Surfacing Growth and Learning in Extracurricular Experiences

Andrew P. Longhofer, MFA

2026 AAEEBL Annual Meeting

Where does eportfolio practice happen�in your institution?

Where does eportfolio practice happen?

• General education
• FYE
• Core curriculum
• Capstones
• Major/minor courses
• Study abroad/away
• Work-integrated learning
• Service learning/civic engagement
• Undergraduate research
• Prior learning

“Because collection over time is a key element of the ePortfolio process, employing ePortfolios in collaboration with other high-impact practices provides opportunities to make connections between various educational experiences.”

AAC&U (n.d.-b)

“Because collection over time is a key element of the ePortfolio process, employing ePortfolios in collaboration with other high-impact practices provides opportunities to make connections between various educational experiences.”

AAC&U (n.d.-b) [emphasis added]

“Building an ePortfolio leads students to naturally make valuable connections between various courses, assignments, and cocurricular activities through reflection of their past work…A unified ePortfolio system guides students through curated courses, programs, activities, internships, research projects, and other high-impact practices.”

AAC&U (n.d.-a)

“Building an ePortfolio leads students to naturally make valuable connections between various courses, assignments, and cocurricular activities through reflection of their past work…A unified ePortfolio system guides students through curated courses, programs, activities, internships, research projects, and other high-impact practices.

AAC&U (n.d.-a) [emphasis added]

“Building an ePortfolio leads students to naturally make valuable connections between various courses, assignments, and cocurricular activities through reflection of their past work…A unified ePortfolio system guides students through curated courses, programs, activities, internships, research projects, and other high-impact practices.

AAC&U (n.d.-a) [emphasis added]

Growth and learning in extracurricular experiences

CAS (2024, p. 31)

Growth and learning in extracurricular experiences

• Extensively documented cohort-level correlations between involvement and attitudes/behaviors after graduation (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005; Mayhew et al., 2017)
• Does not particularly claim causality
• Does not necessarily reflect whether an individual student exhibits that outcome
• Does not particularly show the process of development during the college experience
• Program-level outcomes assessed directly through self-report pre/post, indirectly through self-report proxy measures, or inductively through phenomenological accounts of impact
• This evidence emerges from the same research lineage as HIPs (Kuh et al., 1991; Kuh & Lund, 1994; Kuh, 1995)
• Disparity has been present even from the beginning of that research lineage (Kuh, Shedd & Whitt, 1987)

Strongest evidence

• Practical competence
• Skills associated with completing the responsibilities of the role (Kuh, 1995; Soria et al., 2019)
• General transferrable skills: time management, planning, navigating complex processes, balancing multiple responsibilities (Logue et al., 2005; Holzweiss et al., 2007; Cui et al., 2022; Seemiller & Rosch, 2023)
• Identify, pursue, stay motivated toward career goals (Kuh, 1995; Holzweiss et al., 2007)
• Intrapersonal development
• Learn about themselves, think about themselves as leaders, co-create a niche on campus, integrate different identities (Kuh, 1995; Logue et al., 2005)
• Delegation, collaboration, stress management, resilience, accountability, self-efficacy (Kuh & Lund, 1994; Smith & Chenoweth, 2015; Rosch et al., 2023)
• Sense of purpose, contributing to something greater than themselves (Kuh & Lund, 1994; Logue et al., 2005)

Strong evidence

• Humanitarianism and civic engagement
• Desire to do understand injustice and work toward justice, empathy, appreciation for diversity, multicultural competence (Kuh & Lund, 1994; Kuh, 1995; Bowman et al., 2014; Mayhew et al., 2016)
• Oriented toward collective goals, investing in development of future leaders (Holzweiss et al., 2007; Logue et al., 2005; Rosch et al., 2023)
• Interpersonal competence
• Group dynamics, resolving conflict, motivating others (Kuh & Lund, 1994; Logue et al., 2005; Smith & Chenoweth, 2015)
• Active listening, professional communication, provide emotional support (Logue et al., 2005; Holzweiss et al., 2007; Smith & Chenoweth, 2015)
• Potentially more impactful than any academic experiences on this domain (Huang & Chang, 2004)

Less evidence

• Knowledge acquisition, construction, integration and application
• Setting to apply, discuss, and glean illustrations of curricular content (Kuh, 1995)
• Setting for deeper exploration via discipline-aligned organizations (Holzweiss et al., 2007)
• Social learning and accountability structures for academically supportive norms and activities (Huang & Chang, 2004; Magolda, 2005; Holzweiss et al., 2007; Kuh, 2009)
• Cognitive complexity
• Problem solving, learning how to learn, analysis (Huang & Chang, 2004)
• Self-efficacy, optimism, persistence-–believing they can solve problems and continuing to attempt to solve them (Smith & Chenoweth, 2015)

We’ve been asking for it for 40 years.

