Kapi'olani Community College
"The Igneous Group worked closely with our faculty to create the prototype for a unique, culturally significant ePortfolio for our incoming Hawaiian students. Because ePortfolios were a new concept to our campus, part of the experience involved a close collaborative working relationship with the Igneous Group to design and develop an innovative ePortfolio concept. The quality of work done by the Igneous Group was outstanding and the prototype has been nationally recognized as the first of its type."
--Mona Lee, Dean of Student Services, and Kelli Goya, Title III Coordinator and Project Manager.
Challenge
The mission of the Kapi‘olani Community College Mālama Hawai‘i project is to build bridges for native Hawaiian students from high school, to college, to career. Key to this mission is recruiting and retaining native Hawaiian students who might not otherwise aspire to a college education. The Mālama Hawai‘i project runs many student-centered events and provides one-on-one counseling. The staff envisioned Web-based ePortfolio as a way to extend their efforts to the Internet, but they weren’t sure where to begin. When they learned of the success of the UC Gateways project and the ePortfolio contained within it, they called on The Igneous Group for assistance.
Solution
The Igneous Group facilitated several meetings among Mālama Hawai‘i staff members and KCC native Hawaiian faculty. Participants shared their vision for how the ePortfolio would help native Hawaiian students track their aspirations and achievements. It became clear that an important part of the Mālama Hawai‘i project was to recast college education in terms of Hawaiian values. The group had many ideas that needed to be organized, and it was important to have a visual representation of what the ePortfolio could be.
Results
The Igneous Group create`d a prototype ePortfolio that the Mālama Hawai‘i project could use as a demonstration vehicle as they sought grant funding for a full implementation. The prototype runs from a CD so that it can be demonstrated from any computer (even without an Internet connection).
Instead of a simple repository Web page for each student’s information, the Mālama Hawai‘i ePortfolio gives students the opportunity to associate each portfolio component (documents, achievements, etc) with one (or more) of several Hawaiian values. Students can browse their ePortfolio by achievement type or by value—with content from Mālama Hawai‘i staff explaining the importance of each value and inspiring student achievements within that value. Students would be able to invite friends and family, staff, or prospective employers to view their portfolios.
Igneous helped reinforce the sense of community that is so strong with the Mālama project, by integrating the team’s creative ideas and delivering a unique application that visually and functionally reflects the Mālama Hawai‘i values.
