Engagement With Electronic Portfolios: Challenges From the Student Perspective (original) (raw)
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Student perspectives of e-Portfolio: Changes over four semesters
Universities are currently under pressure to provide evidence of graduate attributes and at the same time to improve learner engagement. Eportfolios and their associated pedagogies have the potential to support students’ learning and development and to provide evidence of their progress against standards or attributes. Research reports about eportfolio introductions provide guidance on this new technology however student voices are underrepresented and most studies occur over a single course. This paper reports early data from a three-year longitudinal study of student teachers. Survey results across four semesters, which included first-time users each semester, indicated (1) increasing recognition of the eportfolio for learning in the areas of evaluation, reflection on the learning process, and keeping track of learning experiences and (2) decreasing concerns about using the technology and technology as a barrier. There were also steady increases of enthusiasm and positive feelings and decreases of feelings of uncertainty, confusion, anxiety and negativity.
e-portfolios are a form of authentic assessment with formative functions that include showcasing and sharing learning artifacts, documenting reflective learning processes, connecting learning across various stages, and enabling frequent feedback for improvements. This paper examines how e-portfolios take up these formative roles to support productive learning. Qualitative findings from interviews with selected first year undergraduate students at a higher education institution in Hong Kong are reported concerning students’ experiences of constructing e-portfolios as assessment tasks. As part of an institutional teaching and learning initiative, e-portfolios were incorporated into three core courses for first year students. The findings reveal that several conditions necessary to foster productive learning were missing in students’ experiences: strengthened formative role of e-portfolios through coherent assessment design; encouragement for students’ pursuit of authentic tasks to develop learning interests; engagement of students in reflective and self-regulative learning as an essential learning process; provision of constructive feedback for sustained learning support; support for students’ autonomy through facilitation of collaborative knowledge building. By explicating how the lack of these conditions impeded students’ active involvement in e-portfolio tasks and suggesting relevant strategies for teachers at the institution in question, this paper offers implications for harnessing ICT to support students’ productive learning。
2013
A theoretical framework for designing, implementing and researching students’ engagement, learning, and personal development in e-portfolios is described in this article. After providing an overview of the research on e-portfolios in education, the paper analyses the theoretical foundations of e-portfolio learning. Following it proposes a conceptual and organizational framework for teachers and instructors a) to conceptualize principles of student motivation, self-directed learning and reflection, and b) to implement effective e-portfolio learning initiatives at secondary and higher education, and teacher professional development. Finally, the article presents representative case studies and good practice examples regarding the implementation of e-portfolio initiatives using different tools in various educational contexts and programs.
2011
Universities and colleges around the world are embracing the use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) as one of the more important elements of their e-learning strategies. Schools and colleges have a similar pedagogic need for e-folio technology. This paper explores the use of e-portfolios in higher education and identifies the strategies, processes and functionality that have implications for teachers in schools. It proposes a research approach to better understand the affordances of e-portfolios across 11-18 education. A significant number of higher and further education institutions have embraced the available digital technologies in a strategic approach to enhance the educational experience through delivering more flexible and cost effective courses to their students (Segrave and Holt, 2003). Universities and colleges around the world are embracing the use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) as one of the more important elements of their e-learning strategies. As universities strive to educate for excellence in professional practices, the emphasis is shifting to student-centred learning. This has fuelled the use of e-portfolios as multipurpose repositories where students store evidence to be used later to assess their pedagogical progress. It also bocomes an area where they can showcase their
Using E-Portfolios for Active Student Engagement in the ODeL Environment
Journal of Information Technology Education: Research
Aim/Purpose: This study explored the use of e-portfolios in fostering student engagement with their lecturers, content, and other students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: Although e-portfolios are still a relatively new trend in developing countries, they are becoming an alternative teaching and learning tool in distance education and online environments. Research has placed e-portfolios as channels through which important skills such as self-directed learning, critical thinking, and lifelong learning can be infused. Most research has focused on students’ perceptions of e-portfolios and/or implementation and adoption thereof, and not on how lecturers can design learning objects that foster active student engagement with the e-portfolios. Methodology: Within an interpretive paradigm, the research followed a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were held with nine purposefully selected lecturers in the College of Education (CEDU) and College of Human Sciences (CH...
Using Electronic Portfolios as a Pedagogical Practice to Enhance Student Learning
2004
Real learning transcends barriers of time and place. It can also provide a bag of tools one can take on the journey through life. Some students, unfortunately, leave college with empty toolkits, or ones they do not know how to open. Engaging students in the process of salient, transformative learning is a challenge, but one worth taking. Tagg (2004) speaks eloquently in a recent About Campus article about the need for faculty to use practices in the classroom that improve the quality of learning, and calls for faculty to help students claim their learning and engage in what Kegan (1995) describes as a “developmental transformation, “the process by which the whole (‘how I am’) becomes gradually a part (‘how I was’) of a new whole (‘how I am now’)” (p. 43). Kegan (1995) argues that this process is necessary as one becomes an adult and needs to develop new ways of thinking about oneself and one’s relationship to others and the world. Ideally, faculty in higher education are striving to...
Embedding e-Portfolios for effective lifelong learning: a case study
Lifelong learning is a 'keystone' of educational policies where the emphasis on learning shifts from teacher to learner. Higher Education (HE) institutions should be committed to developing lifelong learning, that is promoting learning that is flexible, diverse and relevant at different times, and in different places, and is pursued throughout life. Therefore the HE sector needs to develop effective strategies to encourage engagement in meaningful learning for diverse student populations. The use of eportfolios, as a 'purposeful aggregation of digital items' , can meet the needs of the student community by encouraging reflection, the recording of experiences and achievements, and personal development planning (PDP). The use of e-portfolios also promotes inclusivity in learning as it provides students with the opportunity to articulate their aspirations and take the first steps along the pathway of lifelong learning. However, ensuring the uptake of opportunities within their learning is more complex than the students simply having access to the software. Therefore it is argued here that crucial to the effective uptake and engagement of the e-portfolio is embedding it purposefully within the curriculum. In order to investigate effective implementation of e-portfolios an explanatory case study on their use was carried out, initially focusing on 3 groups of students engaged in work-based learning and professional practice. The 3 groups had e-Portfolios embedded and assessed at different levels. Group 1 did not have the e-Portfolio embedded into their curriculum nor was the e-Portfolio assessed. Group 2 had the e-Portfolio embedded into the curriculum and formatively assessed. Group 3 also had the e-Portfolio embedded into the curriculum and were summatively assessed. Results suggest that the use of e-Portfolios needs to be integral to curriculum design in modules rather than used as an additional tool. In addition to this more user engagement was found in group 2 where the e-Portfolio was formatively assessed only. The implications of this case study are further discussed in terms of curriculum development.