Welcome to Digication
Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear Part
One of my conversation with Matthew
Gomes, an EDP Systems Analyst at
Bunker Hill Community College.
More links and information about today's
conversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication Scholars
Conversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to Digication
Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and today I
am so pleased to introduce Matthew Gomes.
He's the EDP System Analyst at
Bunker Hill Community College.
Welcome, Matthew.
Thank you, Kelly.
Thank you for having me.
This is great.
Yeah, I'm so pleased to talk to you
today, and I don't know if you're aware
of this, but Bunker Hill Community
College is about to celebrate its 15
year anniversary working with Digication.
I took a peek at the system today and
saw that Some of the early adopters
got started back in January of 2010.
So congratulations for almost 15
years of having such extraordinary
ePortfolios created by your community.
And I remember visiting the campus in
some of those early days and walk, working
with some of the early adopters there and.
Involved in some of the early faculty
trainings as people were getting started
and Your school has really been a very
early pioneer in using ePortfolios with
such a strong focus on the, the pedagogy
around reflective practice and, uh, really
steadfast focus on students being able to
use this kind of technology, not only to
kind of share and showcase their academic
pursuits, but to really talk about who
they are and their interests outside of
the classroom, their kind of personal
missions and passions, and kind of just
share who, who they are as a person.
Um, not only what they might be doing
in the class there, um, So, I am just
so pleased to have you on today to kind
of talk about how your portfolios are
used at Bunker Hill Community College.
And before we jump into that, I'd love to
just hear a little bit about how you came
to the campus and what your role is there.
Sure.
Thank you.
Uh, yeah, it's great to hear
the, uh, 15 year anniversary.
That's awesome.
I started there.
Sure.
You know, uh, I want to say 2014, ...15.
I have to go back to my LinkedIn.
It's something like that.
So I, I started there,
um, as a, as a part-timer.
Um, at the time I think it was
just a technical assistant.
And, um, our department was different.
It was, um, TLITC, some acronym related.
It's very technology-heavy.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, um, over time, we've generally
made a concerted effort to be more
conscious of like the teaching
and learning pedagogy, right, and
strategy that you were referencing.
And so we have a whole other leg to
our department now that focuses on
instructional design and all of this.
But, um, but my origin story, um,
or the prequel to Bunker Hill, um,
I worked a number of different jobs.
I worked, uh, at a bakery for a while.
I've worked, uh, become supervisor
at grocery stores, things like this.
Kind of typical when you're, you know,
juggling, uh, going to school at the
same time, I went to, uh, actually went
to Ben Franklin Institute of Technology.
Uh, while I was juggling,
um, you know, internships.
I actually had an internship
at uh, MGH for a while.
And I was juggling being a supervisor at
a Quincy stop and shop along with that.
So it was very difficult days,
especially when you're between 18
and 20, and 21 - challenging time.
Yeah.
And so, um, over time.
Uh, I kind of cut that off to, um, pursue,
uh, music related things, which, you know,
you alluded to before our conversation.
Yeah, I saw your guitar in the background.
For sure.
And so I kind of decided, you know,
I, I kind of want to pursue, uh,
what I want to do for a while.
And so I kind of turned all of
that off just to pursue music.
Um, For a few years and I haven't
stopped necessarily, but I dropped
all of the other things I was doing
just to start my band with my brother.
I play guitar and play like rock metal
type stuff and My brother's the drummer
we shuffled through a couple of different
people as far as like bass player vocalist
things like this And then over time we,
we, we reached a point where I was like,
okay, I need to get, um, a job and land
it again and be a little more consistent.
And so that's where I gained a, uh, A
job working at this bakery, which wasn't
the most pleasant experience, if I'm
going to be honest, but I learned a lot.
Um, I was only there for maybe
two years and some change.
And, um, I learned a lot about
myself, what makes a good
job and not such a good job.
And, um, and working with people,
working alongside people with
people and, um, getting along.
And, and so.
After being there for two years,
it was kind of mentally draining,
um, on just me through and through.
It even kind of almost
killed my creativity.
