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Q. |
What happened to
PASS-PORT? |
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A. |
College personnel were
notified in May 2006 that state-provided funding for
PASS-PORT use would cease as of December 31, 2006. Thus,
continuing the use of PASS-PORT would have forced the
University to assess a per-student fee of roughly $100. The
Burton College of Education administration chose to examine
alternatives to PASS-PORT that would suit the needs of all
teacher education programs while minimizing the cost to the
University and to the students. |
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|
Q. |
How were students
notified of the fate of PASS-PORT? |
|
A. |
Announcements and updates
regarding PASS-PORT were disseminated to students through
online media and teacher education faculty and advisors. |
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|
Q. |
Can artifacts in
PASS-PORT be retrieved? |
|
A. |
No. Access to PASS-PORT
after December 31, 2006, would result in a per-student fee
assessment. All data in PASS-PORT, however, was copied prior
to the expiration of the University's PASS-PORT contract.
Therefore, no evaluation or field experience data was lost,
and students will not be required to re-enter data into
another system.
The functionality of PASS-PORT required that any "file"
artifact uploaded to the Artifacts Bin be saved locally
prior to uploading; therefore, copies of all "file"
artifacts in PASS-PORT were available outside PASS-PORT at
the time they were uploaded. Regardless of whether those
copies are still available, access to PASS-PORT to download
them is no longer available. |
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|
Q. |
What replaced PASS-PORT? |
|
A. |
PASS-PORT is a sophisticated
electronic assessment system that is similar to course
management systems like Blackboard in that all users must
authenticate their identities by logging in with usernames
and passwords. Such systems are complex and costly. The "new
system" is very different from PASS-PORT. In fact, it is not
a "system" like PASS-PORT at all.
PASS-PORT is a data collection system where surveys or forms
are used in order for the College to collect data from
students and faculty. Students can also create course-based
and portal-based electronic portfolios, which are also used
for data collection. Currently, the College is testing
alternative methods of accomplishing these same tasks
without investing in PASS-PORT or a similar system.
Essentially, PASS-PORT's replacement is not a sophisticated
Web-based "system" or application; it is simply a collection
of Web-based forms and electronic portfolios that College personnel believe will accomplish the same tasks. |
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|
Q. |
What do students do with
field experience data? |
|
A. |
Students are still required
to record all field experience data electronically. The
instructions and form needed to record this data is
available on the Field Experiences page of the STPES
Web site (http://stpes.mcneese.edu/fexp.htm).
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|
Q. |
What do students do about
electronic portfolios? |
|
A. |
Beginning with the spring
2007 semester, all EDTC 100 students will be trained on the
new method of creating electronic portfolios. Students will
not create separate electronic portfolios for each portal
and/or each course. In EDTC 100, students will create one
portfolio, which will be uploaded to the Student Web Server,
and they will be able to add artifacts to that portfolio
each semester as needed for course-based and portal
requirements.
At this time, it is anticipated that students who are
enrolled in education courses but have already taken EDTC
100 will create portfolios to satisfy portal requirements
during the semesters in which they student teach. Until that
time, students should ensure that they have electronic
copies of all major or key assignments from each education
course they complete as some of those artifacts will be
included in the portfolios. |
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