{"id":188,"date":"2026-09-08T11:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/?p=188"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:23:31","slug":"two-lessons-from-weller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/two-lessons-from-weller\/","title":{"rendered":"Two lessons from Weller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>One Relevant Lesson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One lesson I take from Weller&#8217;s (2020) chapter on 2008 is how closely the downsides of e-portfolios he describes match our own experience at the University of Fribourg&#8217;s (UNIFR) School of Medicine. Alongside the key benefits, Weller outlines common barriers encountered by both faculty and students: a lack of support for platform use, overly complex interfaces and, most importantly, the perception among students that e-portfolios were simply too time-consuming. He also notes that students are often unable to export their e-portfolio once their studies end \u2014 a real problem for lifelong learners when the institution stops hosting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2025, we ran a series of focus group interviews to better understand how our medical students perceived their e-portfolios. Beyond confirming the barriers above, we found that most students used the platform only because the Master of Medicine program required it. They uploaded the bare minimum and kept a more traditional vault of evidence \u2014 folders and files on their own computers. These interviews prompted us to question the relevance of e-portfolios to our students&#8217; learning experience, and the decision has already been made to phase them out within the next two to three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>One Conflicting Lesson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weller&#8217;s (2020) chapter on 2005, which covers video, was particularly relevant to my own work creating instructional videos at UNIFR. To me, video is more than a tool: it remains a universal and effective learning medium that can be combined with most of the other tools and pedagogical approaches Weller describes. Where the chapter conflicts with my experience, however, is in its second part, on the &#8220;flipped classroom&#8221; or &#8220;flipped learning&#8221; concept, in which students engage with the learning material (including videos) before discussing it with their instructor in face-to-face class time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Weller cites several authors who are critical of this model, notably for the lack of evidence for its effectiveness, there are circumstances where it remains a practical way to deal with less-than-ideal learning programs. In our case, most of the instructors who teach in the Master of Medicine program are also active practitioners with limited time dedicated to teaching. The flipped classroom model helps them make the most of their class time by focusing on where students struggle and addressing points of confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Transparency statement : AI assistance was used for grammar checking, phrasing, and final language polish.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weller, M. (2020).\u00a0<em>25 years of ed tech<\/em>. Athabasca University Press. https:\/\/www.aupress.ca\/books\/120290-25-years-of-ed-tech\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Relevant Lesson One lesson I take from Weller&#8217;s (2020) chapter on 2008 is how closely the downsides of e-portfolios [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru319\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}