Then after that, uh, fast forwarding,
I got a job at a senior living facility
where I worked with the elderly.
So I went from a kind of a brutal
experience to a very humbling experience.
I worked with the elderly and you
know, they've have a litany of life
experience, so much life experience.
And the interesting thing is one of the...
...so that's...
I started there at the Senior
Living Center and then I started
at Bunker Hill part time.
So I started doing those at the same time.
And at the time when I was working
at Uh, Bunker Hill in the TLITC
department, just working like 15 hours.
The ePortfolio was there.
Moodle was there, things like this.
But I was kind of doubling down
and, uh, trying to prove that I was,
you know, worthy of being like a
supervisor or something at the other
job at the senior living facility.
But it was more exhausting and, um,
it was draining, um, physically.
And Bunker Hill, you know, uh, it's
working at a community college.
You get to sit down, right?
So that's one of the perks of, of.
Uh, that type of job and amongst
other things you get to work with
people, people aren't, you know,
it's not really a customer service
type thing, or, you know, you're not
getting shouted down necessarily.
And so, um, and so for the most part,
and so, um, overall Bunker Hill was
the, the, the, the better, um, place
that I was working, but for whatever
reason, I had a wall in my mind.
I, it didn't occur to me.
And it was one of the, um, Very
intelligent, older gentleman that
worked at the senior living facility.
I was talking to him about my dilemma.
I was like, I really want to get, do
well here and I'm, but I, I'm, I'm
siloing myself into too many silos.
So I have my band, I have
this job, I have this job.
Now I'm like split up.
a little too, um, a little too much.
And so, and I said, I'm trying to maybe
leave Bunker Hill and then work at this
place, but I want to get more hours.
I want to be full time, all of this.
And he said, why don't you ask
Bunker Hill if you can do that?
And I'm like, I don't know
why that didn't occur to me.
I, I, there was something about it.
I don't know what it was exactly.
Maybe I felt the need, like I had to
work hard physically, like physically.
I don't know what it was, but anyway,
to cut the story a little bit, I went
to Bunker Hill, um, and I talked with,
she's still there now, Grace, about this.
And at the time the
director, uh, Danielle.
And they were like, yeah, that will, you
know, give us a day or two and we'll,
we'll figure something out for you.
And so, um, along with that, they gave
me, they came with the responsibility of,
okay, we're going to make you the point
person for ePortfolio along with that.
So I kind of started doing it cause we
had, um, Uh, the previous e portfolio
point person, full time person
was, was on his way out the door.
And so I was kind of passing the baton
to me, but I was still part time as a
little, um, kind of a soft pass, but
they were like, you know, we're going to
make you the person, the actual person.
And so I took that and I was like,
I don't want to just take it and
shoulder shrug my way through the day.
I want to try.
And so anytime, and I've gotten this.
A comment from many, uh, faculty and
students, and I've inspired faculty
in the way they teach, the way they
animate themselves in the classroom.
I've watched it, it's kind of, again,
humbling to see them, um, well, so, and
so what I started doing was I was very
animated because I didn't want to just
be a talking head in the room, right?
If I was going to give a training
and a professor wanted me to go to
their classroom or they bring their
students to our space and we show them
ePortfolio to a class of 20-odd students.
These are students, some of them just
out of high school and things like this.
So, you know, uh, they might still be
figuring things out with regards to them
being enthusiastic about what things.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I wanted to
like bring some humor to it, be
more of a human, just be a person.
And I found that that seemed to
resonate very well with them.
Um, even if the professor, some
professors were using ePortfolio,
let's say at 15 percent capacity,
some use it at 40 percent capacity.
Some just want students to just
upload work like documents.
You know, so there was different
levels, no matter what the level was.
I saw it as sort of a challenge to
convince them and demonstrate to them.
Hey, listen, it's not, yes, you're doing
this for the class, but also these are
the great things that it can do too.
You can post your resume on it.
You can add tabs.
You can be creative.
You can express yourself.
You can make it public.
You can post the link to any portfolio
on the social media of your, your
IG, social media, Twitter, Facebook,
whatever you have, LinkedIn.
