital portfolio helps each student to reflect and analyze her learning patterns, and it also serves as a "permanent portfolio"-in digitized, electronic format-and is accessible to her even after she graduates.