We’ve heard from several of our clients that there’s a need for better end-user instructions for interacting with the matrix model in OSP. The matrix isn't the only area in need of explanation. Here are some suggestions for understanding the OSP interface:
There are usually two groups of people involved in ePortfolios. Each group has a different role. Portfolio coordinators design the portfolio process. Portfolio participants create and revise their own portfolios according to the coordinators' design. Coordinators are often faculty or project administrators and participants are often students.
1. Forms
Regardless of your role, you can't start using OSP without forms that gather data. Unfortunately, prepackaged forms don't come with OSP (the current OSP library has very few). Coordinators must plan and create them, then the forms are used to gather portfolio data. The lack of forms has been a barrier for those who wish to get started with OSP. [Contact Longsight for help with this design and implementation process].
2. Wizards
Then come wizards. Wizards are simply guides for using forms to gather data. Portfolio coordinators usually design and create wizards with the wizard tool in Sakai. Wizards define the order in which forms appear. For example, a simple sequential wizard could present three forms in order – one form to gather personal information (name, address, etc), another form that gathers a statement of work, and finally a form into which the participant enters a reflection on their experience. Ultimately, the portfolio participant runs the wizard to guide their entry of the data.
3. Matrices
Many portfolio projects are based on gathering diverse types of information from participants over an extended period of time. In fact, most portfolio projects can't use one, simple wizard to gather all the data needed for a meaningful program. Most portfolio projects will be based on many wizards, and while it is possible to name or number wizards in some logical sequence (wizard one, week one, etc), a more visual tool for organizing wizards is in order. It is called the matrix.
Each matrix is made up of cells (two by two, ten by three, and so forth) and there's a tool in Sakai for creating matrices of nearly any size. The key is to recognize that each cell of the matrix presents one or more data gathering forms. It's simple, really. Forms gather data. Wizards put forms in order. Matrices put forms in a visual order.
You can set up a matrix so that your portfolio participants can gather data (artifacts, statements, reflections….virtually anything digital) they want at any time simply by clicking on a cell in a matrix that you, as coordinator, have designed and published. Or you can require your participants to complete all the cells in the first row of your matrix before they can move to the forms in the cells in the second row. The same control by columns is possible, and you can even require that their entries be evaluated before they can move on to the next steps in filling out the wizards in the cells of your matrix. (Word of caution: if you’re running any evaluations, you must have set up evaluation forms and specified a list of users that have the evaluator role. If you don’t, “submit for evaluation” is a dead end!)
4. Portfolio Templates
So these wizards and matrices are guides that wrap the data gathering activity with instructions, a rationale and examples. Importantly, this guidance can be edited directly and easily by coordinators. Instructions, rationale and examples should be stored outside of the forms and templates that your programming staff created so that non-coders can make adjustments. You can embed guidance into forms and templates, but if you do, then you’ll need some expertise to change them, and may take control of the eportfolio out of the hands of the curricular specialists and coordinators. The portfolio itself comes next.
When your participants are done entering their data (even before they are done if they wish), they are ready to publish their portfolios. The portfolio itself is rendered by a template. These reasonably technical XSLT documents gather up the right pieces of information and render the appropriate data for viewing in a web browser. [Again, contact Longsight for help in designing and implementing templates].
Portfolios could contain all the data they have gathered or just selected pieces that are “chunked” by the wizard or matrix used to gather them. You can even develop a template that draws directly on forms (bypassing the wizard or matrix and the associated guidance).
Templates are fairly tightly associated with a specific set of forms, wizards and matrices. The more generalized the template is, the less flexible it may become. Flexibility comes at a cost for developing and testing the template.
These are design decisions by the coordinator who works with technical staff to design your portfolio templates, and it’s a good example of the myriad options that OSP provides. So many in fact that confusion abounds! Like Sakai, OSP is a framework that provides support for many different workflows. It facilitates your curricular decisions rather than constrains or guides your workflow which may be good or bad depending on your goals and audience.
A portfolio coordinator could give their participants the option to use several templates each designed for a different purpose or a different style of presentation. The design might also allow the participant to select which data are presented or not. And the participant, as the owner of the intellectual property, can be given the right to determine who can view or comment on the portfolio once it is published.
These are just a few of the options. There are many more. Many options at each step of the process can make the e-portfolio tools in Sakai look daunting. It is not as difficult as it seems at first blush. We hope these tips and the graphic below help you see the relevance of these tools to your program.
