eportfolios defined

Broadly speaking, an eportfolio is a digital collection of work, personal information, and reflection. It can be used, managed and presented in a number of different ways for different audiences. The way an eportfolio is created depends on the software package being used, but is likely to be a four or five stage process, with learners cycling through the stages any number of times.

Eportfolios embody the constructivist model of learning (http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html) - providing a framework within which an individual can visually map the cognitive structure of their knowledge. A tutor or any individual class or text becomes one of the many sources of information a learner can draw on to fill out their map. For non-traditional learners, other sources can include their workplace, family, hobbies and other interests, and previous education and experience.

McGrath et al. (http://www.deskootenays.ca/wilton/eportfolios/) identify three broad groups which can make 'meaningful use' of eportfolios: students, faculty and employees. NTLs belong to two of these groups (and possibly all three in some cases, such as on our course). Eportfolios can therefore have multiple kinds of usefulness for such learners, and can be used to combine academic knowledge with professional and personal development.

Helen Barrett, one of the pioneers in this area, has assembled some of the metaphors commonly used to describe portfolios. These include: mirror, map, sonnet, story, journey, laboratory, test, campfire, butler, dashboard and kaleidoscope. Barrett cites Garry Allan, who wrote to her saying: "Giving students the freedom to choose their own metaphors for this 'thing' called an e-portfolio results in interesting and highly personal constructs, ranging from e-portfolio as a 'jungle', through to an e-portfolio as a 'kitchen' and beyond!" The variety and complexity of the kinds of metaphors different people use to describe eportfolios mirrors (sorry!) the variety and complexity of the concept itself.

Laurillard, writing in 2002 about the role of exploration and self-directed learning in universities, said that:

Students have little control over their access to knowledge. ...It would be quite possible to argue that students should take responsibility for their own learning, that they should use the university as a set of resources largely under their control. This is the most attractive vision of academic learning as a community of scholars pursuing their own course towards knowledge and enlightenment... It is essentially a minority provision, however. ...It is the proper model of postgraduate education, but that is where it must be confined. At undergraduate level, students are exploring an already known field of knowledge, they are explicitly not breaking new ground, except at a personal level . [italics mine]

(Laurillard, D (2002) Rethinking University Teaching: a conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies (London: RoutledgeFalmer); 'Introduction', 3-7 (ereserve text)

What eportfolios offer is a model by which all students can take control and break new ground by making personal and original connections between aspects of their own learning and experience, facilitating what Garrison calls 'cognitive presence'.

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