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Faculty Presentations Faculty Achievement
17-10-2023
Google Sites for ePortfolio Google Sites for ePortfolio
Marie O' Neill
Tracy Gallagher
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O' Neill, Marie and Gallagher, Tracy, "Google Sites for ePortfolio" (2023).
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Google Sites for
E-Portfolio: A Pilot at
CCT College Dublin
Marie O’ Neill
EDI Officer
CCT College Dublin
About CCT
• Founded by College President Neil Gallagher in 2005.
CCT is based in college owned premises at
Westmoreland Street.
• Offers QQI validated programmes in business and ICT
up to and including Level 9 of the NFQ
• Blended learning provider status awarded by QQI in
2020. Devolution awarded in 2023.
• CCT has passed stage 1 of the AsIAm accreditation
process to become an autism friendly college
• Member of the Higher Education Colleges Association
(HECA)
• CCT is a strategic partner of Microsoft Ireland
Definition of
E-Portfolio
“A typical learning portfolio may include both academic
materials and personal profiles and may designate some
of its contents as public or private. The learning portfolio,
then, becomes more than a product, a simple repository
of artefacts; it becomes a process of reflection, of
organizing, prioritizing, analysing, and communicating
ones work and its value, which may prompt insights and
goals” (Corley & Zubizarreta 2012 p.65)
"Creating an e-portfolio involves skills essential for 21st
century learning – organising and planning material, giving
and receiving feedback, reflecting, selecting and arranging
content to communicate with a particular audience in the
most effective way." (JISC 2021)
Benefits of
E-Portfolio
✓Assessing learning in a more authentic way
✓Making sense of learning and achievements across
various parts of the curriculum
✓Achieving deeper learning through reflection and
dialogue
✓Evidencing employability skills and attributes
✓Engaging with personal and continuing professional
development
✓Developing lifelong learning skills
(JISC, 2021)
Cited in Farrell, 2020
E-portfolio Platforms
• Mahara
• Digication
• Pathbrite
• Google Sites
• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Padlet
• Pebblepad
• Wix
Advantages
of Google
Sites
✓Recommended by e-portfolio and lifelong learning
experts
✓Free to use
✓User-friendly software
✓Contains a useful gallery template including an
e-portfolio template.
✓Content can be embedded from other sources (Google
Docs, Youtube etc.)
✓Ownership of the e-portfolio is retained by the owner
✓Secure (the owner controls user permissions)
✓Google Sites facilitates interactivity. You can collaborate
with other editors for example.
✓E-Portfolios can also be downloaded into a document
format
Aim of the
Google Sites
Pilot at CCT
To promote inclusive assessment approaches
as part of an institution wide focus on universal
design
To promote authentic assessment approaches
that promote academic integrity, digital and
visual literacy and encourage reflection
Encourage innovation in assessment
approaches reducing reliance on traditional
assessment approaches such as exams
To gather feedback as part of the e-portfolio
pilot process to inform the wider adoption of e-
portfolio institution wide.
Pilot Lead: Tracy Gallagher.
Project Supported by the
CCT Centre for Teaching
and Learning and
Executive Leadership
Team.
About Tracy:
• Business lecturer, CCT College Dublin
• MA in Education, Open University
• MSc in Tourism Management, Technological
University Dublin
• BA Hons in Marketing, University of Glamorgan
• National Forum Teaching Hero Award 2020/2021
• National Forum Digital Badge in Universal
Design for Teaching and learning 2021. Tracy’s
redesign activity replaced a traditional essay
assignment with an e-portfolio using Google
Sites.
• National Forum Digital Badge on Personal and
Professional Digital Capacity 2022
Accessing Google Sites
• Login into Gmail
• Click on the dots in the top right-hand corner
• Scroll down to more apps
Accessing Google Sites
A range of website templates appear including an
e-portfolio template. You can also create a new site
from scratch.
Customise Google Sites Templates
Customise Google Sites Templates
Revision of
Assignment Brief
• During the academic year 2021/2022, the written
essay for the Social Media Marketing module on
the BA Honours in Business at CCT College Dublin
was replaced by an e-portfolio assessment.
• Students create a fictional business and an
accompanying social media plan. Each student’s
learning journey is also captured in their e-portfolio.
Students reflect on the project with their peers by
presenting on their e-portfolio in class. In upcoming
iterations of the assessment, this reflection piece
will be formally integrated into the e-portfolio.
Google Sites: Websites by CCT Students
Google Sites: E-Portfolio by a CCT Student
CCT Student Feedback: E-Portfolio Versus Essay
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-v9XsXxcO3xjAP3S2uF_2FK3A_3D_3D/
✓ 80% of respondents agreed and 20% strongly agreed that “e-portfolio allowed me to record,
evaluate and reflect on my learning experience”
✓ 60% of respondents agreed and 20% of respondents strongly agreed that “e-portfolio is a more
beneficial assessment than exams or a traditional essay”
✓ 70% agreed and 20% strongly agreed that “e-portfolio helped me to produce a more effective
assignment.”
