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. I'm delighted to speak with Prof Dr Candyce Reynolds, Prof Dr Debbie Oesch-Minor, and Dr Helen Chen today. For many of you, they will be familiar because they are members of the leadership team of the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning, commonly abbreviated as AAEEBL, and are very active in the community. Although all three of you have been on the podcast before, let's do a quick round of introductions before talking about the AAEEBL Annual Meeting and Symposium that we held just a few weeks ago. Candyce, let's start with you. Can you please tell us what you are up to right now?

Candyce Reynolds: 1:18

Right now, I just retired from Boise State University, where I was the Director of our General Education Program. Prior to that, I was at Portland State University, which had a vibrant ePortfolio practice layered through many different programmes.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:37

Congratulations on now having entered another phase of your life, but I'm sure we will still continue to see you in the community because I can't imagine AAEEBL without you, Candyce.

Candyce Reynolds: 1:50

I will not be gone. This is very much like home.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:54

Debbie, let's move inland before going to the Pacific Coast.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 2:00

I am in Indianapolis, Indiana, and I work at IU Indianapolis, which is part of Indiana University, that's in the capital of the state. So we have the Law School and the Med School, in addition to our traditional programming. I work with ePortfolios and project-based learning, and I also teach in the Department of English, but my passion is ePortfolios, and I've been serving as one of the leaders of AAEEBL, and this was our first round of conferences, where we hosted the Annual Meeting and the Symposium, and special thanks to you and many others who helped bring those about.

Kristina Hoeppner: 2:40

Thank you, Debbie. And now on to Helen, the closest to me on the West Coast in California.

Helen Chen: 2:46

That's right. Hello, everyone. I'm still at Stanford, doing work in Engineering and Entrepreneurship Education as part of my research, but also working closely with the Integrative Learning Portfolio Lab, which is housed in Stanford Career Education. We're focusing on this broad definition of professional digital presence, of which ePortfolios continue to be something that many students resonate with, from undergraduate to graduate students, postdoctoral students, as well as increasingly faculty and staff, as they're thinking about how to tell their stories about what they know, what they can do from their research to their activities to just their general experience across a lifelong and lifewide learning career. So it's wonderful to see that in the time that I've been working with ePortfolios since the early 2000s that the paradigm and the metaphor as well as the practice of ePortfolios still continues to resonate with so many people.

Kristina Hoeppner: 3:42

The Annual Meeting was held in Indianapolis, so organised by Debbie's team, in person, and we still, though, did also want to make sure that people who were not able to travel could have an AAEEBL experience this year, and therefore organized the AAEEBL Symposium virtually the week after. Debbie, can you please share a bit about the theme that let's call it AAEEBL 2026 had because the theme was across both events, and why you wanted to bring the community together now that you've been the president for AAEEBL for almost a year?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 4:21

Well, we wanted to put emphasis on community and relationships and connections because those are really at the heart of ePortfolios themselves, as well as at the heart of the AAEEBL community. When I was introduced to Able and went to my first conference, I found it to be one of the most welcoming academic environments for me, and really nurturing and supporting, and special thanks to all of you in the room for welcoming me with open arms, and the ePortfolio work aligned with my field, which is Rhetoric and Composition. When we were thinking about what we wanted to do this year, we wanted to hold space. We wanted people to know ePortfolio is not going away, even though AI is at the front of every conversation, and that ePortfolio is at the heart of career competencies and conversation that's putting emphasis on professionalisation. And at the centre of all of this is faculty doing consistent good work. We're in the classrooms, staff is advising, we're supporting, and we're helping students tell their stories. At this critical moment, we wanted people to tell us what works and why does it work? We didn't want to have a conference theme that was very specific, where people are trying to manipulate their work to fit a particular theme. We wanted it to be wide open. We were surprised by the range of content and the depth of content, but then themes that we saw moving across that, and I'm always thrilled to be part of the community, but when we get together in person and when we get together on Zoom, there's a new life when we're sharing work and sharing the work of our students.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:00