You can do all of these things.
It's not just this thing that's
locked in a bunker hill, like a LMS
or an email account or whatever.
It's, it's meta, it's bigger than that.
And so then there's how to build
the ePortfolio, like adding
the text boxes and things.
And then there's how should.
How should you build the ePortfolio?
What should you put into it?
What are the best things
you could put into it?
Right.
So anyway, that's a little bit of
the kind of the history of myself and
where I've kind of taken ePortfolio,
I think, in the past few years, so.
Yeah, no, I love that.
And thank you so much
for sharing your story.
And I think it's a story that
probably resonates a lot with
the community that you're working
with too, often the students that.
You're providing this initial
introduction to not just the platform,
kind of technical pieces, but how it's
something that can support them in the
classroom, but also beyond, um, you
know, being that first person and, you
know, for them to be able to connect
with you, I think is really important.
And again, not just having this talking
head, but someone that's had some.
Really true life experiences that
I think would resonate with them
as well and have that connection
of balancing life and school and
working and making choices about
what your career path is going to be.
Um, you know, I think it's something that.
You know, when you bring your, you
know, your personality and your history
and your true self into those training
opportunities, it is a time for you
to be able to kind of create those
connections with the students, engage
them in the conversation about the
platform and how it can benefit them
has really led to a lot of success.
I can tell in looking at the students
portfolios that when you're talking
about, um, you know, being creative
and using it as a place to kind of
tell their story, that that's something
that really resonates with them.
You know, each one is very unique,
even if it was created from a
beginning template or something that
they were using in their course.
Most of the students I see are
really going beyond just that.
Initial Template.
Could you talk a little bit maybe
about some of the ideas that you give
students for how they can apply their
creativity, different tools that
they might use, or different kinds
of content they might add to their
portfolios that could make it their own?
Sure.
Yeah.
So, um, so I, I, I try to give examples,
but it's a tricky thing because, um,
with, wanting, uh, somebody or a party
or your audience to be creative, um, you
have to find the balance of show them an
example, but you know, don't copy this,
but this is what it could look like.
It's a very, uh, tricky line to find.
And it's something I still kind
of struggle with a little bit.
So I go through a bit of a spiel
with them, uh, when I'm talking about
the career potential or the transfer
potential and all of these things.
And so.
Um, what I can, I show them a few
examples as I, as I mentioned, I might
show them an example of ePortfolios.
I think that, um, you all have in
your, um, help desk site some of the
best ones, like some of the ones from
Chattanooga State and things like this.
Um, and then I'll show them
ePortfolios that won, um, an
ePortfolio contest we held last year.
So I'll show them a couple
of examples of that.
And so I, I, I show them that to, to
illustrate that it's not just this.
Uh, you know, simply white and black
page with a bullet points on it.
It's, um, it's got background color.
So when I'm usually trying to tell
them, I first tell them the files and
the types of actual types of content
you can add, images, documents,
videos, text boxes, right, and you can
manage backgrounds, broadly speaking.
Obviously it's not limited to that,
but generally speaking, these are
the big things that most people think
of when they're thinking of like
building a portfolio or building
a site or something like that.
And so with image files I'll run through
the types, uh, what PNG, there's the,
the usual suspects, uh, videos would,
uh, PNG, JPEG, videos would be MOV,
MP4, there's a couple of oddballs that
might act a little weird, but generally
like the, The mainstay ones work well.
File types aren't limited to, or
generally not limited to Word docs,
PDFs, Excel sheets, PowerPoints, right?
You can upload them all.
You can make them as big
or as small as you want.
You can move them around.
And as I explain this, I'll have it
behind me, or if it's in a call like
this one, I'll have the screen shared
and I'll show them an example of a
portfolio that obviously did this.
But you have a, and when you paste the
document on there, it's not just a link.
It's not just a hyperlink, it is, it
displays the document for your viewers,
for you, but for your viewers, and
they can scroll up and down through it.
