Kristina Hoeppner: 0:05

Welcome to'Create. Share. Engage.' This is the podcast about portfolios for learning and more for educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices. 'Create. Share. Engage.' is brought to you by the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. My name is Kristina Hoeppner. Today I'm speaking with Christina Mayes. I got to know her through the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force and had the chance to meet her in person last year at the Bay Area AAEEBL Retreat that we had held at her university, at Dominican University of California. At the start of 2025, I did a mini series with students and an integrative coach from Dominican to tell us about the portfolio programme and support structures at place at Dominican. So now it's really time to also have a chat with Christina, who is the Director of the Fletcher Jones Digital Portfolio Lab, who had been mentioned a lot in all of these five episodes, and take a look at the support that Dominican offers from her perspective. That is support in place for students, integrative coaches, and also instructors who want to work with portfolios. Hello, Christina, to the other side of the Pacific.

Christina Mayes: 1:29

It's such a pleasure, Kristina.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:32

Recently, you stepped into a new role at Dominican University. Congratulations for expanding your role, not just being the Director of the Portfolio Lab, but now also having other responsibilities. What are they?

Christina Mayes: 1:47

So at Dominican, I have been the centralised support for digital portfolio support services for students, faculty, and staff over the last nine years. This last year, we've been in our new physical space. So we're in the second floor of the Center for the Dominican Experience. And when we think about our signature programming, digital portfolio is one of those aspects of our distinctive programming. The four corners have signature work, community engagement, integrative coaching, and digital portfolio. The expansion now with my new role as the Assistant Director of Digital Support Services, includes career development support in the name of digital presence and how students present themselves in a space beyond the classroom, beyond our campus, so things like handshake for employability near and beyond Dominican, using technology platforms within Google Suite, such as Google Sites for portfolios, YuJa, Canva, Soundtrap. It's expanding as we're talking. I'm actually on new audio equipment, which is a thrill, but it's all new. So lightning speed with what we can deliver in terms of support.

Kristina Hoeppner: 2:58

Is that then also why you visited Helen Chen and Leticia Britos Cavagnaro with your colleagues at Stanford to learn a bit more of what they are doing in regards to digital presence at the Integrative Learning Portfolio Lab, and then, of course, with Leticia learning more about using AI for reflection?

Christina Mayes: 3:19

Yes! When we did our travel over to meet with our friends, it was so exciting to go from our small, humble residential campus to their quite large campus and take a look at how they're working collaboratively with teams in the d.school. It was so playful. It was fun. It was creative, innovative. It just seemed as though their brains are never stopping. Their environments reflected the work that's going on, how their design and thinking and putting it all together in a physical space. So I have such a creative connection with these folks, and especially how Helen has once been on our campus 10 years ago, facilitating a design thinking with our faculty and staff on how to introduce the concept of ePortfolio.

Kristina Hoeppner: 4:06

Having been in your physical space at the Mary B. Marcy Student Success Center last year for the retreat and seeing your portfolio lab, I feel like you are already having gone into those steps and making sure that these spaces are very flexible, that there's a lot of room, that there's comfy furniture, even that little room where you have the stars on the ceiling and you can chill out in there. So really making it a place where students also want to hang out and work with others.

Christina Mayes: 4:37

Yes, and now that we've been here in this space for just over a year, we see that this is a central hub for students to engage, collaborate, meet, study, and get the work done. That's something that's quite exciting in the sense of a lot of tandem work. I'll even have students that come in my office that just want to focus on their work, and I do my work, and so body doubling, that's something that's come up, and in general, accessibility and web accessibility. So in the name of the flex furniture, it's so lovely to be able to move around the space and accommodate the needs of those that are in there, as well as what is the functionality of the learning that's happening in the space? It's quite engaging with our students and faculty.

Kristina Hoeppner: 5:20

Was it that just a little over a year ago that the Fletcher Jones Portfolio Lab was founded or does that already go back further?

