29.4: Introducing E-Portfolios

An e-portfolio, in simplest terms, is an electronic portfolio of all learning: that is, knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired through formal, non-formal, informal, accidental, and incidental learning. E-portfolios can be used by individuals to demonstrate learning and personal achievement, by educators and employers to assess ability and employment suitability, and by agencies and businesses to show positive change and organizational achievement.

In broader terms, the phrase e-portfolio is used to encompass tools, products, and systems that can be used by individuals, educators, employers, and entire nations for the purposes of describing, assessing, recognizing, and using knowledge and skills acquired through all forms of learning with evidence that is digitally created, stored, and managed through practices that meet standards to assure transportability, usability, and security. At its simplest, an e-portfolio may resemble a personal homepage or an electronic resume and, at its most complex, it may become a person’s digital identity.

Process and Product

The e-portfolio has been more formally defined as “a collection of authentic and diverse evidence, drawn from a larger archive representing what a person or organization has learned over time on which the person or organization has reflected, and designed for presentation to one or more audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose” (National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, 2003). We shall focus on two central concepts in this definition, the digital archive and the purpose-driven presentation.

Until recently, e-portfolio tools focused largely on the presentation of information, with an archive of digital data that derived from the associated purpose of the presentation. In other words, the archive was created with the purpose in mind. However, new e-portfolio tools include digital environments for assembling and managing documents and all forms of media in a digital archive, as well as software applications for assembling and sorting portions of that archive for a specific purpose such as applying for a job or seeking course credit. In the future, the archives will come first, with e-portfolios created when and as needed.

At this point, there are several tools for producing e-portfolios, but few for receiving and processing them. That is to say, tools are made available to students, for example, to present their acquired learning to teachers for assessment and credit, but processing those e-portfolios can be very labour-intensive. Currently, e-portfolio systems are being developed for use by their recipients, with software applications that may be used by both creators and processors (typically standards-based e-portfolios) or software applications that can pull what a processor might require from any e-portfolio tool; for example, through use of word search or a marking rubric.

In summary, the e-portfolio is about both process and product. E-portfolio tools help creators to identify and reflect on the outcomes of learning experiences and to produce archives and presentations. One particularly appealing part of the e-portfolio is the use of multimedia, for example audio files that can demonstrate language or musical competence, video files for demonstrating skills, and social networking and blogging for establishing references.

Application and Users

Individuals may use e-portfolios to demonstrate their own lifelong learning and achievements. Sometimes individuals create e-portfolios more as process than product, focusing on reflective learning than showcasing themselves. In their digital archives, they may assemble all the formal, digital records that exist about them and their learning created by themselves and/or created by others, for example health providers and police departments. Educators may use student e-portfolios to assess student learning, the quality of courses, and entire institutions. Trainers may use e-portfolios to assess prior learning, target training, and provide alternative credentials. And, like all others in the employment environment, educators may use their own e-portfolios for learning management and career advancement. This is becoming increasingly relevant to higher education faculty, as threats to the concept of tenure accelerate.

Employers may use e-portfolios for recruitment and placement purposes, especially in knowledge-based environments. More importantly, they can better use the entire inventory of skills and knowledge in their workforce in a practice known as human capital assets management.

Entire nations may provide the opportunity for citizens to have a digital archive. This is a complex public policy area to be explored. Visionaries argue that, in a digital world, each person must be able to present himself or herself digitally. Cautionary arguments are that our unofficial digital identities already present opportunities for identity theft and other forms of fraud. From this perspective, there is a great deal of digital information out there for every person, and the personal archive becomes a place to assemble that information and take ownership of it. Typing your own name into a tool such as ZoomInfo (http://www.ZoomInfo.com) may reveal to what extent your digital identity can already be assembled from documents found online.

From yet another perspective, e-portfolio tools provide for transparency of credentials and work experience to enable recognition of foreign credentials and to promote labour mobility. There is vast utility to creating and using both a digital archive and a digital identity for all citizens, as an opportunity and not a requirement.

The new Management of Learning

In the past, we’ve formally managed learning by awarding and expecting credentials; this has been the function of the formal education system and various professional bodies. Employers use credentials as a proxy for acquired skills and knowledge, and have, until now, had few other efficient tools for assessing actual skills and knowledge that individuals represent. We now understand that people acquire skills and knowledge from formal, informal, and non-formal learning in the workplace and the community, from accidental and incidental learning in travel and human relations. However, until comparatively recently, we had no tools for managing that learning effectively and efficiently.

The digital archive is the place to record learning in a range of environments over a lifetime; the e-portfolio becomes a presentation drawn from the archive for a specific purpose. This gives recognition to all forms of learning and, more importantly, the opportunity to use all forms of learning for the good of the individual, community, enterprise, or nation. While a purported e-portfolio that contains only formal learning is a simple digital transcript, the e-portfolio can be an alternative credential for those without formal credentials, such as early school leavers, and for those without recognized credentials, such as foreign-trained workers.