These things might sound rudimentary
and kind of elementary, but like, I
find that explaining the things that
are happening on the page, even if
it's just a box, a picture with a
face on it, and a text box next to it,
explaining the different things that
are happening on that simple page, um,
helps the lights click on and it's very
helpful when I'm usually in person.
Um, and obviously faculty have
echoed this post pandemic as well.
It generally is perks and, you know,
pros and cons to in person remote,
but obviously when you're teaching
people, you can see the lights go on.
Um, and I noticed that if I
simply, if I simply explain
ePortfolio at them, It doesn't
quite hit like it's a visual thing.
And that's one of the
things you all say as well.
And it's true.
It is a visual medium of showcasing
and presenting things about you,
your career, things you've done,
accomplishments, personal life, etc.
It's visual.
So it, I should be visual with it.
I should show them.
Right.
And again, this is one of those things
that, you know, kind of goes back
to teaching and learning pedagogy
is like, You don't want to have, uh,
just a PowerPoint slide with just
words on it with bullet points, right?
You would want to have actual images,
and so I take it a step further than that
personally, and this is my preference.
I like to show them the site.
I don't really use a PowerPoint.
I don't use a slideshow.
I like to show them, here's how I log in.
I'm doing it.
This is how you're going to do it.
You know, instead of just like, it
seems, it sometimes it can feel too
separate for students and varying ages,
varying demographics, things like this.
Um, I find that the most effective
thing is to have the actual
site on the page and explain it.
And then to actually, uh, hit on
the other part of your question,
the types of things I'll show are,
um, it's kind of a silly example.
Um, is let's say somebody worked at
a stop and shop or a grocery store
on a resume, you could have a bullet
point on there that says I worked at
a grocery store for five years, right?
And I'll literally say
it like that to them.
Or if you, in addition to that,
you could have your ePortfolio.
And if you did the Jimmy Fund one
year and your friend that was trying
to mess with you, they saw you giving
out hot dogs in the front of the store
with the apron, they took a picture
of you and you saw it and you're
like, you know, that's not half bad.
You know, they're just messing with
you, but it's actually a decent picture.
Well, you can take that picture, throw it
in your ePortfolio and put a a thing next,
a little text box or something next to it.
That says, I, I, uh, contributed to
the, um, the growth of the Jimmy fund
while working at Stop and Shop, I was
designated as the point person to give
out Jimmy fund tickets in order to,
you know, and then you can fill in the
rest of the definition for what the
Jimmy funds initiative are, are, right.
So it's, it's something so, so simple.
Another example I gave was, um,
the last couple of weeks with a
couple of other staff members, I was
running around, physically running
around the Bunker Hill campus.
Uh, giving out flyers for
the ePortfolio Contest.
Um, and I had some other staff
doing that and staffed out front.
And so one of the things I said to them
was one of the cool things you can do
is if I take a picture of me with my
flyer, my handout, handing it to you and
I have my staff member take a picture of
it, for whatever reason, employers And
that's not to disparage employers because
I've hired people too, we eat that up.
If you see a picture of me handing a
student a flyer and next to it I put
boosted student engagement, uh, while
engaging while creating an atmosphere
for them to You know, contribute
to building their ePortfolio, um,
while boosting the initiatives of the
contest and ePortfolio and Digication
Initiative, while also giving them a
platform to do this and this and this.
You can have a little text box
next to that image as well.
So I kind of give some of
those examples to them as well.
Other examples I might give are explaining
a, like a photography portfolio, right?
So if they, if a student wanted to build
a, um, So I usually give them, okay, you
have an about me page, things like this.
That's kind of a typical thing.
I'll show those examples, but then
I'll say it's not just limited to that.
If you want it to, it doesn't
have to be about you per se.
It's kind of one of the big things
that it should be about, or,
you know, a lot of times, but it
doesn't necessarily have to be.
And so I opened them up to this idea of
like you can make a photography portfolio.
And so a lot of VMA, uh, Visual
Media Arts classes, will, um, have
their students create ePortfolios,
um, with kind of that purpose.
But it'll be a hybrid.
So it'll be about me, so it'll,
it'll still have that page.
