College Requires Students to Showcase Work on Personal Web Pages
This fall, Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will require all incoming students to create and maintain a personal Web page--an "electronic portfolio" which will serve as an intellectual archive of students' undergraduate achievements. The Web pages will include examples of work performed at the college, and will showcase each student's major on- and off-campus projects and curricular accomplishments.
While a handful of other educational institutions recently began encouraging new students to create their own Web pages, the Coe College program is unique. Coe College President James R. Phifer says he knows of no other college or university integrating their students' undergraduate experiences using technology in this way. Jonathon Bagley, editor of the trade journal Information Technology in Postsecondary Education agrees that the Coe approach is something new. "It is so different from anything I have ever seen before," he says, "and it's clearly something that other colleges will want to consider doing."
Phifer notes that the purpose of the new electronic portfolios is actually four-fold: To provide students with an archive of their own intellectual achievements and development; to help prepare students for the internship or academic practicum that Coe now requires of all its students; to serve as a more complete student record for advisors, faculty and staff; and to provide the type of evidence used for assessing the effectiveness of academic programs and departments.
The web page requirement is part of a design to assist students in bridging the world between the campus and their future graduate study and careers. "The program is innovative in that it encourages students to maintain and develop an increasingly sophisticated electronic profile of who they are and what they have achieved during their undergraduate years at Coe College," says Laura Skandera-Trombley, vice president for academic affairs.
Diana Patten, internship coordinator, says the Web pages will provide many new opportunities for students seeking internships: "They'll be able to make available examples of their best writing, photographs or other creative work, tape or video from theater productions." Patten notes that students will have control over who can access their sites from off campus, whether that's a prospective employer, graduate school personnel or internship provider.
To speak with Dr. Phifer or any other sources at Coe College, contact Sher Jasperse in the college news office at 319-399-8605 or by e-mail: [email protected]. Jonathon Bagley can be reached at 202-842-5006. The college Web site can be found at http://www.coe.edu
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