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e-portfolios

Of all the tools available for educators, e-portfolios have a pleasant mix of “great potential” and “very low adoption”. When combined with Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), eportfolios can bridge the gap between formal learning and informal learning. The Wired Campus is more effusive: “If we truly want to advance from a focus on teaching to a focus on student learning, then a strategy involving something like electronic student portfolios, or ePortfolios, is essential.”

This was written by gsiemens. Posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at 12:54 pm. Filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

2 Comments

  1. Geoff Cain wrote:

    I really like eportfolios. They have a lot of potential. I have seen them implemented in CA and WA. In CA, there was a lot of training, meetings, and discussion about them because they are a significantly new way assessing student work. Portfolio assessment has to come from the ground up. The brilliant thing about CA is that they use portfolios and eportfolios in their teacher training – so they tend to favor that kind of assessment. Here in WA the attempt was made to mandate it from the state down and it is not working. It really has to come from the ground up. Once instructors learn how portfolio assessment works, they tend to be pretty excited about it and then and only then do they look for solutions and tools.

    Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 11:26 am | Permalink
  2. gsiemens wrote:

    Good point, Geoff. eportfolio use requires a bit of “training” on the part of instructors. Learning how to integrate portfolios into a course (and then how to assess the product/process) is important. Several years ago, while at Red River College, I had the opportunity to take a series of portfolio courses under the Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition banner. While the focus was not on eportfolios, the concepts of collecting data, matching evidence to required learning, etc. are relevant to eportfolios. And, it’s worth noting that portfolios have a long history in art and similar fields. We are not without guides on this :) .

    Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 11:43 am | Permalink

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  1. Technology will *not* change the way we teach - an example why we’re an amnesiac field « The Weblog of (a) David Jones on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 12:41 am

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