Why use an ePortfolio?

We have been getting a lot of great questions about ePortfolios lately. An ePortfolio is a tool that students can use to keep track of and share their achievements, projects, and reflections to document and provide evidence of learning. There are several different types of ePortfolios including:

Developmental portfolios: Provide evidence of progress or improvement over a period of time. Developmental portfolios are works-in-progress and serve a purpose of self-reflection, self-assessment, and engaging in communication between faculty and students.

Assessment portfolios: Provide evidence of student competence in a specific area. While the purpose of a developmental portfolio is to engage in critical reflection, assessment portfolios are used to evaluate student competency. Assessment portfolios are often used at the end of a course or program.

Showcase portfolio: Provide evidence of student work, most often seen as career portfolios. While showcase and assessment portfolios are often used to demonstrate learning and growth, showcase portfolios are a tool to highlight quality work. Often, people will have multiple versions of their career portfolio, based on who will be viewing it.

So why use an ePortfolio? There are benefits to be seen from both the process and the product. Building an ePortfolio requires organizing and reflecting on experiences, choosing artifacts that provide evidence of learning or competencies, and conceptualizing learning experiences. Building a portfolio is a lot of work, and all of that work can help to enhance a student’s ability to speak to their knowledge and skills. Portfolios promote a new depth to self-reflection and can help students focus their goal-setting. The product itself becomes a concrete way of showcasing strengths, a personal learning record, and a tool to jumpstart future personal development.

There are many ways to implement ePortfolios into academic and co-curricular programs. We would love to see every student at UPEI engaging in the process of building their ePortfolio. Want to learn more? Ready to get started? Contact the E-Learning Office by sending us an email at elearning@upei.ca.