ePortfolios

What Is It?
How Can It Is Used?
What Support Is Available?
Examples
Resources

What Is It ?

ePortfolio is an umbrella term that encompasses many things. Simply put, an eportfolio is a compilation of student work made up of documents and artifacts displayed electronically, typically as a webpage.

How Can It Be Used? | What Support Is Available? | Examples | Resources

How Can It Be Used?

There is a process to creating a portfolio. This process involves learning no matter what the intended outcome of the portfolio. Below is a process description for portfloio learning.

Collect –> Reflect –> Evaluate –> Select –> Present

Therefore an ePortfolio is effective as a learning tool simply for the process required to create it.

An ePortfolio can be used for many different reasons and outcomes. The first step is determining what purpose you intend address by implementing it in your class. Here are three decisions that will help determine the direction of your ePortfolio.

Do you intend for it to be summative or formative? A summative portfolio is showcase oriented and focuses on displaying a student's best work. A formative portfolio is growth oriented and focuses on showing a student's progress.
Do you intend for it to be individualistic or social? Many of the new web resources available can allow you make an ePortfolio that integrates sharing comments and information with others in network. However, in many cases you may wish to have the portfolio be focused only on the individual.
Do you intend for it to be portable or non- portable?For many cases, the student will create a ePortfolio for your class and then leave it as it is. However, perhaps you wish for the student to be able to edit it further beyond your class or program.

These three decisions create a three-dmensional spectrum where different purposes for your ePortflio can be plotted.

What Is It? | What Support Is Available? | Examples | Resources

What Support Is Available ?

If you are considering using an ePortfolio in your class, the first step is to plan out your intended purpose. Educational Technology Services has been researching eportfolios and we would be happy to sit down with you and give you whatever information or guidance you need to get an ePortfio project started.

What Is It? | How Can It Be Used? | Examples | Resources

Examples

Educational Technology Services was consulted for an ePortfolio pilot project to begin in 2009 for a Secondary Education sciences class. To prepare for the pilot we consulted with the instructors and determined the purpose of this particular portfolio project. Here is the summary:

An individualized professional showcase of:
- Learning and skills from course (and other)
- Lesson plans
- Projects
- Photos / video
Must be secure, have privacy controls
Incorporate reflections and comments
- student reflections on assignments and teaching
- instructor comments on artifacts

We then identified the two best tools that could accommodate this type of portfolio. We examined Wordpress and Mahara. A sample student was created that reflected a typical student in the class. This student was used to create samples in each tool for the best possible comparison. Here are the sample ePortfolios for Wordpress:

Tool: Wordpress.com - a blogging platform that can manipulated to create webpages
- Wordpress sample 1
- Wordpress sample 2

What Is It? | How Can It Be Used? | What Support Is Available? | Resources

Resources

Hellen Barret
Pioneer of e-portfolios
http://electronicportfolios.com/

University of Washington
My Learning and Class Portfolio
http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/students/portfolio.html

Prince George County Public Schools, Maryland US
Portfolio Assessment webpage
http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/portfolio.html

Mahara.org - an open-source ePortfolio specific tool

What Is It? | How Can It Be Used? | What Support Is Available? | Examples