Christina Mayes: 5:29

We have had a partnership with the Fletcher Jones Foundation. We do have an older space with a Fletcher Jones Computer Lab, and now we had additional funding to fund this space, so the Fletcher Jones Digital Portfolio Lab. This was key in the sense of ensuring our students all had access to various skill development for career readiness and employability.

Kristina Hoeppner: 5:53

So it makes sense that it is in your Student Success Center and has a central spot right by the reception desk so that students can't miss it.

Christina Mayes: 6:03

That's right.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:05

Now Christina, from the students, and also from Matthew, earlier in the year, we've heard about the portfolio work that the students have done themselves and also the peer mentoring. What are the overall support services that you can offer through the Digital Portfolio Lab?

Christina Mayes: 6:23

Our team facilitated part of the faculty staff retreat yesterday, and we introduced the updated messaging. This is hot off the press, Kristina.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:34

Just because we'll go live in about a month, yesterday was the 19th of August.

Christina Mayes: 6:39

Instead of saying 'digital portfolio peer mentors', the new language will be 'career readiness peer mentors'. Stacy Poe-Jamison and I, we were training our new peer mentors on this new overview. Of our 29 peer mentors, we will have seven designated peer mentors to support this effort. They will be able to support students with drop in or scheduled appointments in person, and maybe some from a distance, and maybe some async to meet them where they're at and support them with an array of services. The areas that we hope that they'll be able to deliver on, we have digital portfolio, LinkedIn profiles, résumé, cover letter, general professional writing, LinkedIn enhancing, searching for jobs, things like that. We know that when students come in and meet with a peer mentor that it can be a general conversation on one of those areas and how they often will connect to other areas. We have the writing and career readiness lab. We are not renaming the Fletcher Jones Digital Portfolio Lab, but in terms of the communication to our students, faculty, and staff, the support we're offering will be labeled as writing and career readiness.

Kristina Hoeppner: 7:54

You make it more overarching and really also show the students they are operating in that context. They are not just creating the portfolio for right now, for that 'Navigating college' course, but really also starting their lifelong portfolio and can keep it up for their entire university career and beyond.

Christina Mayes: 8:13

Precisely, I think, for the last 10 years with this language, there's not a lot of foot traffic. Students aren't really seeking like, 'Oh, let me just walk in here and do my digital portfolio.' There has to be intention and purpose and meaning behind it. So hopefully, with this updated, broader messaging, it will communicate that we are here to support the overall journey. What I think is also brilliant is that we will have two integrative coaches designated for career readiness coaching, and we will also have writing tutors. The past couple of years, we've had an online tutoring support. We're going back to the in person. There's relationship building, connection, community, so many things that come together when we have that high touch. When we're bringing together high impact practices in this lab, it works.

Kristina Hoeppner: 9:07

I like that you are having the portfolio work situated in the Success Center and also focusing very much on the career development of the students and not having the portfolio sit apart because what I feel often at universities, the portfolio is being used in courses, in classes, wonderfully used in there for assessment purposes or other professional development purposes, for work-integrated learning and things like that. However, it doesn't often go beyond into that career development space. It would be wonderful to have the career offices involved more in the portfolio work because the portfolio very nicely extends the résumé, extends the CV, and brings all of the student experiences together. So you showing that to the community, I hope everybody will watch very closely how you can make that messaging clearer, also to the students, and really embed portfolios into the career development in order to see how that works and also whether that can be a good model for others.

Christina Mayes: 10:14

You're making me think about so many different things. So for example, mindset, just the mindset that we have going into our university campus. For example, we have a number of campus tours that come through from admissions. Then we have the alumni that revisit. The different groups that come through our space and the messaging that we're communicating as a small, humble community, 1,800 students, small, but mighty. We are mighty. We are trying to put ourselves more out there. We have something to say. Our students are quite involved in our communities, on and off campus, and are making a significant impact. We have our undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree completion learners. So even thinking of those various populations, the approach to portfolio may be subtly different or significantly different. Over the summer, we had our high school programming, our MAP programme, so the Marin Advantage Program, and having high school students completing a college English course, as well as parts of 'Navigating college'. When facilitating portfolio with high school students, sometimes I felt like they were more engaged. We had our La Vida Avanza Summer Bridge Program where they have an early start to their college experience, and I had developed some basic handouts that were kind of fun, playful, but they had homework during the week to capture moments, just photos, and then at the end of the week, we made a community website. It was so much fun.

