The goal of Keio University’s Teacher Training Program was to develop the next generation of teachers. The Program believed that the assessments of suitability for a teaching career should be performed not only by the faculty, but by various parties including students, individuals that students meet during their courses, and even the alumni working as teachers. In order to achieve this, Keio implemented a portfolio system (“Teaching Career Logbook” – manaba), and used the following four functions extensively:

1. The Learning Management System (LMS) allowed faculty to deliver classes effectively.
2. Community functions allowed access within and outside of the department (SNS).
3. The Portfolio allowed the ability to accumulate one’s work artifacts for self-reflection and to view others’ artifacts and accumulate feedback.
4. Mutual/peer review functions allowed users to view each others’ artifacts.

The results demonstrated the effectiveness of using the manaba system for several years to facilitate self-evaluation, reflection, and achievement.

Here’s an example. In one of his classes, Professor Masaharu Kage assigned students a paper, then asked them to assess others’ papers and write about it in the forum. 97.5% of the comments referenced another students’ assignments and comments. 65% of the comments showed that the students realized the limitations of their own ideas and point of view, internalized the other students thinking, and reexamined their own opinions as a result.

With the implementation of manaba, Keio was able to introduce a truly meaningful assessment practice. For students, it became a system that crossed the boundaries between academic departments, overcame temporal and spatial limitations, and also made peer evaluation a possibility. For the faculty, it became a tool for sharing student information and recording classroom evaluations. By joining academic learning, instruction and evaluation, manaba familiarized students with teaching careers and prepared them to make informed decisions on their career aspirations.