The community aspect is coming through, and in New Zealand we will have a conference about open, distance, and flexible learning later in the year, and there also the main theme is the people, actually, he tāngata. We need to focus on that because so much of our conversation centres around technology and of course also AI at the moment that it's very easy to forget who is at the end of the line or also at the start of the line with the faculty that create portfolio activities and that support students. Speaking of people and holding space, but also bringing people together, what were some of the activities around the presentations and workshops that you held to give people the space also to connect with each other?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 6:48

In Indianapolis, we wanted everyone to get time to talk and to share their work, so we went with a symposium format, so there weren't any sessions where there were competing presentations, and we had extra time in the mornings out of respect for sleep and rest and travel and navigating a new campus and registration. So on that Wednesday the morning was open for one-on-one consultation, so people could meet with someone they'd read or someone whose work they respected or someone who had a programme they wanted to model and talk more about that, and then we had workshops, which were very open, very conversation-oriented that could accommodate people who are new to ePortfolios to people who are very experienced, as well as kind of 'how to build' along with ePortfolio work. And when we went then into our next days, one of the things we did was we made sure we were eating together. So breakfasts were provided, and during lunch we'd have time to go get food, and then we did 'Lunch and learn'. So as we're eating, there are people who are sharing their work, student panels, students and faculty members, and I think that helped build community. Then we got to go to the Vonnegut Museum, which is a fabulous spot celebrating the work of Kurt Vonnegut, who's from Indianapolis, and there's a bar, a lot of fun, pool table. So we went there, and I think that kind of community building, as is often the case. Then people are going out to dinner together and spending time together. At the heart of it, we had that, but we also wanted to provide spaces. There were special study areas and zooming areas for faculty who had work to do in the middle of the day. They didn't have to wander off, they could go 30 feet, open a glass door, and have space to work. And so people were able to come and go with tasks they might have at their home campus, as well as just step right back into the flow, grab dessert, and hit the next conference. We also went to the Idea Garden, which has probably 17 different stations, from embroidery to 3D printing to flying an airplane, and hosted some of our events there. I would say the most fun was giving Pablo a baby blanket because we're having an AAEEBL baby, and we use the Idea Garden embroidery tools to make a blanket and to give to Pablo.

Kristina Hoeppner: 9:09

Oh, that's fabulous. That is so good. Gosh, Candyce and Helen, we've been missing out at the Symposium the week later, on the 16th and 17th of June because all we had was our little rectangles on screen, but I think we still made good use of our technology in order to give people the opportunity to connect.

Helen Chen: 9:36

What I appreciated about our Symposium this year is that we decided to go with a single track. As a result, that even though we were online, that we got to see the same faces, the same boxes, if you will, Kristina [laughs], in every session. And you know, it was also intentionally designed to accommodate different time zones, and we did actually have a global audience from South Africa to New Zealand, to of course, all the time zones of the US, including Canada, as well, and so it was really fantastic to see the same people in the room to be able to interact and engage with each other via the chat, and also the most kind of fun conversations happened during the breaks [laughs]. The breaks were judiciously and intentionally distributed across the day, so that you get up and stretch, but also have a chance to talk with most, to connect with people, and everything that was really fantastic because I think, in kind of keeping with the theme that Debbie introduced, of just holding space, learning about the diverse range of activities and experiences that are happening across ePortfolios at a variety of institutions and contexts was just really exciting. There definitely was connection, even though we were online. I'll go ahead and hand it over to Candyce for her thoughts.

Candyce Reynolds: 10:51

Yeah, I totally agree with you, Helen. There was a lot of connection. We designed to make sure that there was time at the end of each session to have conversations about what the presenters had shared, and I think that was really very, very rich. There's good discussions and lots of follow-up questions, and my guess is that people made connections that they'll follow through with later on. It was one of the best online events that I've been in a long time. Every session to me was packed full of really good ideas that one could take and apply in their own setting, maybe not exactly, but take some of the ideas. There were some really rich conversations, especially around AI use and the fact that ePortfolios can really help students demonstrate authentic learning in a way that other kinds of assessments can't, and how important that is in the age of AI.