The process of creating both an archive and an e-portfolio is one of translating experiences to a set of skills and knowledge and providing supporting evidence. More explicitly, the process is one of collection, selection, reflection, projection, and presentation of learning. Without evidence of these processes, an e-portfolio is a simple digital resume.

Principles of E-Portfolio Systems

Using e-portfolios, including digital archives and tools for end-users, requires attention to making them effective and efficient. The first time students are told they can’t take their e-portfolios with them to the next level of education, or to the workplace, they will question the value of creating a second e-portfolio. The first time employers receive a mountainous stack of e-portfolio applications for one position, they may question the wisdom of the process.

To avoid problems of this sort, e-portfolio practitioners worldwide have agreed on the following principles for e-portfolio initiatives:

• Ownership: Digital archives and e-portfolios are developed and owned by the individual or organization creating them. The use of both or either, and any changes to them, are under the control of that owner. Both are confidential and access is controlled by the owner.
• Scope: The e-portfolio can maintain a complete inventory of skills and knowledge acquired by the individual through formal or non-formal learning. The eportfolio development process includes thoughtfulness about learning represented in the portfolio.
• Usability: An e-portfolio system lists and describes skills and knowledge in a way that is recognized and respected by educators, employers, professional bodies, and others who receive and process e-portfolios. Where possible, the e-portfolio system links to established competency standards but also allows flexibility to accommodate unique or non-specific competencies.
• Accuracy: The content of the e-portfolio is current, accurate, and verifiable. Methods of validating learning are flexible, appropriate, and credible.
• Accessibility: To develop the e-portfolio, there are explicit instructions with examples, a universally recognized glossary of terms, and professional assistance if required. The e-portfolio is easy to access, use, and modify by the owner.
• Format: The e-portfolio and archive can incorporate a variety of media.
• Transportability: The e-portfolio is portable and interoperable in a technical sense.
• Purpose: The e-portfolio service is multi-purpose, customisable, and adaptable to various uses that include assessment by teachers, learning through personal reflection, planning, and individual or community asset mapping.
• Extensibility: The e-portfolio system is seamless, allowing the individual to create many versions, from primary through higher education and career training to the workplace and lifelong learning environments.
• Security: The e-portfolio system provides secure long-term storage, privacy, access, and ongoing support.

E-Portfolios in Formal Education

An e-portfolio provides both evidence of a person’s learning and of reflection on his or her own work. It is a record of learning, growth, and change; and it provides meaningful documentation of individual abilities. Examples of types of portfolios in formal educational settings include:

• Developmental portfolio: documents individual student improvement in a subject area over a school year and can be used for student evaluations and parent conferences.
• Teacher planning portfolio: uses an existing portfolio system, possibly commercial or online, to receive information about an incoming class of students.
• Proficiency portfolio: a means of determining graduation/completion eligibility, usually requires students to complete portfolios in certain areas of target proficiency.
• Showcase portfolio: documents a student’s best work accomplished during an entire educational career; may include research papers, art work, and science experiments.
• Employment skills portfolio: used by employers to evaluate a prospective employee’s work readiness skills.
• College admission portfolio: usually a showcase portfolio, used to determine eligibility for admission to college or university.

Portfolio assessment combines many innovations in the appropriate assessment of learning, including alternative assessment, authentic assessment, competency-based assessment, flexible assessment, and standards-based assessment:

• Alternative assessment refers to alternative means of enhancing educational assessment through techniques such as confidence measurement, analysis of self-awareness, and performance evaluation.
• Authentic assessment involves examining students’ basic skills, control of information, high level of understanding, personal characteristics, and habits of mind, and it allows students to participate actively in their own learning.
• Competency-based assessment is the assessment of competence against standards set for knowledge and skills in a particular area, typically used in vocational education and professional certification processes.
• Flexible assessment can include checklists, portfolios, performance tasks, product assessments, projects, and simulations; observation of the learner, questioning, oral or written tests and essays, projects undertaken in groups or individually, role playing, work samples, and computer-based assessment. Flexible assessment is intended to suit the learner’s pace and style of learning and to assess the individual when he or she is ready.
• Standards-based assessment is intended to measure achievements against stated learning outcomes or objectives.

Combining elements of all the above, portfolio assessment involves using the products in a portfolio as the evidence of learning for assessment purposes. The advantages of a portfolio for assessment purposes are:

• Portfolios provide a wealth of information upon which to base instructional decisions.
• Portfolios are an effective means of communicating students’ developmental status and progress.
• Portfolios can serve to motivate students and promote self-assessment and self-understanding.
• Portfolios contextualize assessment and provide a basis for challenging formal test results based on testing that is not authentic or reliable, as in the case of a single test score.

