What Can Schools Learn from LCJVS
LCJVS’ success in leveraging ePortfolio as a career
preparation tool gives confidence and ideas to other
vocational schools that seek ways to help students
articulate their technical skills, demonstrate work
samples, and stand out in the job market. Looking
closely into LCJVS’ ePortfolio implementation, the
following strategies are worth adopting by other
schools.
Involve champion faculty from early on. LCJVS invited
champion faculty, whose class had ePortfolio as a major
component, to the train-the-trainer training. This early
introduction allowed the champion faculty to pilot the
ePortfolio, suggest implementation strategies to the
project leadership, and assist other teachers in
integrating ePortfolio into their teaching down the
road.
Make the career service staff the primary stakeholder.
At each step of the ePortfolio adoption, the LCJVS
career service specialist has played a significant role
in adopting the tool, from creating the ePortfolio
checklist and organizing training, to integrating
ePortfolio with other career preparation activities.
Set up a school ePortfolio checklist and sample
ePortfolios. As described above, the LCJVS ePortfolio
checklist clearly states the sections to populate and
the content to put under each section. The CN team then
populated a sample ePortfolio following the checklist to
put the abstract template into context. These two
resources have been proven effective in guiding students
to create ePortfolios cohesively and consistently. Once
some students have created their ePortfolio, exemplary
ones should be shared with fellow students as more
relevant and concrete examples.
Leverage the CN team’s expertise to deliver orientation
sessions to teachers and students. LCJVS requested
additional training sessions for their teachers and
junior students. The CN team carefully designed and
delivered these training sessions with the client’s
project goals and objectives in mind. Upon completing
the training, all teachers felt prepared to incorporate
ePortfolio assignments in their class while all senior
students walked out of the virtual orientation with a
solid ePortfolio foundation to build upon.
Regular review of the implementation progress with the
CN team. One of the value-added services of the
implementation consultation package is an annual review
of the implementation progress with the CN team experts.
At the beginning of each contract year, the CN team and
the client form a plan for the next year after looking
into existing usage data. The LCJVS team found the
review sessions valuable in keeping them on the right
track and at the right pace toward their goals and
objectives. “The regular review of the portfolio helps
improve what is put out there to make it the very best
possible”, claimed the school project leader.
Schools that are interested in using CN ePortfolio for
career training and demonstrating students’
employability skills, feel free to
reach out to the CN team
for a live demo of the platform, more use cases, and
discussions of licensing opportunities.
