Student Portfolio Information Form (SPIF)
Lessons
Learned
Easy Access for Students: Access must be straightforward and easy for
students, or they will not take the time to complete it
Ease of Usage: Simple and clear survey instructions are
important, and it helps if completion of the student survey is imbedded
as part of a course or program requirement (if allowed by
IRB)
Survey Design: A function that allows students to start and
stop the survey makes it more flexible and feasible for students to
complete
The assessment approach requires students to complete a survey,
called the Student Portfolio Information Form (SPIF). The SPIF developed
in the ACE/FIPSE project asks various student demographic and
institution-specific questions.
Section I asks students to list the name and source
of items in the ePortfolio. This allows students to reflect on the
artifacts they are selecting for their ePortfolio, and to assist them in
including artifacts that address all learning outcomes.
Section II includes background information on the
student, such as age, marital status, and citizenship. The results of
these questions can be compared in aggregate to ePortfolio ratings, to
see how students with different backgrounds and experiences are
performing.
Section III can be tailored to institution-specific
questions. These questions can be about institution-specific courses or
study abroad programs, in order to look more closely at the impact of
these programs.
A sample question from section III may ask:
"I have participated or am currently participating in one or more
study abroad experiences (yes/no).
If yes, please check all of the study abroad experiences in
which you have participated (list containing institution-specific study
abroad programs)"
The answers to this SPIF question can be compared, once team ratings
of ePortfolios have been completed, to the ratings of the portfolios and
analyzed to see connections between experiences and the learning that
results from them.
The SPIF used for the ACE/FIPSE project is
available.
Survey Software
Remark software was used to design the ACE/FIPSE
SPIF form. It allows data to be downloaded into SPSS and Excel format
for further analysis.
Other popular survey options:
ACE/FIPSE Experience with the SPIF
When the ACE/FIPSE team designed the SPIF, the team was not sure what
information would prove to the most useful and meaningful in
understanding what influences and contributes to student international
learning. Consequently, the SPIF was designed to capture as much
demographic and internationally relevant experiential and academic
history as possible from students. This is both the strength and the
challenge of this instrument.
Through the ACE/FIPSE pilot of the SPIF, the teams learned that in
its original form, the SPIF was far too long, complex and cumbersome to
have a large number of students complete voluntarily. In fact, only
those institutions that had the opportunity to complete the SPIF as part
of a course or program had a reasonable completion rate. Furthermore,
when it came time to analyze the data supplied by the SPIF,
institutional teams found that they were overwhelmed by all of the
possible data inquiries. Ultimately, much of the data that was collected
was not analyzed, prompting several of the institutions to consider
slimming down the SPIF for post-project assessment work.
Adaptation of the SPIF
It is strongly advised that institutions review and adapt the SPIF to
their institutional context. In its original design, the SPIF includes a
section that is intended to be tailored by institutions to reflect
institution-specific questions on particular courses, education abroad
programs, service learning programs and co-curricular events that
students would have had an opportunity to experience. In addition to
tailoring this third section, teams are also strongly urged to review
the SPIF as a whole. It is not realistic to assume adoption without
adaptation, nor is it advisable. It is best to take the opportunity to
engage faculty and staff colleagues in a thoughtful discussion about
what they really would like to know about your students' background and
their international learning experiences and selectively include
questions from the SPIF in your own institutional variation.
Evaluating your institutional version of the SPIF
After the team has reviewed and revised the SPIF, and before
launching the instrument, it is important to have a survey design expert
look at the survey questions to avoid design errors that might result in
data inconsistencies. After you have piloted the SPIF through at least
two cycles of assessment, it is recommended to evaluate the SPIF
again.
Are you drawing upon most of the data that is collected to further
understand your students and their international learning experiences,
or are you finding that much of the data is not being used?
Alternatively, did you decide initially to use the SPIF for a very
targeted student population and set of experiences and now are
considering expanding to a broader usage? In that case, you may want to
revisit the SPIF and include more demographic questions or ask about a
wider array of experiences. While your team may wish to keep a few
questions that are asked for comparative purposes across assessments,
the primary thrust of assessment for improvement is not about
comparability from one year to the next but rather about gaining
meaningful, directly useful information about students' background and
learning experiences.
Please direct questions about this page to:
jill_wisniewski@ace.nche.edu
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This page last updated on: 09/03/2008
| student surevys, assessment, international learning outcomes ace fipse |
Related Files
Sample_SPIF (Word Document)
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