In terms of portfolio assessment, the single greatest concern has been validation or verification of the evidence presented. This has considerable implications for the development of learning records. A learning record, whether electronic or not, is of little use if the claims of skills and knowledge cannot be verified. Credentials are relatively easy to verify, and credentials have, in the past, served as a shorthand method of displaying skills and knowledge. However, if we are dealing with a learning record, we are not dealing with a final battery of tests, but with the gradual accumulation of knowledge. Thus, the integrity of a learning record becomes a crucial issue. We need to consider exactly what evidence needs to be gathered and how we can validate that evidence reliably and in a way that is not so time-consuming as to be impractical.

What is the future of e-portfolio assessment? There is a trend towards technology-assisted assessment of learning at all levels of learning systems. Areas of interest to watch include:

• e-portfolios for formative assessment (a specific purpose);
• e-portfolios and reflective learning (assessment of one type of learning);
• e-portfolios as a transition tool (between grade levels);
• assessment of learning across subject matter “silos”;
• self-assessment of learning;
• assessment of lifelong learning.

Getting Started on an E-Portfolio

In this section, we offer some simple guidance to those wishing to assemble their own e-portfolio that summarizes, highlights, and validates:

• who you are as a person,
• what you know and can do, and
• what you hope to do.

It will be an evolving work as you add documents that demonstrate your most current skills or delete those that are no longer so relevant to who you are or what you can offer. With this in mind, you will want to follow a systematic process to help you identify what to include and how to present it. The CROS (collection, reflection, organization, and selection) system is a tried and tested system that has assisted many people with the development of their e-portfolio.

C—Collection

Search through your file folders, boxes, and computer documents for any evidence that says something about you and your skills. Keep an ongoing list of what you have FOUND. This will help you to keep track of what you have so that it is not forgotten later. Other lists you will need are TO FIND, TO REQUEST, and TO CREATE, used to incorporate items that you have temporarily mislaid, for example, that you will need to ask former employers to provide, and that you have lost permanently when moving house or through a disaster such as a computer crash.

R—Reflection

Reflecting on our learning and our lives in general has become one of the most emphasized processes in education. It allows us to gain a better sense of who we are, what we have done, what we know, and what our goals for the future are. It may also help us to see patterns in our lives and to evaluate professional and personal growth.

You may want to begin by reflecting on your skills in general, using questions such as those listed below. This will also generate ideas for any further iterations of the collection cycle:

• What three words describe me best?
• What are my five top skills?
• What are my short- and long-term goals?
• What are my greatest strengths?
• What are my major accomplishments?

To help you determine the usefulness of each item that you have collected for your e-portfolio, you may want to make use of reflective questions such as the following:

• What does this item mean to me?
• What does this item say about me?
• What specific skills / knowledge / attributes are reflected in this item?
• How does this item relate to my short- and long-term goals?
• In what ways does this item demonstrate my strengths?
• What is the importance of this item/activity in relation to my personal or professional growth?
• What barriers or challenges did I have to overcome to realize this achievement?
• What were the results of this activity/project?
• What did I learn from this?

O—Organization

The e-portfolio tool that you choose may determine the organizational system that you use for presenting your evidence. If you have a choice in the organizational framework, there are several approaches to consider. Chronological: This is an effective way of demonstrating career progression by clearly showing years or time periods. Just like a chronological resume, it is easy to follow and shows career steps by positions, job titles, companies, or organizations that you have worked for. Evidence of skills used or developed in each time period can be displayed.

Thematic: The thematic approach is a more common one. Common categories used include:

• skills/competencies
• education and training
• professional development
• accomplishments
• projects
• community/volunteer
• leisure/hobbies/travel

The simple STAR (skills, training, accomplishments, references) format is a useful way to organize your documents if you don’t have a lot of evidence to display.

S—Selection

The final step in deciding what to put into your e-portfolio involves selecting items that will be appropriate for your audience. Some questions to consider are:

• Who are the key people who will be viewing my e-portfolio?
• What exactly will they want to see?
• What is their familiarity with e-portfolios?
• Will they need assistance in navigating through this item of evidence or through the organizational format used?
• How might they evaluate my skills?
• What questions might they ask?

E-Portfolio Resources

We recommend the following sites as points of departure for educators and learners interested in further exploring the prospects, purposes, and possibilities of portfolios in education.

• Educause (http://www.educause.edu/)—North American group focused on learning technologies
• FuturEd eLibrary (http://www.futured.com/)—research company focused on learning innovations
• Learning Innovations Forum (http://www.lifia.ca/)— non-profit agency sponsoring e-portfolio forums
• ePortConsortium (http://www.eportconsortium.org/)—portfolio research at the higher education level