Kristina Hoeppner: 11:54

Thank you for starting us, Candyce, on the content of the conference. That's a perfect lead to highlight a few, either presentations, workshops, or conversations that we've had to see what has stuck with you most from one or both events, depending on which ones you could attend. Candyce, do you want to start us off, since you already started with the portfolios and AI conversation?

Candyce Reynolds: 12:23

Yes, I mean it's certainly something that has been at the top of everyone's mind at Boise State University and across other universities, is AI, and how we prevent AI, and all the things that people are very much worried about with AI, which includes me. I was just really struck by how ePortfolio practice really can help students be able to present their work authentic and have engaging activities that are associated with an ePortfolio that allows them to really shine and really see how important it is for them to be able to be themselves and their academic work. I was just super impressed with all the ideas, and some of them were in focus presentations, Megan Mize and Elle Tyson definitely, their title of their workshop was 'Inviting curiosity about AI and writing, right, and design. So, whether it was about an actual focus on AI, it would come up in other ways in pretty much all the sessions. The diverse way that faculty have been working in thinking about AI with their students, that was really impressive. The other big one for me was the interest and the diversity of promoting good reflection. That was also threaded through most of the conversations, workshops, and presentations that occurred in the Symposium, and I'm just super impressed because that's sort of an area that I've been interested in in a long time, and have done a lot of work, how deep we're getting with it, right? It's not just about like let's create the most perfect prompt for reflection. It's really about acknowledging that reflection is a process that takes place over time and with other human beings, and interesting that an electronic medium actually can facilitate that kind of connection. So that was really fun. There was a lot of depth.

Kristina Hoeppner: 14:24

With the reflection, I'm thinking in particular of the presentation from Rebecca Thomas and Christa Matlack from Bucknell University, where they introduced TORI, the Taxonomy of Reflective Inquiry. There are also that it is not just one prompt, but that reflection consists of many different questions and also in different domains and that you can mix and match, and really, though, at the start, need to know what you want from your students, so be very clear on the outcomes of the activity to guide students as well. Helen, what is your number one theme or topic or thought that you've taken away from the symposium?

Helen Chen: 15:11

The AI conversations were fascinating, of course, but you know what I also really appreciated was hearing the stories about what's happening on the ground on campuses. We had Prof Luiz Ricardo Kabbach from Indiana University Indianapolis talking about what he was doing with ePortfolios in his courses, I think it was in management with real data. Super excited about that. I think he's working with Debbie and her team on really thinking about quantitative data evidence. There's a proposal or an article in the making that would be so suitable for the International Journal of ePortfolios. Excited to hear about that. Our good friend and colleague, Andrew Longhofer, and his colleague, Brandon Nuziale, talking about what's happening at Pacific University in pharmacy education was also fascinating. Andrew did highlight one of my favourite slides that I actually saw two years ago at the AAEEBL Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, looking at sort of that range from fully standardised on one end, such as a résumé, CV, to something that's fully creative portfolio, and then everything in between. That's still a slide that I go back to, and I'm thankful that he reminded me of something to kind of go back and continue to think about, especially as we're thinking about the design of portfolios and portfolio programmes. The third example was really from Rebecca Thomas at Bucknell University, what she's doing with ePortfolios in engineering. I think there's so much potential. She really dove into the different ways that engineering students are engaging with portfolios, one pathway being multiple exposures, a second pathway being a brief exposure, and how it can work in both instances. Seeing those on the ground examples of what's actually happening on campuses was very exciting. One last note, the presentation that I did not get to see, but I'm eager to watch the video of, I was sleeping at the time, was from Prof Dr Mpho-Entle Modise. She gave the keynote on the second day, so I haven't had a chance to watch it, but I'm very excited to hear what she's doing, especially also continue to dive into the book that she has co-edited.

