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Effective Practice with e-Portfolios Supporting
21st Century Learning

• Lisa Gray Helen Richardson

Joint Information Systems Committee
Supporting education and research
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Context

• Why are e-portfolios important?
• Policy context
• Institutional drivers
• Pre-Higher Education initiatives
• But most importantly..their potential to
  transform learning
• Emerging and often powerful evidence from
  practitioners and learners of the value of
  developing e-portfolios.adding value to
  personalised and reflective models of learning
• Supporting transition, assessment, application,
  professional development, personal development
  planning..

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Launched in September 2008
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Concepts and definitions

• Exercise
• What is an e-portfolio for?
• - When might learners develop e-portfolios, and
  why?

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Some definitions

• The research team worked from an understanding
  of e-portfolios that incorporates both process
  and product, and includes a range of tools within
  a system that links with other systems. Broadly,
  the product (e-portfolio) is a purposeful
  selection of items (evidence) chosen at a point
  in time from a repository or archive, with a
  particular audience in mind. The processes that
  are required to create e-portfolios for any
  purpose include capturing and ongoing storage of
  material, selection, reflection and
  presentation.
• Hartnell-Young et al (2007) The Impact of
  e-Portfolios on Learning. Coventry. Becta
  http//partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?sectionrh
  catcode_re_rp_02rid14007

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Some definitions

• Definitions of an e-portfolio tend to include
  the following elements
• A collection of digital resources
• That provide evidence of an individuals
  progress and achievements
• Drawn from both formal and informal learning
  activities
• That are personally managed and owned by the
  learner
• That can be used for review, reflection and
  personal development planning
• That can be selectively accessed by other
  interested parties e.g. teachers, peers,
  assessors, awarding bodies, prospective
  employers
• Helen Beetham, 2005 http//www.jisc.ac.uk/uploade
  d_documents/eportfolio_ped.dochttp//www.jisc.ac.u
  k/uploaded_documents/eportfolio_ped.doc

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Working to a consensus

• ..an emerging consensus that the term essentially
  means the product
• An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of
  digital items ideas, evidence, reflections,
  feedback etc., which presents a selected
  audience with evidence of a persons learning
  and/or ability
• CETIS SIG mailing list discussions
• but, importantly, in the process of creating
  presentational e-portfolios (through the use of
  tools or systems), learners can be inherently
  supported to develop the key skills of capturing
  evidence, reflecting, sharing, collaborating,
  annotating and presenting (e-portfolio related
  processes)

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Purposes Tools

• Celebrating learning
• Personal planning
• Transition/entry to courses
• Employment applications
• Professional registration

Capturing storing evidence Reflecting Giving
feedback Collaborating Presenting to an audience
From Elizabeth Hartnell-Young (2007), Developing
an ePortfolio culture from the early years
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The confusion over e-portfolios

• The problem is that portfolio is a learning
  approach not a technology..the essential nature
  of an ePortfolio for learning is not as a
  repository but as a place for reflection
• Trent Batson, 7th Jan 09, The Portfolio Enigma
  in a Time of Ephemera
• It is a reflection of the student as a person
  undergoing continuous personal development, not
  just a store of evidence
• Geoff Rebbeck, e-Learning Co-ordinator , Thanet
  College

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Perspectives

• like a filing cabinet online, but its got a
  dialogue with it as well
• The fact you can put video and tell your story
  
• Its an addictive thing to use both academically
  and socially
• The VLE are owned by the institution and the
  e-portfolio is owned by me
• It takes the CV into the modern era
• e-Portfolio tools enable students to make the
  all-important connections between the curriculum
  and the other things they do
• An e-portfolio should be your opportunity to
  draw on everything you have already created to
  make your own story
• a lifeline of communication
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6B3tujXlbdk

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Overview of JISC workand others

• Using e-portfolios to support
• Application to University
• Application to employment Employability
• Presentation of work for professional
  accreditation
• Providing evidence for appraisal
• Evidencing continuing professional development
• Presentation of work for assessment
• Showcasing work in health and teaching
• Work-based learning
• Supporting learning processes
• Non-traditional learners, women returning to
  higher education
• Information advice and guidance

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Benefits

• Exercise
• What are potential benefits of e in
  e-portfolio?