Kristina Hoeppner: 11:50

Christina, why did you decide to work with students, with your peer mentors, for the portfolio support, instead of just having integrative coaches or other staff members provide that support to students?

Christina Mayes: 12:04

When we were launching our signature programming, our Dominican Experience, when considering the integrative coaching getting launched, peer mentors had already been formed. So it seemed as though they knew more than those integrated coaches at the time about how to develop a digital portfolio and navigate and teach another student. At the time, it was a near and peer type of approach that in itself being a great practice on college campuses where I may not be the greatest person to upsell this thing, but maybe a student who's right there, maybe they're studying in the similar program or have an understanding of like and like with their college experience, when they would showcase their portfolio to another student, then it becomes inspirational. The meaning and making behind that would generate shared purpose and offering a vision of what they, they as in the new, emerging student in the portfolio land, creating something that maybe could just be as good as one of these peer mentors.

Kristina Hoeppner: 13:08

That, I think, has really been nicely demonstrated by the students with whom I talked to last year for the mini series. You have just gone through a new training with the new peer mentors. And now, of course, with the expanded responsibilities, not just you gotten your responsibilities, but your peer mentors as well. How do you select your peer mentors?

Christina Mayes: 13:30

We have students move through'Navigating college', and then we promote our peer mentor training seminar offered in the spring, and from those students who are in that seminar, they are then eligible to apply to become a peer mentor. The intention behind that is they have, in essence, done the training. They've done the student development training led by Naomi Elvove on how to be a centred student leader and engage in active listening.

Kristina Hoeppner: 14:03

How do you support your peer mentors then throughout the term that they are working as peer mentors?

Christina Mayes: 14:09

Most of the peer mentors are co-facilitating'Navigating college' in the fall with an integrative coach. They are right here teaching life skills, how to navigate all things, time management, study skills, things like that. They're also holding office hours here for drop-in support with their mentees. And during that time, when they're here, we get to check in. They will check in with their integrative coach on a weekly basis. How is your well being? How are things? Do you have any stressors right now? Is there anything that I can stay on board with you? How is it going with the relationship development with your mentees and communication efforts? So we have that weekly holistic check-in, and then they have their own community developing, which is quite amazing. We've been noting how confident they seem. That is something that seems slightly different from the energy from the last few cohorts of peer mentors. These seem very grounded. There's been a heightened engagement on active listening exercises that we have been conducting with them and offering constructive feedback. So hopefully it will be a great year ahead.

Kristina Hoeppner: 15:19

They get the training initially, and then it is more informal learning or also coaching, just on the fly and while they're here, rather than another formal training with them as a group, right?

Christina Mayes: 15:32

Yes, and we'll have monthly check-in meetings to ensure that we're all on the same page. And then there's sub groups. There is an effort to engage with our social media, things like that.

Kristina Hoeppner: 15:45

How many mentees does each peer mentor have?

Christina Mayes: 15:49

No more than 10.

Kristina Hoeppner: 15:51

How many years have you now already run the peer mentorship programme with a focus on portfolios?

Christina Mayes: 15:57

This fall will be year 10.

Kristina Hoeppner: 16:00

What is the feedback that you've received from your peer mentors? Their overall experience as peer mentors? What have they learned themselves?