They'll have their reflective components,
and they might have a tab that just
says Photos, or Photography, right?
And it's They have sub pages within there
that showcase different photography.
They took it, taken in different places.
Um, and then there's another
student that took a VMA class and
was a, um, was in a writing class.
And so I think that was one of the
winners of the contest last year.
Um, Cleo.
And so.
She had photography, she had poetry,
she had, um, you know, things about her.
And the pages weren't necessarily long.
They weren't really busy.
And when I show students that, you
know, that page is kind of simplistic,
they're like, Oh, is that it?
I'm like, yeah, that's it.
It doesn't have to be this like huge
website, like Amazon or Best Buy.
Like you're not doing all that,
you know, it's, it can be simpler.
Um, but it, it is one of those things.
Where the more you put into it,
and by more I don't mean quantity,
but the more you put into it,
the more you can get out of it.
So it transcends just that one class
you're taking where you want to
get an A on your homework, right?
So that's one of the, that's my overall,
some of my pitch that I kind of give them.
Yeah, and that's so beneficial because
really what you're incorporating
into the introduction to the platform
and, you know, how to use the various
tools is really these elements
of digital storytelling, right?
You're letting them know these are
really simple ways that you can start
to bring viewers into the ePortfolio
in a way that's very different from
someone just reading a resume, right?
You spoke about the kind of bullets that
you might have in the resume that might
just have a, you know, name of your
position and the dates that you were
there, and that's a really different.
format than having something like this
where you can start to have images
of what you may have done within
the particular role or, you know,
other forms of, uh, media that may
be incorporated, reflections on the
experience, and That information is very
valuable to people that may be viewing
your ePortfolio for hiring purposes.
It goes so much deeper than just kind
of the, you know, name of your position
and the time that you were there.
For them to see any opportunities you
had for personal growth or leadership
opportunities that you had, community
engagement kinds of opportunities.
These are all showing.
Skills that people at all different
levels are interested in people having
when they're joining their organization.
So anytime you have a
chance to highlight that.
So it's wonderful that you're
incorporating that kind of, um,
information into the trainings and
something that I think You know,
our listeners will really value as
well that it's not just about, you
know, this is where you go to log
in, you know, that's the first step.
Um, but really how can you use
technology like this as this kind
of creation space to build this kind
of story of who you are and what you
really want people to know about you.
Um, so it's wonderful that you're giving
them these kind of real world examples
and sharing, you know, what some other
students at the institution have done.
I was trying to think back how many
years you've been, um, having this.
showcase where the the students are
really participating in a in a contest
and submitting their ePortfolios for
review and I would love for you to
share a little bit about that too.
I think other institutions would love
to hear about ways that you've been
able to kind of get students excited
about sharing their portfolios and.
You know, I think the contest
probably lends some additional
kind of peer motivation.
You know, they know other people are
going to be looking at it and seeing it.
And, um, I believe you even have a
rubric that you use to go through
and kind of score those submissions.
So Tell us a little bit about that too.
I think it's a wonderful model that
other schools might be interested in.
For sure.
Um, so we had, um, we ran the ePortfolio
contest in the mid 2010s a few times.
Um, I, I wasn't, um, I wasn't the
ePortfolio person at that time, of course.
Um, we've recently brought it back.
Um, last year was the first time we
had it again since, I don't know,
probably maybe 2016 or something.
So, Um, so it was a little tricky,
so, but it was ran a few times.
It was like a spring, fall, spring,
fall that they did back then.
But anyway, so last year we,
we, um, relaunched it and.
It was a little, um, it, it was not
foreign, but it was a little, it was a
little tricky for us at first because,
well, if you work anywhere, really,
you, you know, if you working, um, in
an industry where you're working in a
factory or you're packaging boxes and
Amazon, or you're, you're just trying
to, uh, get your seat, you know, your
boss, it's their coffee for the day.
You're not really thinking in like
contest mode and building enthusiasm and.
Things like this, you know, you're kind of
just running, you know, you're just kind
of running the cog that is your position.
