At the end of July, SLCC staff, faculty and a recent SLCC graduate attended and presented at the Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) conference, held at Bronx Community College in New York. AAEEBL’s mission is to promote portfolio learning around the globe and assist those in the ePortfolio community as well as those seeking to learn more about ePortfolios. SLCC has been actively using ePortfolios for almost a decade and has been participating in AAEEBL to enrich the college’s understanding and experience with ePortfolios.
Kimberly Paur, a recent Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) graduate, represented SLCC as one of five students from colleges and universities around the country who participated in a panel discussion on student ePortfolios. Paur spoke about the value she has found in creating and using her ePortfolio and how attending the conference expanded her view of ePortfolio practice.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to attend the AAEEBL conference to share my e-portfolio along with my experiences on creating and documenting my time in the OTA program and how it has contributed to my development as an OT practitioner.” She added, “I…enjoyed learning about how different colleges are implementing e-portfolios and how e-portfolios are considered a high impact practice.”
Robyn Thompson, assistant professor and OTA program director, said, “Attending the conference…helped increase my knowledge of the uses of ePortfolio, as well as ways to help make it more meaningful to my colleagues and students. I also think that it was really meaningful for the conference attendees to learn from the perspective of the students.”
SLCC’s Engaged Learning Coordinator Lucy Smith said, “The AAEEBL conference helped me understand how students can take academic learning and through reflection and curation via their ePortfolio they can translate this into not only deepened knowledge of the discipline but also into valuable transferable skills for the workplace.”
At the close of the conference it was announced that Salt Lake Community College will be hosting AAEEBL in July 2020. We look forward to welcoming this ePortfolio community to our college.