✓ 50% agreed and 30% agreed that “e-portfolio effectively showcased my learning to employers”
✓ 50% agreed and 50% strongly agreed that “Google Sites is an effective e-portfolio platform”
✓ 100% agreed that “there are benefits to e-portfolio”
✓ 70% agreed and 20% strongly agreed that “e-portfolio enhances the learning experience”
CCT Student Feedback
“Using the e-portfolio helped me to showcase my work in
a different way…it would be possible to show the e-
portfolio to employers.”
“Because it's a different way of showing
our business idea. Different from a word
document, it allowed us to make the
idea more realistic, by adding photos
and even videos of our products.”
“I think is a great tool to visualize the entire
project as a summary of your work. It is
easy to navigate, although it could have
more features and options…I totally enjoyed
it and I'm already using it to create more
portfolios of my work life, also personal live.
It is very useful in a professional and
personal way. Thank you for suggesting.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-v9XsXxcO3xjAP3S2uF_2FK3A_3D_3D/
Tracy observed that student grades improved particularly for students who were less engaged formerly or who
struggled with the essay format.
The Academic Literature
“It was decided that Google was the
best option. Not only did it provide
students with a way to develop their
e-portfolios without HTML
knowledge, it also allowed them
integrated access to …Google Docs..
elements that would become very
handy when we started to teach
collaboration and teamwork. The
teaching staff also maintained an e-
portfolio that was open to the
students as an exemplar. The
assessment criteria was made clear
right from the start and included.”
Simatele, 2014 p.869
“The features from Googlesites such
as adding comments and editing
contents provide interactivity among
students and teacher. Thus, this
reduces the passive role of feedback.
In other words, the mechanisms in
Googlesites allowed the feedback to
be returned to the students instantly.
This provides the students the
opportunity to use the feedback as a
basis for reflection on competence
and development. At the same time,
the opportunities for sharing could
also support on-going dialogues with
peers and tutors/lecturer.“
(Huey Zher Ng & Hussain 2013, n.p.)
Recent Developments
Institutional
resources to support
e-portfolio have
expanded
01
E-portfolio using
Googlesites
introduced to CCT’s
new MA in
International
Business.
02
Support for faculty
with Google Sites to
be provided via the
CCT Centre for
Teaching and
Learning leveraging
pilot feedback
03
Student exemplars
are being shared via
CCT’s institutional
repository.
04
Best Practice for
E-Portfolio
1. Identify the clear purpose of
the e-portfolio task
2. Clearly articulate the purpose
to the students
3. Provide front loaded tech
support to students and staff
4. Scaffold student reflection
through the use of prompts
5. Give students support with
reflective writing
6. Give example e-portfolio
7. Design a specific rubric for the
task
(Farrell, 2020)
“The opportunity to
connect theory and
practice through
practical assessment,
which made clear
links to future
employment skills,
could be both
motivating and an
important
component in
reinforcing learning”
(QQI, 2023, p.7)
QQI and Authentic Assessment
References
Corley, C. and Zubizarreta, J. (n.d.). The Power and Utility of Reflective
Learning Portfolios in Honors. [online] Available at:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1082249.pdf. [Accessed 1 Oct.
2023].
Farrell (2020), An Introduction to e-Portfolio, delivered as part of the
CCT Certificate in Teaching and Learning. Available at:
https://arc.cct.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=cert_tl
[Accessed 1 Oct. 2023].
Huey Zher Ng and Raja (2013). The use of Googlesites as a formative
assessment tool [eportfolio] in higher education. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/cicem.2013.6820157.
[Accessed 1 Oct. 2023].
JISC. (2021). Getting started with e-portfolios. Available at:
https://beta.jisc.ac.uk/guides/getting-started-with-e-portfolios
[Accessed 1 Oct. 2023].
References
O Neill, M. and McCarthy, K. (2021). Participant Engagement
with Eportfolio on the PACT Digital Badge: An Explanatory
Sequential Mixed-Methods Analysis. Irish Journal of Technology
Enhanced Learning, 6(1), pp.194–215.
https://doi.org/10.22554/ijtel.v6i1.80 [Accessed 2 Oct. 2023].
QQI (2020) The Impact of COVID-19 Modifications to Teaching,
Learning and Assessment in Irish Further Education and Training and
Higher Education. Available at:
https://www.qqi.ie/sites/default/files/2022-04/the-impact-of-covid-
19-modifications-to-teaching-learning-and-assessment-in-irish-
further-education-and-training-and-higher-education.pdf
QQI (2023). QQI Insight on Assessment Learner Perspectives. Available
at: https://www.qqi.ie/sites/default/files/2023-
09/QQI%20Insight%20on%20Assessment%20-
%20Learner%20Perspectives.pdf
[Accessed 4 Oct. 2023].