Kristina Hoeppner: 17:24

Now, Debbie, you have the very difficult task because you attended both events, so you have even more choice to see if there were any themes that have developed for you or anything that you wanted to highlight.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 17:38

There was just so much amazing that happened. I think, like kind of grounding us in the beginning of the keynote at the Annual Meeting was Megan Mize from Old Dominion University, reaffirming that there's been a category error with ePortfolios, where they're seen as a product as opposed to a process. I think for this reason ePortfolios are held to a different standard from other college-oriented projects. So consistently, if you're using ePortfolios, someone asks, 'Who's going to look at this next, and how will this help you when you hit the job market? Are employers looking at them?' While all those answers might be 'Yes', the reality is we would never ask that of a 12-page white paper or a PowerPoint or a poster. So then helping us better understand slow pedagogies and ePortfolios as development over time and identity, and the idea of re-identity as students grow. I saw seeds of this in most of the presentations. With Prof Dr Mpho-Entle's presentation, there was this wonderful showing of her early portfolio, and Pablo Avila did the same thing, and so I found people showing, like, here's my early student portfolio and using that as a platform. I think that emphasis on faculty building portfolios, but also now ePortfolios have been practised long enough that people who'd used ePortfolios as students are now emerging experts with voices and commentary across those years, from their personal experiences through their professional lives now, editing books and contributing to texts on doing with ePortfolios, we had students sharing getting funky with ePortfolios at a 'Lunch and learn', and hearing about use of WordPress or GitHub, these kind of novel environments for ePortfolios was inspiring and helped me keep my eyes open and not just think of a template or a university sanctioned platform, but to be open to many things. What resonated the most with me was that we've had experiences with ePortfolios ourselves, and that we see our students having transformative experiences with ePortfolios when they're done well. When the prompts like Bucknell was modelling push students to manage that, and recognising that student ePortfolios are only as good as the projects and assignments we push them and require them to develop as part of ePortfolio building. Those were sort of thematic things we saw across presentations in different iterations, both in the Annual Meeting, and then again at the Symposium.

Kristina Hoeppner: 20:27

Thank you, Debbie, for highlighting the students because one of the things that stuck with me was the student voice, and there, in particular, Salsabil Qaddoura, who was our first keynote at the Symposium. Debbie, you and I, and Salsabil had an interview earlier in the year, so I already knew how fantastic Salsabil was, but what was really great was her walking us through and showing how the portfolio can support student learning and does not take away from academic rigour or all the things that somebody in assessment wants students to demonstrate and to show, so that they are getting a grade, but that this works in tandem, that it actually enhances it because that personalisation, bringing in the voice of the students, making sure that they are invested in their activities, just gives them such a better experience.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 21:24

Yes.

Kristina Hoeppner: 21:26

That was great to have Salsabil show that to all of us from the student perspective, so that we hear that directly from one of the people that you all are designing portfolio activities for. That is one of the things that was really great, besides also being a fantastic presentation altogether, walking us through the different claims in order to give us also some really fantastic arguments that we can use with faculty or with other decision makers of why this is important because now we also have the evidence from the student, like also you've done in previous Annual Meetings, Debbie, running a student panel where students showcase their own portfolios, talk about their portfolio work, so that we have that primary source in a way, and know that it's not been filtered through an educator's voice, but that this is what actually happened with students. So that was one of the things of how important it is to marry those two things up, the personalisation, student voice ownership with creating portfolios in courses that they go hand in hand, and in a way I find I also saw that in Megan and Elle's sessions they focus very much on artificial intelligence and portfolios, and how AI can support learning, looking at the layout choices, colour choices, and creating supplementary visuals or audio visuals, enhancing the portfolio experience by giving students tools on hand to illustrate their story.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 23:08

And I loved in their presentation that they talked about 'habitudes' - habits and attitudes around this - as well as entertainment and engagement - 'entergaged'. It was fun. They were showing examples, and I think you saw in the student work how relevant their use of Riff bot was to deep learning and deep reflection.

