eLearning Champions: Sonja Andrus, Brenda Refaei, Jo Ann Thompson, Sharon Burns & Ruth Benander

“Individual innovations are good, but team innovations create sustainable and widespread change,” said Ruth Benander, English professor and director of the Learning and Teaching Center at UC Blue Ash College (UCBA).

Benander is joined in her efforts by Sonja Andrus and Brenda Refaei, assistant professors in UCBA’s English Department, as well as Sharon Burns and Jo Ann Thompson, assistant professors in UC Clermont College’s English Department. Together they are demonstrating what it means to be innovative, collaborative and student-centric in this new and evolving eLearning ecosystem.

These faculty members were united by the need to transform the traditional English portfolio to an online platform. They began working on a three-year research project through the International Coalition for ePortfolio research, centered on the implementation of ePortfolios in the BTAS and English Composition programs at both regional campuses.

According to Benander, ePortfolios help UC to achieve one of its primary missions, lifelong learning. Lifelong learning means building connections between all courses students take throughout their time at UC, from freshmen to seniors.

"The ePortfolio is a fabulous way for students to find meaning in those connections," she said. "It creates a more complete and complex picture, and helps them transfer knowledge."

It is difficult for students to transfer knowledge in their classrooms, Benander said, but ePortfolios make transfer easy for them. "It means students learn more, they know they learn more and they can take their portfolio with them and show what they have learned," she said.

Students remained at the center of this team's research when they formed their approach. They followed the "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" movement that is sweeping through higher education, which emphasizes research in the classroom that is then shared with the public. Sharing is the key.

As a result of the team's shared research, Benander said that improved recommendations for implementing ePortfolios in face-to-face, hybrid and online courses are now available in faculty development workshops, individual classes, international presentations and research publications.

These five faculty continue to exemplify what UC's eLearning ecosystem is all about: finding innovative solutions to continue an educational tradition, working together to put forth shared research to benefit the UC community and keeping students at the center of their research, asking them to see what really works. These actions can be described in three words ...

Innovative. Collaborative. Student-centric.