Electronic Portfolio Offers HSE Students New Service
HSE has been implementing LMS (Learning Management System) — an electronic system of education process support – for several years. A new service, called ‘Student Electronic Portfolio’ (StEP), which is based on LMS and gathers information about students’ achievements in various fields has been developed by the Administrative Staff Development Programme project group.
Portfolio – a professional step into the labor market
‘University is a place where students not only study and research, but also take part in various competitions, contests or volunteer projects,’ says Sergey Shalamkov, Head of the project. ‘But the university administration usually only knows about the students’ academic life. We decided to create a useful service for students that would capture their achievements in these various fields while at the same time helping the faculty to be better informed about their students, for example, when engaging them in research projects. But first of all, the e-portfolio will enable students to professionally assess their own achievements and to build personal creative trajectories of success. This is the end product that may help them enter the labor market.’
The idea of the service came about during the HSE Administrative Staff Development Programme’s first field seminar in 2015, the project was supported by the Programme Expert Council and developed by a project team including Alexander Chepovskiy, Olga Lukashova, Sergey Konyshev, and Elena Eremeykina. The service is called ‘Student Electronic Portfolio (StEP)’. It is available in the student’s personal account in LMS in English and Russian.
So far, over 100 students have used the service.
How it works
Most of the information regarding students’ educational activities is automatically gathered in the HSE management system, which means it can be brought together into a portfolio. This information includes data on student performance, completed term and final qualifying papers, movement within the country and abroad and the courses studied. The GPA (Grade Point Average), which determines students’ performance in many international universities, can also be calculated in the system.
For students who have publications in scientific journals and who actively participate in conferences, there is an option that enables them to add information about their research activity and include scanned copies of publications, links to publications, etc. Participation in HSE research and project groups can also be indicated.
The ‘Continuing Education’ section allows students to add MOOCs and other completed courses confirmed by certificates.
The following options will be added in the next stage of the service’s development:
- An ‘Internships and Project Activities’ section featuring information about where they did their internships, completed projects, work as a teaching assistant, etc.
- An ‘Awards’ section will feature scholarships, grants, and details of any contests or competitions they have won.
- The ‘Other’ section will feature a variety of activities not included in the previous sections.
Who has access to the system
Students can indicate their academic supervisors for their research, publications and other projects.
Currently study office managers have access to student portfolios, which helps them assess their students when choosing candidates for awards, scholarships, etc.
‘We are discussing the idea of publishing a collection of portfolios on the HSE website,’ says Sergey Shalamkov. ‘I think that a link to personal information (similar to personal pages of HSE Faculty and staff) on HSE website offers a valuable advantage.’
The project group at the Administrative Staff Development Programme and LMS support staff welcome feedback about the service from students and faculty. Please send your comments and suggestions to lms@hse.ru in an email titled ‘E-portfolio’.