Kristina Hoeppner: 23:29

Riff is one of the earliest tools that supported reflective practice. It wasn't developed for portfolios, but more an experiment by Dr Leticia Britos Cavagnaro at Stanford University in the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, commonly referred to as the d.school, where she, as a researcher of reflective practice, wanted to see how reflective prompts can support learning, and it's really awesome to see how you can get sucked into a conversation with Riff. As teacher, you define one prompt, and then the conversation starts for the student, so that they are taken deeper into the reflection rather than staying on the surface level, which sometimes happens in portfolio practice, and that is where the design of the initial question, and also where TORI can come in really helpfully, that these questions are defined in a way that they do elicit that thinking of students. Kathy Yancey and her team had done quite a bit of work around that, what are some really good starting questions for reflection, and Riff, I find, supports that very much because it does have the research behind reflection built in, and also it does take you further into the reflection, personalising it to your context that you're sharing in it. What is next for you in portfolio practice or in regards to AAEEBL?

Helen Chen: 25:03

What I am most excited about, of course, is AAEEBL Shark Tank. We're bringing back that longstanding tradition of inviting members of our community to pitch their innovative ideas to our ePortfolio experts for feedback as well as prizes. So, really looking forward to more puns of the pirate, ocean, shark, sea life variety, and invite certainly all of our community members to apply for Shark Tank by July 31 (2026) and we'll be planning for an event the last week of August, so that's what I'm most excited about. But Candyce, what are you excited about, aside from Shark Tank, of course?

Candyce Reynolds: 25:47

Shark Tank is definitely at the top of my list. I am excited just to maintain the engagement that happened with our Annual Meeting and the Symposium. We are planning regular webinars, contact with people, and Shark Tank is one of those. But I am eager, in the Symposium, in particular, there are several times in the sessions where we said "that needs to be a workshop. We need to go more in depth." And so I'm excited to be able to offer that to the AAEEBL community and organize those, so that we have a full year's calendar of activities, where we know that we're going to get together and learn from each other and support each other and our work.

Kristina Hoeppner: 26:31

And Debbie?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 26:32

You know, Shark Tank is fantastic. If you haven't heard Kevin and Helen's puns, you're missing out on this wonderful opportunity. What's interesting for me to see behind the scenes is that the executives are meeting every week, the newsletter is getting done every month, the board is meeting every month. At the heart, the wheels of the organisation are rolling, and they're moving forward, and that's very exciting to see. I'm just excited about the emails I've got going, like I get to Zoom with Ohio State next week, and I'm following up with Andrew, and these opportunities to build and nurture the community that we've already had going for years, and to see that people are getting excited again about these opportunities. I personally want to push the July 1 (2026) deadline to pitch to AePR, right, the AAEEBL ePortfolio Review. They're tremendous opportunities to pitch an idea. You don't have to give them a 6,000-word article that's already published. You can propose something, they have someone who will work with you, challenge you, nudge you, support you the whole way, and then get those publications out, and it's a gorgeous digital journal, and anyone should crave the opportunity to be included. So, jump online, go to AePR, and pitch those projects. Everyone who presented at the Annual meeting and the Symposium has an open invitation. The material they shared at the conferences, they then can pitch directly into our AAEEBL journal.

Kristina Hoeppner: 28:11

Thank you for highlighting AePR. I should have mentioned before [laughs], and that this interview is going to go live on the first of July, New Zealand time.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 28:20

Oh no [laughs].

Kristina Hoeppner: 28:22

Anybody listening in the Northern Hemisphere still has a chance because it will still be the 30th of June, but Candyce, I'm putting you a bit on the spot here now [Helen laughs], since my publishing schedule does not quite align with the AePR deadline, if anybody is listening to this on the 30th of June or on the first or second of July, would they still have until the weekend, just a couple more days to think of what they'd like to share?