• Ongoing, recurring calls in the student affairs literature for cocurricular transcripts, comprehensive learner records, and ePortfolios
• Morrell & Morrell (1986): Call for capturing cocurricular experiences, paired with deliberate planning and goal setting for involvement as a part of academic advising
• Smith & Chenoweth (2015): Example of formal student development transcript linked explicitly to career readiness skills
• Gordon et al. (2019): Call for leveraging evidence of learning in student life for accreditation, with an example of a cocurricular transcript
• Haber-Curran et al. (2019): Call for cocurricular learner record, mapped to institutional learning outcomes, with an eye toward showcase portfolios for employment
• But it never seems to happen, at least in a high-impact way that foregrounds folio thinking, integrative learning, or process.

Engaging student affairs functional units in eportfolio practice

Engaging student affairs could be easier than academics!

• Fewer shared governance and academic freedom issues
• Program staff have thought deeply and care immensely about what students are getting out of participating
• Deep integration of student development theory that could further enrich reflection and connection
• Desire to highlight the value of the overall transformative experience of college
• Rather than a transactional process resulting in a credential
• Rather than treating student affairs programming effectively as recess

But also, more complicated.

How do you enforce a required component of an optional experience?

Build into existing processes

• Applying for experience
• Member/officer (s)elections
• Officer transitions
• Trainings and workshops
• Internal awards and grants
• Conduct processes
• Event planning/risk management
• Annual reporting requirements
• Budget requests
• Organization/entity group recognition
• Microcredentials/badges

Anchor to advising

• For organization advisors
• Goal setting
• Monitoring campus and national organization requirements
• Mentoring individual officers
• Debriefing major events/milestones/happenings
• Prompt for how curricular content could inform organization activities
• Prompt for how org activities could relate to curricular learning
• For academic and career advisors
• Prompt for extracurricular involvement as part of pre-advising prep
• Discuss how extracurricular involvement dovetails with academic and career goals
• Ask to see (and provide feedback on) artifacts and reflections from extracurricular participation

Those come with their own complications…

• Who reviews and maintains systems, processes, templates, resources?
• How do those systems, processes, templates, and resources support and align with curricular eportfolio practice?
• Organization advisors as volunteer appointments–
• Need to design implementation with room to include extracurricular experiences
• Need to design extracurricular experiences with transparent connections to curricular outcomes
• Both sides of the house have to believe that there is value in these experiences–and to communicate that belief to students

An illustration: Pharmacy education

Pharmacy education

• Significant effort to expand cocurricular options within Pharmacy education in the last 10 years
• ACPE (2015) allows curricular standards related to transferable skills and professional attitudes could be delivered through cocurricular experiences
• Extensive interventions to document and assess: written reflections, self-report scales, eportfolios, cocurricular transcripts (Belousova et al., 2019; Briceland et al., 2024)
• All with significant challenges related to compliance, feedback cycles, and meaningful participation (Briceland et al., 2024); designed, implemented, and disseminated largely without engaging with eportfolio literature
• Privileges reporting mere participation and filing-cabinet portfolio practice; little actual assessment of skill

What we’re doing at Pacific

• Curricular
• Will be discussing the curricular component at the Symposium next week
• Includes learning, showcase, and assessment portfolios
• Actually treats these learning outcomes as curricular, but invites cocurricular experience as evidence of meeting outcomes
• Designed with folio thinking and integrative learning in mind–unlike the majority of portfolio initiatives in Pharmacy education
• Cocurricular
• Student org event planning/risk management workbook allows iterative feedback from advisors and from peers throughout the planning stage
• Required reflection on planning and execution–evaluated by staff (that’s me!)
• Whole workbook or individual pages can be used as evidence in showcase or assessment portfolios

There is a lot of learning that happens through student affairs programming—�but we only really know what via broad correlations, self-report data, and open-ended phenomenological questions.

ePortfolio initiatives have an opportunity to partner with student affairs functional areas to help surface and document the learning and development that happens in non-academic programming.

Rigorous, authentic assessment of learning outcomes from non-academic involvement could help substantiate the value of a college education—�both in general and for a specific student.

Non-academic programs offer countless experiences that could be deeper, richer, more meaningful, and more intentional with deliberate application of folio thinking, integrative learning, and formative feedback.

Deliberately welcoming extracurricular experiences into the curriculum-supported eportfolio can make portfolios, curriculum, and extracurricular involvement richer, more integrative, and more meaningful.

