ePortfolio Research

ePortfolios are a wonderful tool that can be an excellent form of reflection for students and faculty. While there exist a number of debates on the decision to incorporate ePortfolios as a staple of the undergraduate curriculum at Saint Mary's College, the potential benefits for reflection and academic growth should not be dismissed. There are a number of programs at SMC that have voluntarily chosen to utilize ePortfolio systems. This article will give you an overview of what students and faculty are doing in relation to ePortfolios and point to some of the existing research developed by other academic institutions.

According to Carl Thelen, the Director of Web and Instructional Technology at Saint Mary's, they fall into two broad categories, each with several variants. The categories are delineated by who needs them (students or the institution), and the variants by their purposes. Note that Faculty are not often the people who “need” them directly. The different types are in no way mutually exclusive, though there are few systems that implement all the features needed for all uses. Most focus on the student side.

The categories are Student portfolios, and Assessment Portfolios. Student portfolios are for the benefit of students and assessment portfolios are mainly for the college and program improvement.

Student Portfolios:

Learning Portfolios – A place for a student to keep digital artifacts during College.

Reflection Portfolios – Like Developmental Portfolios, but include a reflection feature.

Showcase Portfolios - Show the best work a student has accomplished and includes the ability to pick and choose artifacts. Also includes a resume. If this type of portfolio is hosted at the College, having it on file at SMC is a way that alumni will (presumably) be inspired to keep in touch with us.... and be more likely to donate money.

Assessment Portfolios: demonstrate student competence and skill for well-defined areas. These may be end-of-course or program assessments primarily for evaluating student performance. The primary purpose is to evaluate student competency as defined by program standards and outcomes.

Department Portfolios – What a given department or program uses to assess the success of their educational goals. For example, Liberal and Civic Studies uses paper portfolios to assess their success.

Institutional Portfolios – what the College uses to assess the success of learning goals.
External Portfolios – What external entities use to evaluate the College’s success. These include WASC and state teacher accreditation, which in our case is PACT.

Developmental Portfolios: demonstrate the advancement and development of student skills over a period of time. Developmental portfolios are considered works-in-progress and include both self-assessment and reflection/feedback elements. The primary purpose is to provide communication between students and faculty.



Showcase Portfolios: demonstrate exemplary work and student skills. This type of portfolio is created at the end of a program to highlight the quality of student work. Students typically show this portfolio to potential employers to gain employment at the end of a degree program.





e-Portfolio's in Higher Education Research

Inter/National Coalition For Electronic Portfolio Research
http://www.epacinternational.org/

Electronic Portfolios 2.0 (A paperback book with research based on 20 different academic institutions)
http://www.styluspub.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=183392

Academic Impressions
https://www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences/0309-course-portfolios.php





Links to Portfolio Examples and SMC portfolio Mock-ups

San Francisco State ePortfolio Project
http://eportfolio.sfsu.edu/projects.php


Developmental, Assessment, Showcase
http://academic.regis.edu/LAAP/eportfolio/basics_types.htm


Campus Pack Expo LX portfolios

Free Webs Portfolios

CF Keep portfolios
http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/index.php?area=humanities

TaskStream Portfolios

Acrobat 9 Professional
http://electronicportfolios.org/categories.html

Wiki Spaces Electronic Portfolio
http://eportfolios.wikispaces.com/how-to




e-Portfolio Basics: What to include in an e-portfolio?

A portfolio may include the following elements:

* Student Information: name, contact information, major, graduation date, etc.
* Table of Contents: or various way to display links to contents of the portfolio
* Learner Goals
* Curricular standards and/or criteria: used to align the contents of the portfolio to institutional, departmental or course curriculum (often accomplished by rubrics)
* Rubrics: can be used to assess student work. A rubric is a criteria-rating scale, which provides the instructor with a tool to track student performance. They also inform students of the course/departmental/institutional expectations.
* Guidelines: used to select appropriate artifacts to keep the collection from growing haphazardly
* Artifacts: examples of student work including documents, images, video, audio, etc. (can be chosen by student, instructor or both)
* Instructor feedback
* Self-reflection pieces: a portfolio without reflections is just a multimedia presentation or an electronic resume