Christina Mayes: 16:12

They've learned a great deal about themselves, so in the sense of offering time and space to reflect on their experiences in and out of the classroom and how to connect the thread and how to present that. We encourage our students to not only create the portfolio, but to present, to speak. There's this whole connective piece, even moving into new student orientation when they meet their groups for the first time. They've been preparing for that moment ever since, I almost want to say, ever since they became a student, they were preparing for that moment to some degree because we have them reflect on what was it like when you were a new student? Do you remember what you would have liked to have known? What advice would you have given yourself? Just taking that level of introspection and how they might like to show up for these new students. It's an interesting mix of the seasoned peer mentors mixed with the new peer mentors and how they offer support to one another in that community.

Kristina Hoeppner: 17:18

That was the feedback from the peer mentors on their experience and what they have learned, what they are taking away for themselves. Have you had any feedback from the students who are being mentored by the peers?

Christina Mayes: 17:36

For those that choose to engage, there's a positive connection. For example, I worked with my two peer mentors in Navigating college' last fall. They both happened to be engaged in a number of student clubs. They would invite their mentees to join them. The mentees would either join that affiliation or explore, try something else, or just even getting boba tea. Those connections are so meaningful. The students would reflect on that in their weekly reflections. In 'Navigating college', we have our students reflect on what their experience is like each week, and our peer mentors, that's where they would get a lot of praise. That's where we would really see more of that notable, significant change where someone is invested in your growth and development, it's so positive. From a peer mentor, an integrative coach, faculty or staff member, we have quite a number of stakeholders that are invested in the students, and they can tell.

Kristina Hoeppner: 18:38

That is the nice thing because oftentimes the peer mentors can connect more easily with the students because they are typically of a similar age. As you've mentioned earlier, they had gone through similar experiences. Therefore, it is a closer relationship than to an instructor or to an integrative coach who is potentially also seen more as an authority figure, rather than a peer. We've looked at the feedback from the peer mentor on their work, from the mentee on how they're engaging with the peer mentor, and now the last relationship is the one from the integrative coach or an instructor who works with a peer mentor in their classes or when supporting students. What was their feedback on how the work that the peer mentors do impacts what they are doing?

Christina Mayes: 19:28

When our peer mentors facilitate and are leading the course, the students are listening. We only have 15 minutes in these weekly seminars. If I try to fill it with a lecture? No, that's not the way. When I may be deliver something for seven minutes on a topic and then the rest is co-facilitation by the peer mentors, and then break into smaller groups, the space is so alive. That is something where a number of our integrative coaches have taken more of a role of empowering our student leaders to be confident, to enhance their presentation skills, their digital slide deck, all the ways that they're communicating.

Kristina Hoeppner: 20:11

It's good to hear that the integrative coaches appreciate what the peer mentors bring to the conversation, and therefore also giving them the space to expand in their own professionalism, and therefore really are part of the teaching team or coaching team.

Christina Mayes: 20:31

They are the eyes and ears. They're close connections with the new students. It's so critical. They are at that level to pick up on the nuances that we may not. Like you were suggesting, the integrative coach, the instructor, being in the sense of, 'Oh, they're up here. I can't go to them for this, but I can go to my mentor for this.' When we have our debrief, 'Oh, okay. I didn't know that that was going on with so and so, okay, that's good to know.' It can even be so much that it could shift the overall curriculum. It could be that,'Well, you know what? This week we were planning to address this, but now I think we're going to dive into interpersonal relationships, homesickness, or how to communicate effectively with faculty.' Those could be shifters in sense of our culture in the classroom, where we're going to adapt to the needs that will be queued up, usually from the peer mentor.

Kristina Hoeppner: 21:29

So portfolios are embedded in 'Navigating college'. That's the support course that is available at Dominican, where the integrative coaches work very closely with the students and the peer mentors as well. Do your students now also increasingly work with portfolios in other classes?

