The iPortfolio: Capture, Reflect, Connect

2010

While professional courses have had a long association with work-integrated learning (WIL), issues around graduate employability, and insufficient interaction between university and industry learning and assessment, have led more recently to greater investment in WIL in the Higher Education sector (Goulter, 2007, Patrick et al., 2008). Guided by WIL principles of the Innovative Research Universities (2008), as well as notions of criticality in WIL (Billett, 2009) and hybrid spaces in teacher education (Zeichner, 2010), this paper explores the potential of an e-Portfolio to enhance graduate employability among pre-service teachers in a one-year professional program. The authors analyzed transcripts of interviews with key stakeholders — including Professional Experience Advisory Committee (PEAC) members, pre-service teachers, and program lecturers — as well as policy, curriculum, and course accreditation documents, and pre-service teacher work samples. Findings support the potential o...

Asia-Pacific journal of cooperative education, 2016

The following study utilizes an ePortfolio platform to examine desirable employment competencies during an introductory level professional development course for cooperative education students at a large, research intensive institution. The researchers created course activities allowing students to demonstrate essential learning outcomes derived from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) [Liberal Education and America's Promise] LEAP Report (2008). While it is recognized that the student learning outcomes identified in the LEAP Report are intended to be examined through summative analysis at the conclusion of one's undergraduate experience, this study proposes that these learning outcomes can be promoted early during students' undergraduate careers through formative feedback in an ePortfolio development process. The results of this study suggest that ePortfolios could be used as a medium to encourage student confidence with respect to employment pr...

2010

In today's global market place employers are seeking high level skills of communication, networking and entrepreneurship in their potential employees. Increasingly, these skills extend to online methods of engagement through social media. The idea of the 'digital native' suggests that students are able to use such tools effectively, having grown up with these technologies, but more recent research suggests otherwise. We argue that a traditional university education does not in itself equip students for the modern workplace, and that effective integration of digital research, communication and creative skills into the curriculum is required. The implementation of what we have labelled a Personal Development Portfolio (PDP) can help to address this. At a time when the very validity of a university education is under the microscope, such initiatives are increasingly important. Our study encompassed two UK universities and investigated the attitudes and capabilities of students with regard to technology-enhanced learning at the start of their course, and then tracked their progress through the academic year. Specifically, students were asked to describe their learning experiences in a personal blog throughout their course to supplement and complement monthly faceto-face meetings with personal tutors. We used mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) to explore the ways these social technologies could be effectively integrated into university education to encourage development of employability skills. An online questionnaire was completed at the start of the academic year, and in-depth interviews with selected respondents were carried out throughout their programme in order to assess progress. Our findings suggest that the use of blogs encourages peer-to-peer collaboration and also improves the quality of face-to-face time spent with students by tutors, although the degree of commitment displayed to the task was very variable. Students' perspectives on their experience are mainly positive, but concern remains about the variable levels of PDP acceptance by staff, and the absence of a strategic, unified approach is currently restricting effectiveness and wider take up. Future research will examine how universities can implement a more strategic approach to prepare students for life and work in a digital society. This goes beyond consideration of employability in the digital economy, to cover the broader issues of participation, social justice, personal safety, ethical behaviours, and the management of identity and reputation.

2011 International Conference on E-Business and E-Government (ICEE), 2011

E-portfolios have demonstrated a capacity to enhance students' learning, and in particular, to enhance work integrated learning (WIL). Professional bodies in Australia require construction management and nursing students to engage in practical/clinical placement experiences as a requisite component of the undergraduate degree. This paper considers the potential e-portfolios have in documenting the skills gained from WIL experiences. This paper presents the findings of the initial phase of a national study to development of a learning framework that encourages reflective learning during work based activities. It then explains how this framework can be incorporated in e-portfolios and used in assisting students to link the knowledge gained from their placement/industrial experiences with the theoretical concepts learnt at university. Data gathered on students' responses to the use of e-portfolios will be used to show the advantages and disadvantages of e-portfolios for this application.