References

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (2015). Guidance for the accreditation standards and key elements for the professional program in pharmacy leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree: Guidance for standards 2016. https://www.acpe-accredit.org/wp-content/uploads/GuidanceForStandards2016FINAL2022.pdf

American Association of Colleges and Universities (n.d.-a). ePortfolios. https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/eportfolios

American Association of Colleges and Universities (n.d.-b). High-impact practices. https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/high-impact

Belousova, V.; Hassan, A. K. & Lampkin, S. (2019). Mixed-method study of utilizing portfolios to document and assess co-curricular activities: Student and advisor perceptions. Pharmacy, 7, 170. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7040170

Bowman, N. A., Park, J. J. & Denson, N. (2014). Student involvement in ethnic student organizations: Examining civic outcomes 6 years after graduation. Research in Higher Education, 56, 127-145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-014-9353-8

Briceland, L. L, Veselov, M. & Bach, K. (2024). Assessment of student pharmacists’ co-curricular professionalization using an impact scale. Pharmacy, 12, 117. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy12040117

Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (2024). CAS professional standards for higher education (version 11.1). Author.

Cui, S., Wu, Q. & Erdemir, B. (2022). Being a college student leader boosts career prospects: A panel survey in China. Education + Training, 64(5), 700-715.

Eynon, B and Gambino, L. (2017). High impact eportfolio practice. Stylus.

Finley, A. (2019). A comprehensive approach to assessment of high-impact practices. (Occasional paper no. 41.) National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).

References

Gordon, S. R., Shefman, P., Heinrich, B. & Gage, K. (2019). The role of student affairs in regional accreditation: Why and how to be included. Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.18060/27916

Haber-Curran, P. (2019). Co-curricular involvement and student leadership as catalysts for student learning. New Directions for Higher Education, 188, 33-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20343

Holzweiss, P., Rahn, R. & Wickline, J. (2007). Are all student organizations created equal? The differences and implications of student participation in academic versus non-academic organizations. The College Student Affairs Journal, 27(1), 136-150.

Huang, Y. & Chang, S. (2004). Academic and cocurricular involvement: Their relationship and the best combinations for student growth. Journal of College Student Development, 45(4), 391-406. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2004.0049

Kuh, G. D. (1995). The other curriculum: Out-of-class experiences associated with student learning and personal development. The Journal of Higher Education, 66(2), 123-155.

Kuh, G. D. (2009). What student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement. Journal of College Student Development, 50(6), 683-706. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0099

Kuh, G. D. & Lund, J. P. (1994). What students gain from participating in student government. New Directions for Student Services, 66, 5-17.

Kuh, G. D., Schuh, J. H., Whitt, E. J., & Associates (1991). Involving colleges: Encouraging student learning and personal development through out-of-class experiences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kuh, G. D., Shedd, J. D. & Whitt, E. J. (1987). Student Affairs and Liberal Education: Unrecognized (and unappreciated) common law partners. Journal of College Student Personnel, 28(3), 252-60

References

Lange, A. C. & Stewart, D-L. (2019). High-impact practices. In E. S. Abes, S. R. Jones & D-L Stewart (Eds.), Rethinking college student development theory using critical frameworks. Stylus.

Logue, C. T., Hutchens, T. A. & Hector, M. A. (2005). Student leadership: A phenomenological exploration of postsecondary experiences. Journal of College Student Development, 46(4), 393-408. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2005.0039

Magolda, P. (2005). Promoting student success: What student leaders can do (Occasional Paper no. 8). Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.

Mayhew, M. J., Rokenbach, A. N., Bowman, N. A., Seifert, T. A., Wolniak, G. C., Pascarella, E. T. & Terenzini, P. T. (2016). How college affects students, volume 3: 21st century evidence that higher education works. Jossey-Bass.

Morrell, S. A. & Morrell, R. C. (1986). Learning through student activities. New Directions for Higher Education, 56, 77-87.

Pascarella, E. T. & Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. Jossy-Bass.

Pascarella, E. T. & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students, volume 2: A third decade of research. Jossy-Bass.

Rosch, D. M., May, R. A., Wilson, K. D. & Spencer, G. L. (2023). The hidden leadership curriculum: Alumni perspectives on the leadership lessons gained through co-curricular engagement. Journal of Leadership Education, 22(1), 116-130. https://doi.org/10.12806/V22/I1/R7

Seemiller, C. & Rosch, D. M. (2023). A multi-disciplinary multi-degree study of workforce and leadership competencies within postsecondary accrediting organizations. Journal of Leadership Education, 22(1), 95-115. https://doi.org/10.12806/V22/I1/R6

Soria, K. M., Werner, L., Chandiramani, N., Day, M. & Asmundson, A. (2019). Cocurricular engagement as catalysts toward students’ leadership development and multicultural competence. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 56(2), 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2018.1519439

Reflection/discussion questions

• What programs at your institution are currently using eportfolios for teaching, learning, and/or assessment? Where are those programs located?
• What non-academic programs do your students occasionally mention in portfolios? Can you reach out to them?
• Do your portfolio-based teaching, learning, and/or assessment activities allow room for extracurricular experiences?
• What are the program theories and outcomes for the various non-academic programs at your institution? Are they mapped to institutional and curricular learning outcomes? How are they currently assessed?
• How do academic and student affairs currently view and treat each other? Does that culture need to change to partner in this way, or is this a natural outgrowth of a collaborative culture that already exists?