Christina Mayes: 21:49

Yes, big acknowledgments to our education studies programme as they were the flagship programme in 2011, I believe. They were already doing this high impact practice with their students, educating future educators and how they make use of a portfolio in the classroom setting, in communicating their teaching philosophy, lesson plans, different things to engage with their learning communities. They were using one form of platform and then eventually folded into where we are now with Google Sites. Occupational therapy (OT). They too joined the effort when we were launching campus wide. They have now cohorts of students that have gone through developing portfolios. And psychology, business is on, too. Now this isn't about who's on and who's not. Most are. There's so many different ways that one could engage in developing a portfolio, that might live in a specific course programme or by just the virtue of the student having an interest in developing one.

Kristina Hoeppner: 22:58

Can these study programmes then also make use of the peer mentors?

Christina Mayes: 23:03

Yes, we've had some classes who have asked to make use of our portfolio lab so that they could just be right here in our space, and then vice versa, where we go to them. We have a number of liaisons. For example, with our La Vida grant funding, we have a number of campus fellows, and so in our library, we have Louis Knecht, who supports digital literacy, or I could be working with Giulia Welch over in the business school. No matter where we are, we're playing. I always see this as being playful because we're engaging with technology, and we'll question each other, what's been working for you lately, or what's something new? I saw that there was the AAEEBL ePortfolio Review magazine of the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning that just came out on ePortfolios and career readiness. I couldn't wait to share with my colleagues, focused in on a piece that our friend Helen was in where there was note on NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers. This is what Giulia Welch was engaging highly in, teaching our students career competency skills and how to articulate that on one's portfolio, on their digital presence. And then here's Helen and her colleague sharing on this topic, which is so exciting to see that come together, and how we are going through a process of an updated vision for career development. So it just seemed quite in sync. It just felt very affirming that we are doing, hopefully, the best by our students.

Kristina Hoeppner: 24:40

What are one, two, or three things that you would like to be able to do with portfolios, but currently either haven't been able to or haven't explored yet, but really have on your wish list or to do list?

Christina Mayes: 24:55

The big thing would be assessment. It's been on the to do list for quite some time. We've had programme level assessment. Our friends in OT - they're stellar. They've made different changes and updates to their guidelines and things like that. But as an institution, to get a more of that broader perspective right before going into that time of COVID was the time that we were planning to do our robust survey of portfolios and apply rubrics and try to norm together and get a sense of, is there a positive impact on our students' engagement of learning. The next thing on the wish list is the connection to career readiness in the sense of, is there a connection here to employability, and what does that look like? How does it connect? We have had a number of alum who have maintained their portfolio presence for various reasons. We also had a fairly recent alum who had self taught themselves on portfolio. It wasn't something that they had the moment to engage with at Dominican because it turned out they were working a full time job while going to school full time, and it was hard to engage in these support services. She had self instructed herself and ended up being at a job placement where she taught others how to develop a portfolio. She said, "I got the job because of my portfolio."

Kristina Hoeppner: 26:20

That is really fantastic. Good that we just recently talked at the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force that in the next year, we are thinking of looking into a principle on assessment. So that we are exploring that more what we would like people to consider when thinking about using portfolios for assessment purposes in an ethical way, so that we can give some guidance on hand. Now, three final questions for you in our quick answer round. Which words or short phrases do you use to describe portfolio work?

Christina Mayes: 26:55

I would say'transformative' because I have bear witness to humans developing over time, and how I can observe the very first emerging portfolio, and then what it can be by the end, and they're showcasing all their marvelous work that they've been working so hard, but the moments when they are also, 'Oh, I wrote like that?' That moment where they see themselves in the past and relating to that self, and they go, 'I am not that person any more. I have learned and experienced, and I kind of think a little bit different now, or my values and purpose have shifted, and I am so grounded and I know what's next.' To see that light go off, that shine. It's transformative. That's only one word [both laugh]. So then I would go, it's'engaging'. It can connect with anyone. It doesn't matter if you're a student, non student, we can engage in this. I have even engaged with my parents on my portfolio, where I'm reflecting on my childhood experiences and showcasing our family and connecting that with my mom and my dad. There's definitely something about community and belonging beyond the classroom. I often share with students that your first audience is typically your family. And 'empowering'. I actually got this word from one of our graduate students, Kecia Denk, who is in our OT programme, and we had had a portfolio session right before this. She's like,'This is empowering.' In our work over the last year, where she had no portfolio and now has a robust portfolio and has a penguin radio station, she was the first student I worked with where I helped to figure out how to take those recordings from her penguin radio and put on her portfolio. That was fantastic. All the ways that the students can take those experiences and how can we put it into a digital format? How can it be something that can be representative of themselves, whether it be a picture of themselves on campus to their undergraduate research or samples of signature work that they've been developing, it's so empowering for the student to hold that presence.

