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LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York is located in an industrial neighborhood in western Queens, the most ethnically diverse census district in the nation. Serving approximately 12,000 matriculated students and 28,000 continuing education students, LaGuardia offers liberal arts curricula; developmental education and transfer preparation; and career education in fields from Travel & Tourism to Nursing. Helping students become full participants in the city's economic and civic life, the College educates New Yorkers from all backgrounds, ages and means. More than 2/3 of LaGuardia students are immigrants; more than 3/4 are students of color. Students come from 158 different countries, from Columbia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Rumania, and Thailand, and speak 108 different first languages. A key part of the institutional mission revolves around meeting the needs of this incredible student body. In addition to our international connection, LaGuardia is a historically Black college and a Hispanic-serving institution, and ranks third in the nation in graduating Latino students. LaGuardia treasures its diversity, and recognizes that it translates into a campus of students who have been traditionally underserved by the educational system. In many cases, this leads to significant under preparation in key academic areas. In 2002, for example, almost 90 percent of the entering student body required at least one developmental skills course in reading, writing or mathematics. Project Timeline In 2002-2003, a dozen LaGuardia faculty in a pilot program tested the viability of Electronic Student Portfolios at LaGuardia. Over 1,100 students in a range of courses began the process of creating ePortfolios. In 2003-2004, 20 faculty from around the college met to begin planning LaGuardia's new First Year Academies for Business and Technology. The Business/Technology Academy premiered in the Spring of 2004. In 2004-2005, the Business/Technology Academy faculty continued in a second pilot year. 20 new faculty from Allied Health and Liberal Arts came together to begin planning 2 additional Academies in a year-long faculty development process. In 2005-2006, the college will continue to expand the Academies, working toward its goal of offering ePortfolio and Academies to all of its matriculated students.
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The First Year Academies/ePortfolio Project The First Year Academy/ePortfolio Project is reconfiguring the student experience at LaGuardia to create an expanded learning community structure that enables all students to move more quickly and successfully to engage with their majors. At the same time, the project launches students on the process of creating longitudinal electronic portfolios that will deepen their learning and help them make meaningful connections between coursework, community, and career. The FY Academy/ePortfolio project brings together the best of LaGuardia's history, drawing on the college's expertise around learning communities, Basic Skills instruction and First Year Experience and combining it with the promising new practice of ePortfolio Instruction and the college's award-winning advances in teaching with technology. Launched in 2003, the program is now moving from pilot phase to broader implementation, and is expected to grow steadily over the next three years. When the program is fully operational, all new students will select one of three academies (Liberal Arts, Allied Health and Sciences, or Business/Technology) and take courses in a learning community designed by faculty to reflect the themes of that Academy. For example, students in the Business/Technology Academy will take three courses in their first semester: Introduction to Business or Computers, a specially themed developmental English course (if needed), and a themed New Student Seminar. In their second semester, these students will take a career development course, the Fundamentals of Professional Advancement Seminar for Business/Technology. In both semesters, students also take a "Studio Hour" where they build electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) to showcase their work in all of their Academy classes. During "Studio Hour," ePortfolio Consultants from the Center for Teaching and Learning support students as they build their ePortfolios. The ePortfolios allow students to bring together personal narrative, reflection, and examples of their work. The ePortfolio serves to integrate the first year experience, helping students to create a comprehensive picture of their learning process. Following their first year, students will continue their ePortfolio work in courses where faculty choose to use ePortfolio and in ePortfolio courses such as Urban Studies and the Capstone in the major. In addition to their websites, students will also add key pieces of academic work to "My Collection," a virtual storage space within the ePortfolio system that will allow the college to conduct program assessment. Building on this work and the broader conversation of the Integrative Learning Project, LaGuardia has also launched a CUNY-wide Research Seminar on Integrative Learning, serving directors of Teaching and Learning Centers and other faculty development leaders. Co-sponsored with the CUNY Task Force on General Education, the seminar will culminate in a CUNY Conference on Integrative Learning, May 6, 2005, hosted by LaGuardia, keynoted by Lee Knefelkamp, and showcasing the work taking place around integrative learning at LaGuardia and across the 17 campus CUNY system. Laguardia ILP Materials& Links:
Poster Session Handout
Handout from the Summer ILP Meeting (2004) for the Poster Session
LaGuardia's ePortfolio Sampler
ILP Action Plan
ILP Summary
ILP Snapshot
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LaGuardia's ILP Team Paul Arcario is Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of English as a Second Language at LaGuardia Community College. He has overall responsibility for curriculum and pedagogy in the Division for Academic Affairs and in that capacity provides guidance for the College's ePortfolio, outcomes assessment, and First Year Experience programs. J. Elizabeth Clark, Associate Professor of English, has been working with ePortfolio and First Year Experience programs since 2001. Starting in 2003, Clark has been co-leading a faculty development process in which faculty teaching as part of the First Year Experience have been receiving specialized training in ePortfolio development. Bret Eynon, Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning, is responsible for overseeing faculty seminars exploring a range of pedagogical issues, from experiential learning to critical literacy to electronic student portfolios. Nakiso Maodza is the Director of the Title V ePortfolio Initiative at LaGuardia Community College and adjunct lecturer of Interactive Multimedia design at New York City College of Technology, an ePortfolio project partner.