And so this, this led to a unique
dynamic, I think, for our department
to think and consider, um, how we can
engage students to be interested in this.
You know, is it, is it, um, you
know, like I explained a minute ago,
is it we, us running around and we
have as many posters as possible
and as many handouts as possible and
we have people staffed at a table.
Is it talking to specific
faculty who may be interested?
Is it talking to the faculty that are
already using ePortfolio and say, Hey,
just FYI, there's a contest coming up.
Here's the timing of it.
I know you usually like to do your
ePortfolio trainings at the end of
the semester, but maybe, you know,
you think consider the beginning.
Um, some of that was a little,
um, tricky to navigate.
Uh, the, the, the nice thing about,
Last year was, it was my first go
at doing it and for the supervisor
above me, Uju as well, it was her
first go, like, really tackling this.
So we were like, you know what, if
we make a few mistakes and we, you
know, not super perfect, it's okay.
So, and I, overall, I
think it went fairly well.
Um, so anyways, we, um, So the format
we went with was, um, we would open
the contest, we used the Digication
courses, um, the courses in Digication
as the sort of group sign up.
component so that students feel like
they're tangibly signing up and we need
them to anyway, but um, so they're,
they're basically clicking that enroll
button to join the course, right?
And that's their way of,
of uh, signing up for it.
And so it does a few things.
One, it gets them to sign in.
If they've never logged into
Digication, their account
doesn't necessarily spawn, right?
So they need to log into it, um, and
then it spawns their account, um, which
it exists, but you know what I mean?
And so.
Um, in addition to that,
they enroll in the contest.
And so they're signed up.
So they're in the list of the, um,
people in the people column, right.
Um, in the actual, um,
contest group or course.
Um, and so.
Once that's done, we also had
a, we built an ePortfolio page
for the ePortfolio contest.
Um, and so we, um, make created handouts
with QR codes and things like this, and
we would have students scan them and
that would take them to the signup page.
And the signup page
isn't just a signup page.
It goes over, um, what the prizes
are, which we, last year and
this year as well, we did two 250
prizes, and we did two 100 prizes.
We kind of did two categories,
um, for each one of those.
One, we did a, um, Sort of a
personal slash hobby portfolio.
The other one was, uh,
professional slash academic.
Um, and they were both 250.
The other prizes of 100,
100 were audience choice.
I'll put those aside for, for now.
The two, two 250 prizes are the,
obviously the bigger selling
point to get people at least in.
So we have a little description
about the contest and the same
ePortfolio page, we created a video.
And.
Um, I, we have a couple of people
in our, um, department who are
quite good at making nice videos.
Um, I'm pretty decent myself, but
obviously I'm siloed in a number
of, of, I wear a number of hats.
So that's a little challenging for
me to get around to do, which is a
shame because I do kind of like it.
I do like doing it, but that's okay.
Um, so anyway, we create videos of how
to sign up for the contest, even though
it's a one minute, 30 second video, it's
You have to create a video because, I
mean, unless, you know, there's other
ways you can consider having people
sign up for the contest, but for us,
what worked fairly well last year, even
though it seemed, might seem like a
number of steps and a little odd for
students, if you're just with that,
there with them, um, they'll sign up.
And when we send out, we send out emails
as well to the whole campus of students
saying, Hey, sign up for the contest.
This is what it is.
Here's the link to sign up.
They sign up, so they're able to do
it, and they're able to figure it out.
But the trick to that is you have to
link how to sign up, and in my opinion,
video is the best modality to do that.
Have the video be, you
know, decent quality.
A little music in the background,
but it shouldn't be in your face.
And instructional.
So you want to have it go through
like a normal how to tutorial, right?
An actual how to guide.
Um, and then, That shows
them how to sign up.
Click here, zoom into the
button, click that, right?
So anyway, we create the video
and it's, you know, great.
We have people sign up.
Um, we outline on the page our
contest guidelines and that goes
to the rubric that you mentioned.
So the ePortfolio Contest Rubric is
linked on our page because that's what
our judges use to judge the ePortfolios.
So, so that's basically the experience
for the student in the beginning.