2007

The idea for the creation of an electronic student portfolio at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) grew from a desire to provide students with greater evidence of their achievements than could be displayed by an academic transcript alone. Concerns were raised that exiting students were themselves not familiar with the full complement of skills they had developed throughout their university career, a lack of awareness which would have clear implications for a successful transition to graduate employment. Electronic portfolios typically encourage reflective processes, metacognitive connections across the full range of student experiences and student-centred learning, enabling students to understand their overall learning experience beyond the confines of individual units and assessment marking grids. As such, they enable a holistic view of the individual’s current skill sets and areas for further development, and of how student experiences relate to their future professional ro...

The ‘learning portfolio’ is often lauded as a powerful pedagogical tool and, consequently, is rapidly becoming a central feature of contemporary education. This report synthesizes and critically reviews the literature pertaining to its use in universities and higher education institutions specifically. In these contexts, learning portfolios are typically used with the dual intention of (i) encouraging critically self-reflective lifelong learning and (ii) gathering evidence of broad skills and competencies that may enhance future employment prospects. Although the theory underlying the use of learning portfolios is promising, robust empirical evidence supporting their effectiveness remains sparse. A large proportion of the literature published on the topic has either been purely theoretical in nature, or has focused on the technological platforms used to support learning portfolio construction. Of the few studies reporting outcomes of learning portfolio use, the vast majority have done so solely in terms of selfreported attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders, as opposed to achievement data or demonstrable competencies. Moreover, almost all of these studies have been conducted over relatively short periods of time. One clear message emerging from the extant literature is that simply requiring students to use learning portfolios will not necessarily foster the desired outcomes. The tool is rooted in a complex pedagogy, and its potential can only be realised if the processes underlying this pedagogy (e.g. reflection) are properly understood by advocates and executed by users. In addition, there is recurring tension between the developmental (process) and evaluative (product) conceptualizations of the learning portfolio, and this may be further aggravated by recent attempts to integrate digital badging within the tool. Overall, a definitive understanding of how best to implement learning portfolios in higher education has not yet been reached. As such, current attempts to implement portfolios on a university-wide basis may be somewhat premature. Success and sustainability may be possible, but will require extensive planning and preparation, and a substantial commitment from all stakeholders involved. If this is not the case, the experience is in danger of becoming, as Joyes, Gray and Hartnell-Young (2010, p.493) described, “like a game of snakes and ladders, where initial rapid progress can suffer major setbacks due to a poo

Journal of Literacy and …, 2009

Research on Education and Media, 2015

This paper presents some outcomes and results of a 3-year empirical research in which we propose an adult workers-oriented tool – the portfolio of competences – to higher education students of the postsecondary age group, using an e-portfolio system (Mahara), with the aim of making them able to reflect about their learning experiences, to demonstrate their competences and to mobilize them in a real working context, relying on the substantial working experience they have during their studying period, albeit often occasional and scarcely related to their degree programme.We especially focus here on technological issues, mainly addressing the portfolio structure and communication between the teacher/tutor and the students, analyzing data coming from the internal database of the e-portfolio system and comparing the solutions adopted both at technological and didactical level, from one year to another.

Summary This study is a critical comparison of the use of e-Portfolio for teaching and reflective student-centred assessment across two iterations of the same module. The first, LI1011 Employability Skills, is a traditional module taught in a lecture theatre, but requiring students to use e-Portfolio to submit a reflective personal development planning portfolio.

2003

This paper presents a description and analysis of salient issues related to the development of an e-portfolio application implemented at Edith Cowan University to help students track and accumulate evidence of skills developed over their period of study. The online application has been designed to help students provide evidence required by employers in a progressive and reflective manner by considering ongoing situations experienced by students during their course of study, the action taken and the outcomes. Technical issues, legal issues and security issues are discussed, as well as considerations for future developments based on the experiences of this study.