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Eportfolios

What Are ePortfolios?

An electronic portfolio, in an educational setting, is a digital collection of student work, often referred to as artifacts, displayed for specific audiences and specific purposes. Electronic portfolios enable students to collect, reflect on, and display their work in multiple ways, typically for the purpose of assessment.

• Collect: ePortfolios systems typically include or link to a repository where students collect and organize their artifacts. Portfolios may be developmental, displaying the progress of student work over time, or representational, displaying a selection of the student's highest level of achievement.
• Reflect: ePortfolios often include student reflection of the meaning of their work, integrating individual artifacts into a broader understanding of their learning.
• Display: Most ePortfolios systems enable instructor and, possibly students, to define templates for the display of work. Typically, students may control who has access to specific presentations of the work.
• Assess: Electronic portfolios can be used as a tool for performing authentic or qualitative assessment of student work and curricula. Many ePortfolio systems include features for linking artifacts and reflections to assessment rubrics that define performance expectations.

What Are the Benefits of ePortfolios?

For students, ePortfolios provide a means to reflect on their educational experiences and to showcase their best work in a digital repository. For faculty, ePortfolios provide concrete evidence of student learning. For institutions, ePortfolios are used to evaluate progress on meeting institutional goals. The artifacts and student reflections serve as a vehicle for assessing learning outcomes at the course, program and/or institutional level.

Who is Using ePortfolios at Northeastern?

Past ePortfolio initiatives were conducted in Physical Therapy, Biology, Computer & Information Science and the College of Business. Other projects with e-portfolio components include the IGERT Nanomedicine Website and the School of Architecture Website. Many of these projects were developed with support from NU's Educational Technology Center.

Update on the Status of ePortfolios at Northeastern University: 2008

Early in the Fall of 2007, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Susan Powers-Lee, convened a task force charged with defining requirements for an eportfolio system for Northeastern and recommending a software system and implementation strategy. The task force is chaired jointly by Professor Kostia Bergman and Alicia Russell, Director of the Educational Technology Center.

The task forced established the following process for meeting its goals:

1. Prepare background report on e-portfolios and their history at Northeastern.
2. Solicit input on desired eportfolio features through task force members, a survey advertised to all faculty, and follow-up discussions with survey respondents.
3. Define 8 potential eportfolio use scenarios.
4. Develop list of software feature requirements to address the use scenarios.
5. Review and test eportfolio tools (detailed process follows).
   • Gather list of tools from variety of sources (EduTools review, Wikipedia, colleagues).
   • Review websites, product reviews to map tools to requirements (10 tools reviewed).
   • Schedule online demonstrations with vendors (6 tools demonstrated).
   • Request guest accounts and test products (4 products tested).
   • Involve IS in technical review (integration, account management, etc.). (3 products reviewed technically)
   • Talk with other institutions using product. (ongoing)
6. Host on-campus demo of the recommended eportfolio product.
7. Select single product to pilot (TaskStream was selected).
8. Pilot during 2008-9 to test all use scenarios.
9. Devise wider implementation strategy.

A university-wide RFP led to the selection of 12 pilot projects which are launching during Fall 2008.

Documents related to this initiative are housed in a Blackboard course. For access to the documentation or more information about the status of the project, contact .

How Do I Learn More about ePortfolios?

Wikipedia provides a definition of ePortfolios, an extensive lists of links to universities using ePortfolios as well as ePortfolio products currently on the market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPortfolio

Helen Barrett is a leader in researching and promoting the use of ePortfolios. Her Electronic Portfolio site and blog provide a wealth of resources. http://electronicportfolios.com/

The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI)is a community of individuals, primarily from educational institutions, who have been develop a portfolio system, which is now integrated into Sakai, an open source learning management system. This site provides an overview and demo of OSP, which can also be useful in understanding the features and functions of ePortfolios in general. http://www.osportfolio.org/

EPAC (Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication) community of practice wiki. http://epac.pbwiki.com/

Paper reporting on eportfolio research by Norhteastern faculty
Bergman, K., V.L. Porter; L. Poklop, S. Aman, S. Noyes, and J. F. Woolfson Curriculum Improvement in Practice-Based Biology Programs Using Student E-Portfolios: A Progress Report. In: Proceedings of the National STEM Assessment Conference: Washington, DC, October 19-21 2006. Chief editors: Donald Deeds and Bruce Callen. Drury University 2007. Download