So, I want to say like mid
late August is when we have
people sign up for the contest.
Um, or we at least open it up for sign up.
I should say we try to promote
as much as possible and then.
The submission phase then comes in.
So we open the contest up for submission
on, um, I want to say it was the end
of September, something like that.
So we give from end of September
to the end of October, we
open it up for submission.
And, There's a few reasons we
did this because we could have,
we could have opened it up
for signup and for submission.
The reason we didn't do that was
because we wanted to open it up for so
students could submit multiple times
in case they submitted by accident.
Right.
So, and, but the trick was, if we did that
too early, we opened up the submissions
too early, some students might have 30
submissions and it might get a little,
it might be a bit of a lot, right?
It might be a lot for them.
And so what we decided was, okay,
that month period makes sense.
Um, and we wanted the, um, the language
of what we were saying to people to
be different in different phases.
Sign up for the portfolio contest,
sign up, sign up, sign up.
And then.
Attention students, now it's time, now
that you've worked on your ePortfolios
and you've been working on them,
ePortfolios are now open for submission.
You can submit, join the aid
lab, or drop in with us, and
you can drop in for submission.
Right, so we wanted to also stagger
it in turn, uh, for the students to
get used to the concept of logging in,
signing up, and then making a portfolio.
Like, that's kind of A lot for brand
new students as it is like they're this
is sort of a bond to add it on to their
courses That they're already taking
their math courses English course etc.
So it's it's extra Um, and you know, we
are open to help them But you know, and
obviously not all students are going
to drop in for help every step of the
way so We'd find that staggering the,
um, release phases was more effective.
Um, I think, and so we did the same
thing this year, um, about a month for
submission, but they can also like new
people can still sign up, so you can
still sign up for the submission phase.
You can sign up even the last day, uh,
October 29 or whatever it was, they
could sign up and still submit as well.
Work with us for an
hour if they wanted to.
Right.
Um, and then we have it.
A month period for our judges.
So we, um, pay, uh, at this semester.
Last year, I think we did six, but
this year we're doing five judges.
And so we're, we reached out to some
faculty, reached out to some staff, um,
and we tried to be nuanced in our choices.
So I try to have one staff, one
faculty member from the MA, one
from, uh, ELL, that's, um, uh, ESL,
the English Second Language faculty.
One from business, one
from, uh, sociology, right?
Just different, um, types and
different perspectives to be
able to judge the contest.
You don't want to silo all
the way into just VMA people.
You don't want to be all English faculty.
So it seemed like the right move,
I don't know, to have different
faculty from these different areas.
And so we've done that and we
give them about a month to judge.
So we just actually, maybe last week
even, um, turned off the submissions.
So Submissions are done, but now it's
turned over to the faculty, which again,
we made a video for them and instructional
material for them on how to judge.
So that was the next piece of this.
So we had to make materials for
the students on how to do things.
But then we had to make things for
our faculty on how to do things
for the contest so that they
can navigate it and not be lost.
And, and we want it to be
a good experience for them.
Like that's one of the other things too,
that I was mentioning, um, earlier with a
different topic is that I didn't want to
just shoulder shrug my way through this.
I want.
If, even if they're, you know,
judging 20, 30, 40, 50 ePortfolios,
I want it to be like fun for them,
or I want it to be, um, unique.
And I want, so one of our staff
members, he made a, uh, a judge video.
Maybe I'll send it to you after this.
Absolutely hilarious.
It's in the style of like old 1940s,
50s, Mickey Mouse, and it's really a
silly video, but it's instructional.
It's so funny.
And I, I just saw it last week
and I was like, Cam, you're
ridiculous, but it's great.
I was like that, that I didn't
even have to tell you to do this.
You already knew, um, that this is
what I, what we were shooting for.
So I want it to be a special thing,
not just this obligatory thing
where you're, you know, doing it,
grading students, getting paid.
That's it.
Nah, that's fine.
But While you're doing it,
let's have, you know, enjoy it
a little or have fun with it.
And, um, really for us have that, that
aid stamp, like you worked with our
department aid and it was a unique
experience from other experiences and
it was ePortfolio, different experience.