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Supporting learning processes

• The use of e-portfolios with this group has been
  effective in encouraging the development of
  student reflection. Learners feel that they have
  benefited from reflecting on issues such as their
  personal experiences, their behaviour, events in
  their lives, their thoughts and feelings, their
  writing, and their personal development in
  general.
• The use of e-portfolios with this learner group
  resulted in a greater appreciation of
  collaboration and collaborative learning.
• File-Pass Final Report
• I find doing this quite useful because it made
  me think about a much more structured way whether
  I was going to long term be happy in a vineyard
  or would I be happy in a winery
• MyWorld Final Report
• We became reflective writers and practitioners
  without even thinking about it
• PGCE student, University of Wolverhampton

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Tangible benefits include

• Efficiency time savings in information
  retrieval supporting reflection and feedback,
  supporting presentation, assessment AND
  administration
• Enhancement improving quality of evidence,
  reflection and feedback skills development
  Student motivation and satisfaction to inform
  Teaching Quality Enhancement Increases in
  recruitment and retention use by staff for
  professional development Increasing and informing
  use with students supporting women returners to
  the workplace
• Transformation through engaging practitioners
  and policy makers through institutional
  integration of eportfolio use in a number of
  professional development activities Through
  providing a work placement quality management
  system

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Implementation success or failure?

• Exercise
• What would you do to ensure e-portfolio
  implementation failure ?

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Emerging lessons.

• Think about requirements
• All stakeholders
• Technical and pedagogic
• Think about the context
• Successful use depends on a careful analysis of
  the teaching and learning context
• Embed into the curriculum activities need to be
  meaningful and purposeful, language should be
  appropriate
• Win hearts and minds think about the benefits
  to all groups
• Staff engagement is key to learner engagement
• Timing staff need time to think about how to
  best use the tools before learners are introduced
  to it
• Personalisation is key
• Reflection is hard providing some structure
  helps
• Listen to the learner and staff voices
• Training not just technical
• Longevity learners wont be motivated to use
  their e-portfolios unless they know they have
  continued access
• e-portfolios are as diverse and unique as the
  individuals that populate them
• ePistle Final Report

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Emerging from the JISC work.

• Guidance for institutions on questions to ask
  when looking at e-portfolio systems
• Purpose Who is it for? What is it for? What do
  we want it to do?
• Information managed, functionality, support and
  guidance, form and feel.
• Legal guidance
• Governance Toolkit
• Helps to think through the main issues in
  planning, implementing and planning an
  e-portfolio project
• Guidance
• On embedding, entry to HE, storage and access,
  use and non-use of e-portfolios
• Case studies and stories
• Learner voices videos, animations, stories from
  projects, and case studies demonstrating tangible
  benefits

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Ongoing e-portfolio activity

• Transforming Curriculum Delivery October 2008
  Oct 2010
• How technology can support developing reflective
  learners, enhance provision of and engagement
  with feedback, support creative conversations and
  collaborative learning
• Institutional approaches to curriculum design
  Sept 2008 Sept 2012
• How technology can support the design of
  curricula
• Lifelong learning and workforce development -
  April 2009 March 2011
• Using e-portfolio tools to support work-based
  learning, developing professional skills and
  competencies, developing reflective, lifelong
  learners
• Study on e-Portfolios and assessment
• Case studies and comparison of practice
• Draft final report under review

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Interoperability

• 'Interoperability standards are obvious enablers
  to e-portfolio transition and progression, all
  the more so since there is wide acknowledgement
  that a 'one size fits all' approach to
  e-portfolios is inappropriate for the diversity
  of institutions in the school and FE College
  sector.'
• ePistle Guidelines

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Launched in September 2008
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Further information

• JISC e-Portfolio main page, including information
  on policy context, key resources, JISC projects
  www.jisc.ac.uk/eportfolio
• Effective Practice with e-Portfolios
  www.jisc.ac.uk/effectivepracticeeportfolios
• infoKit www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios
• Overview of JISC activities www.jisc.ac.uk/publica
  tions/publications/eportfoliooverviewv2.aspx
• Stories from the regional pilot projects
  www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/edistributed/re
  gionalstories.aspx
• Tangible Benefits of e-Learning
  http//www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/bp
  tangiblebenefitsv1.aspx
• JISC-CETIS Portfolio SIG wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Portfol
  io
• Becta Impact Study on e-Portfolios on Learning
  http//partners.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/
  page_documents/research/impact_study_eportfolios.d
  oc
• Links to all additional resources
  http//www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/elearning/ep
  ortfolios/resources.aspx
• Contact l.gray_at_jisc.ac.uk

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Any issues / questions