Ritsumeikan University’s Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering had a goal of promoting “student-centered learning” by nurturing students’ self-motivation, while making sure that it was easy to identify students who struggled to fulfill graduation requirements and were at risk of dropping out.

To achieve these goals, the department decided to implement manaba (they called it “Career Karte”) as their advising e-Portfolio. It encouraged students to objectively evaluate their performance, identify issues, and learn how to solve problems proactively.

The process had three parts, all done through manaba:

1. Faculty advisors let students build their own portfolio by adding and editing their profile, and accumulating papers and notes they had written.
2. Advisors conducted online surveys for students whose responses were automatically stored in each student’s portfolio chronologically.
3. Advisors attached and accumulated mentoring notes on each student and shared them among themselves.

The faculty advisors found manaba to be highly effective. The online surveys enabled the analysis of student motivation and factors that influenced student morale. It became a vital resource for both students, in reflecting on their university life, and for advisors, in identifying specific issues that the students faced. Importantly, manaba encouraged advisors to proactively reach out to students who needed additional help. The advisors were even able to track how student motivation levels shifted over time and pinpoint the factors that affected any changes.