That's not like other experiences
working with other things, right?
So we wanted it to be as, as pleasant
and as fun as possible for them.
Right.
And so, yeah, they get a month to judge
and then we'll announce the winners.
Um, I think we have December 3rd.
I have it pulled up on the side here,
December 3rd to, um, announce the exact.
The winners of the two 250 prizes,
then we'll have a contest, uh, sort
of celebration in person event.
Um, we're still working through
the logistics of that now,
but that will be December 10.
Again, we're trying to balance
not too close to finals, but when
people are freaking out, you know,
again, that's another tricky thing.
It's very tricky balancing
these things, right?
And so, um, so we're having that
event and I think it'll be fun.
We'll have pizza, Jenga.
Uh, we're going to make
it, we did it last year.
It was kind of last
minute, but it went well.
And I was like, I want to act
now that we have time to plan it.
I want to do it better.
So we're going to have
giant Jenga, maybe giant.
Cornhole connect for whatever,
just silly things going on while
people, uh, come into our area or
maybe we'll have it in the hallway.
If we can reserve it.
I don't know.
Um, Love pizza, snacks, but the
catch is, uh, students come in there
and the point of it is to vote on
the audience choice ePortfolio.
So we'll send out an email for
the audience choice and we'll
determine the winner that day.
So we'll probably choose, I'll go back
a tiny bit, but so the audience choice
ePortfolios will acquire the candidates
from the maybe top six or top seven.
Okay.
Yeah.
I was curious on all the submissions, how
many kind of move on to that next level?
Exactly.
So the two grand prize winners will be the
two that were highest rated by the judges.
But then we'll have a bunch
of honorable mentions, right?
We'll have some really good ePortfolios
and it's like, oh, it's a shame.
We can't do anything with them.
They didn't win anything.
Well, we can do something with them.
We can nominate them.
So that's one level of, um, I don't
know, honoring them or promoting them.
And then in addition to that, we can
say, these are the seven or six or five
ePortfolios, not the grand prize winners.
Um, that we will choose
for the audience choice.
And so we'll make a form or we'll
make some kind of polling thing.
I think we did a form last year
and we'll have the little, the
links to each of the portfolios.
We'll send out an email and say to
the entire campus, Hey, everybody,
the audience choice has opened up.
Vote.
Vote, vote, vote for your favorite
ePortfolio out of the, you
know, five or six of them here.
And the top two winners are
going to get a $100 prize.
Um, and so, you know, in these
days, you know, obviously more
money better, but hey, a hundred
dollars is a hundred dollars, right?
Two 50; two 50.
Yeah.
You know?
Um, and so it, it billed incentives.
And so that's how we acquire them.
And we'll have a combination of an
email sent out to find out the audience
choice winner, and we'll have that
December 10th event to have people vote.
And by maybe 3:34, we'll have
the actual announcement for who
the audience choice winner is.
So it'll be a sort of a double
whammy event or triple whammy event.
I like to view it as final
exclamation point for end of semester.
You did it students.
We're aid come hang out with us
and check out these ePortfolios.
What's ePortfolio?
You know, some people might not have heard
of the contest or whatever, so we can show
them and we have festivities, balloons,
uh, shiny things, whatever, food, pizza,
and then the third thing would be.
Actual winner, right?
We get an actual couple of winners
and the voting out of that too.
So a triple whammy kind of event that
we, uh, hoping to put on and I think
it'll be better this year than than
last year too, so it should be fun.
Here's a preview of what's
coming up next In part two of my
conversation with Matthew Gomes.
An ADP Systems Analyst at
Bunker Hill Community College.
We had one student that wasn't,
um, I guess when they found out
they weren't, they didn't win,
they weren't super thrilled.
Um, but on that same token, we had
students who were like, Oh, uh, this
makes me motivated to try next year.
Or when are you doing it again?
I was, that was another one that
surprised me, where students were like,
when are you going to run it again?
Even faculty were like, Oh, if I knew, oh,
and I'm like, sent out a million emails.