ePortfolios

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**What is an ePortfolio?**
E-Portfolios are a form of [|authentic assessment] that are reflective in nature and show growth over time. The ePortfolio is not merely an electronic scrapbook; it is a collection of artifacts assembled around a theme. These artifacts are the evidence of growth over time. They illustrate the depth and breadth of work and learning. They should also highlight how new understandings and learning developed. They provide a glimpse into how the learner thinks and analyzes information. This spotlight on the actual higher level thinking distinguishes authentic assessments and ePortfolios in particular, from [|traditional methods of assessment].

Arter & Spandel (1992) as cited in [|Higgins & Heglie-King] (1997) define an ePortfolio as "a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story of the students’ efforts, progress, or achievement in given areas. This collection must include student participation in selection of portfolio content, the guidelines for selection, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection."

Not only is the ePortfolio a method of assessment, but it is also a learning tool. Students become active participants in the learning process while creating the ePortfolio. They are encouraged to revisit and revise work so that it showcases their best work and current understanding of subject matter.

Traditional portfolios were folders or binders conaining collected works. With the increase of technology in the classrom and its applications for constructive learning, the use of ePortfolios has increased. Today's digital learniers need a vehicle to showcase work that has visual, audio and video elements. The ePortfolio meets this need.

Example ePortfolios:
Click [|here] for an example ePortfolios for a business and nursing student (click on the examples on the page). These portfolios were used for applying and interviewing for jobs.

Click [|here] for an example ePortfolio that the University of North Carolina uses for their education program.

EPortfolios can be used at all educational levels. Students at [|Discovery Middle School] create their ePortfolios on varies science topics as Rainforests, Space, and the Atom Bomb. Based on the age and technology skills the student possesses, ePortfolios are great ways for students to showcase their work.

==Growth of ePortfolios: == On their website, [|elearnspace] contributes the growth of ePortfolios to three main contributors, “the dynamics of functioning in a knowledge economy, the changing nature of learning, and the changing needs of the learner”.    __Knowledge Economy__ __Nature of Learning __ __Needs of the Learner __
 * The ability for a person to demonstrate and display their knowledge enhances their opportunities for employment, advanced education, promotions, and increased compensation.  EPortfolios can be used to help people demonstrate their skills and knowledge level possibly better than a resume or application.  Also, the various technology tools that are used for the ePortfolio may also be impressive to the evaluator. 
 * Many teachers and professors are turning away from traditional curriculum and lesson plans and focusing more on different forms of assessment.  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teachers and evaluators are starting to realize that learning “happens in communities, on the job, and from personal knowledge networks. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Learning is now a process of living. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Formal education is only a stage of learning. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Learning continues in virtually all aspects of life”. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With ePortfolios it is important to document the knowledge that you acquire in both formal education and life. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The needs of learners in our society are ever changing. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For the most part, children growing up today are more computer savvy then their parents. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Children are growing up in a technology driven culture and they are used to it and adapting to it effortlessly. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students today are probably comfortable and familiar with ePortfolios. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“EPortfolios may be as familiar to many of today’s learners as writing pads were to previous generations”.

(Information from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/eportfolios.htm)

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why Use an ePortfolio? **
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **User-Centered:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Students control what goes into their ePortfolio and who sees it. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Customizable: ** Students can create multiple views for a variety of uses. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Flexible: ** Allows students to create multiple portfolios to showcase their skills and achievements. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Reflective: ** Portfolio templates encourage reflective thinking. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Easy to Use: ** Users do not need any HTML or programming skills. They have to be able to fill out web forms and upload artifacts, as they would in an email attachment. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Goal Oriented: ** Users can set, review, and revise goals related to their education, course, major, career, work, service, and volunteer activities. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Career Centered: ** ePortfolio contains extensive templates for users to archive information about educational, volunteer, service, work, and internship experiences. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> From [|ePortfolio.org]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Benefits:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The main creators of ePortfolios tend to be students or learners, teachers, and institutions, while the main evaluators and end-users tend to be employers, teachers and parents. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There are many great benefits to ePortfolios. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For learners they provide a history of development growth, assistance with making connections between different learning experiences, and control over learning history. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For teachers and institutions, ePortfolios provide a communication tool with other teachers, an authentic assessment tool for teaching, a location where they can give students personal assessment control, and a tool to empower students for life long learning and assessment. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|elearnspace] describes an ideal ePortfolio as having four main components… <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">“If these criteria are followed, an ePortfolio can be used as a very versatile tool to meet the needs of all potential participants in the process.” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; mso-spacerun: yes; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">This tool empowers learners with a life long tool where they can provide proof of their learning and attained skills for various users. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; mso-spacerun: yes; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;"> (Information from [|elearnspace]) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Flexible ** input - " **each item can carry its own metadata and be treated as a unique object”
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Organization – objects or artifacts can be organized in folders
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Retrieval - objects can be searched based on each creators own terms
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Display – where items can be grouped into various categories and permission can be given into certain areas for specific users

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obstacles to Institutions Adopting ePortfolios ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">
1. Lack of easy ways to protect the intellectual property rights of students.= 2. Concerns about increased workload for faculty.= 3. "[|Inverted value]" of ePortfolio to students= <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">Taken from [|Overcoming Obstacles to Authentic ePortfolio Assessment], Acker, 2005

How to help students create ePortfolios:
This is a new skill that more experienced teachers may not have worked with before. If recent graduates were required or were taught to use this type of portfolio, it would be easier for them to teach it to a class. People without experience need to research and become familiar with the process--even create their own ePortfolio so they have hands on experience with it. The following information is from [|David Brear's Workshop].

It is first necessary to choose the [|tools, resources, and topics] of the ePortfolio.

You will need to explain to students your expectations for four main sections of the ePortfolio:

The Abstract Section
The portfolio abstract is an introduction to the e-Portfolio. The basic components of the abstract include elements such as a welcome to the reader, an overview of the portfolio components and an introduction to the navigation of the portfolio.

The Process Section
The process section of the portfolio consists of a personal reflection on the student's experience with the project and a list/description of skills learned.

The Products Section
In the product section of the portfolio, students link artifacts (products) they have created during their time in the unit. Each product includes a description explaining how technology was used and what skills were used to complete each product. Also, students need to refer to how each product related to the topics studied in the unit.

The Showcase Section
The showcase section of the portfolio contains the student's evaluation of the ePortfolio, performance throughout the unit, and what the student is most proud of. Essentially, students are assessing themselves here.

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Helpful Links: [|Alternative Assessment and ePortfolios]