Candyce Reynolds: 28:52

Yes, I am sure that it will still continue to be open, and I will promise that even if it hasn't changed on the website that we will leave it open. So people should feel free to submit, even if it's a little behind.

Kristina Hoeppner: 29:08

Awesome, thank you so much. And now to the last three questions. Debbie, let's start with you. Which words or short phrases do you use to describe portfolio work?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 29:20

Transformational, intervention, and opportunity.

Kristina Hoeppner: 29:26

Thank you. Over to you, Candyce.

Candyce Reynolds: 29:30

Curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.

Kristina Hoeppner: 29:35

Thank you, and Helen?

Helen Chen: 29:39

Lifelong and lifewide, community, and then iteration.

Kristina Hoeppner: 29:45

Thank you. What tip do you have for learning designers or instructors who create portfolio activities? Helen?

Helen Chen: 29:54

Always going back to empathy, empathy for who you're designing for, and as part of that the needfinding process.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:03

Fantastic. Debbie?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 30:06

Create time in class for students to work and to share their work. They need this, they thrive with it. It makes a huge difference.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:16

That goes very well with the theme of this year's conference. Thank you for highlighting that. Candyce, what is your tip?

Candyce Reynolds: 30:24

Focus on the process and not on the product. The learning happens in the developing of the portfolio, not in the actual portfolio at the end.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:34

What advice do you have for portfolio authors, for your students or also for fellow faculty, Debbie?

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 30:43

Suzanne Schibeci from ePortfolios Australia tells people, the biggest decisions that are made about you are when you are not in the room." Your ePortfolio can be in the room on your behalf. That's really resonated with me.

Kristina Hoeppner: 30:59

Candyce?

Candyce Reynolds: 31:01

To embrace the messiness. Transformational learning happens in the messiness. So, if we really want deep learning, we have to embrace the messiness and trust the process of learning.

Kristina Hoeppner: 31:15

That's maybe the one time in life where being messy is a good thing and doesn't get you into trouble. Helen, for the last advice of today. What would you say?

Helen Chen: 31:26

There's been a lot of talk about authenticity, and what does authenticity mean, especially today with AI and everything. So, I would say, for you know, for students, for faculty, for anyone who's working on ePortfolios, what does authenticity look like to you? You may use AI as a tool to help you generate those ideas, but as you look and see what's generated, how do you make sure it's truly a reflection of you, who you are, and also how do you own it? If something else is writing the words for you, how do you really make it your own? So, I would still encourage our students, everyone to revisit this idea of authenticity and what makes it really authentic to yourself.

Kristina Hoeppner: 32:06

Thank you so much for sharing all the advice and also bit of a summary from the AAEEBL 2026 events that we've held, the Annual Meeting and also the Symposium, as well as also giving us an outlook, what will come for the rest of the year, starting with Shark Tank, I'm also very excited about that because Kevin had already shared the badge that he had created for it during one of our meetings, so it is definitely going to be a lot of fun, and I hope we will see a number of people pitching their ideas. Thank you so much for making time and space today to have this chat after the event.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 32:48

Thank you so much for hosting. One last shout out at the Assessment Institute this year for people who are going, AAEEBL is hosting a pre-event workshop on the Sunday, so if you want to get to Indianapolis and attend an in-person event, the doors are open.

Kristina Hoeppner: 33:05

There the publishing schedule does align this time because the Assessment Institute is going to be in October, I believe.

Debbie Oesch-Minor: 33:12

Yes.

Kristina Hoeppner: 33:15

Now over to you. As you think about your own portfolio work, what topic would you like to explore more? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn, Bluesky, or Mastodon, and tag me or send me an email. This was 'Create. Share. Engage.' with Prof Dr Debbie Oesch-Minor, Dr Helen Chen, and Prof Dr Candyce Reynolds. If you found this valuable, share it with a colleague who would appreciate it as well. Our next episode will air in two weeks. Until then, create, share, and engage.