Beyond the E-Portfolio: Connectivity and Communities of Learning in a Virtual Environment

With the emphasis of tertiary education shifting beyond the physical boundaries of the university, it is important to have a means for students to feel connected when they are geographically distant and to connect with their disparate learning experiences in order to make meaning of these experiences beyond individual, solitary reflection. The aim of this three-year, cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional project is to stimulate students to form virtual communities of learning supported by a faculty mentor to explore more deeply how their individual learning experiences affect their development as university students and as human beings. To achieve this, we will create a virtual learning environment, or working e-portfolio, that becomes a tool for mobile communication, social learning and collaboration, in which students coalesce into communities of learning motivated by the challenge of an inquiry-based approach. This will serve the dual purpose of enhancing student learning while also providing psychosocial support when they are physically not present in the classroom. The higher education sector as a whole will share the benefits of having a learning framework and an e-learning tool which work synergistically to encourage conversation, build social and electronic connectivity and puts the collective learning power of a community at its core.

Funding Source: UGC - Block Grant