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Resources
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ePortfolio Sites: LaGuardia's ePortfolio Site: http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/ Kalamazoo College ePortfolio: http://www.kzoo.edu/pfolio/ Penn State University's ePortfolio Site: http://portfolio.psu.edu/ ePortfolio Consortium: http://www.eportconsortium.org/default.aspx Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis's ePortfolio Site: http://www.iport.iupui.edu/teach/teach_studenteport.htm First Year Experience/Learning Community Sites: Indiana State University: http://www.indstate.edu/fyp/ Stephen F. Austin State University: http://www.sfasu.edu/sfa101 University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu/~fys Valdosta State University: http://www.valdosta.edu/oasis/fye.htm Wagner College: http://www.wagner.edu/admitted/academic/fylc.html The National Resource Center for the First Year In College: http://www.sc.edu/fye/ The National Learning Communities Project Web Site: http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/home.htm Policy Center on the First Year of College: http://www.brevard.edu/fyc/listserv/remarks/gilmartinandsax.htm Useful Reading: Astin, Alexander .W. Assessment for Excellence. Phoenix, AZ: American Council on Education and The Oryx Press, 1993. Astin, Alexander, Lee Knefelkamp, et al. Perspectives on the Freshman Year. V. 1.2 Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource for The Freshman Year Experience, 1991. Barefoot, Betsy O. "The First-Year Experience: Are We Making it any Better?" About Campus, 5 (2000): 12-18. Bass, Randy. "Engines of Inquiry: Teaching, Technology, and Learner-Centered Approaches to Culture and History." Technology and Learning Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide for Using Technology to Teach American Culture Web Site. http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/guide/toc.html Cambridge, Barbara, Susan Kahn, Daniel P. Tompkins, and Kathleen B. Yancey, Eds. Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning. Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education, 2001. Gardner, John, Betsy Barefoot, et al. Guidelines for Evaluating the First-Year Experience. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, 2001. Hankin, Joseph, Ed. The Community College: Opportunity and Access for America's First-Year Students. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The Freshman Year Experience, 1996. Hutchings, Pat, Ed. The Course Portfolio: How Faculty can Examine their Teaching to Advance Practice and Improve Student Learning. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Higher Education, 1998. Matthews, Roberta. "Learning Communities in the Community College." Community College Technical, and Junior College Journal. 57.2 (1986), 44-47. Ross, Jody. "E-mail, Writing and Classroom Community." Technology and Learning Engines of Inquiry: A Practical Guide for Using Technology to Teach American Culture Web Site. http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/guide/toc.html Selfe, Cynthia.Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Perils of Not Paying Attention. Carbonale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999. Selfe, Richard J. with Donna Reiss and Art Young, Eds. Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1998. Yancey, Kathleen & Irwing Weiser, Eds.Situating Portfolios; Four Perspectives. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1997. Yancey, Kathleen, Ed.Portfolios in the Writing Classroom: An Introduction. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1992. --. "Portfolio, Electronic, and the Links Between." Computers and Composition 13 (1996): 129-133. --. "The Electronic Portfolio: Shifting Paradigms." Computers and Composition 13 (1996): 259-262.
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