Kristina Hoeppner: 29:12

Now, what tip do you have for learning designers or instructors who create portfolio activities?

Christina Mayes: 29:19

Well, I have to say it's been fun to engage a bit with AI. I was a bit apprehensive with giving that a go, but I did find it to be quite supportive in breaking down, let's say, a timeline, enhancing a lesson plan, and breaking the creative writing process with some students in getting engaged with their portfolio. For example, I had a student who came to me this summer. We're working from a distance. All they have is a résumé. That's it. They are about to graduate from the nursing programme this December. I said, 'Well, what if we were to play with AI for a little bit and just see what type of personal statement would generate from your résumé?' In that exercise, the student was able to then get a jump start to their portfolio process. They were able to then take Canva with their template and organise the portfolio in a quite simple manner. So rather than a long term reflective portfolio, we were able to make more of a showcase, professional facing portfolio. That's more of a nice way to even think through, okay, so if I'm designing something, who is my audience? Is it a new student who's just emerging? Or is it a student that is upon closer to graduation? So what are the needs? Is it something that will be long term reflective, or is it more about communication, media studies, artistic presentation, which might even determine then the platform? At the end, we really want to support the idea of a community that can offer constructive feedback, where we're not shy to that. Students want to know specifically, 'What can I update on my portfolio?' That's a big piece, too, to always offer that. The async feedback seems to be very supportive. And then activities. I love focusing on student identity development and how this expands, given the context of what they're studying and where they hope to be post graduation.

Kristina Hoeppner: 31:28

That now takes us to the last question. What advice do you then have for your portfolio authors?

Christina Mayes: 31:36

This portfolio is for you. You decide what content it holds and who may engage with this creation. Considering the purpose of your portfolio, wow would you like to share your story? How might you elevate your cultural wealth, highlight academic and professional pivots, and authentically connect to your readers? Self promotion can be a daunting task. This is an opportunity for you to stretch beyond modesty and showcase your brilliance. I encourage you to identify your strengths, skills and knowledge, collect items for your digital briefcase, such as sample works, visual stories, moments of achievement, résumé, articulate the connections for your digital artefacts, and ultimately, tell us your story. We want to see what makes you you. Connect us back to your purpose, values, and future self. This is your superpower. Developing a portfolio is more about your personal process in creating a space for who you are becoming. Through this transformative and creative process, students note a higher sense of self, purpose, and confidence after creating their portfolio.

Kristina Hoeppner: 32:48

Thank you so much, Christina, for expanding the role that the Portfolio Lab, but also the Student Success Center and the integrative coaches play at Dominican in supporting peer mentors, who then support students in their portfolio work, and showing us that it is like the integrative coaches, it's an integrative practice. It all works together, there're connections between all the different people that are engaged in the practice, all the different activities that are happening, the classes and the support structures so that we do look at the portfolio work holistically. Thanks so much for the chat.

Christina Mayes: 33:26

Thank you.

Kristina Hoeppner: 33:29

Now over to our listeners. What do you want to try in your own portfolio practice? This was 'Create. Share. Engage.' with Christina Mayes. Head to our website, podcast.mahara.org, where you can find resources and the transcript for this episode. This podcast is produced by Catalyst IT. Our next episode will air in two weeks. I hope you will listen again and tell a colleague about our podcast so they can subscribe. Until then, create, share, and engage.