News & Events
AUGUST 13, 2003
New e-Portfolio Project Creates Online Showcase for UBC Students and Faculty
By Krista Charbonneau, Editor, e-Strategy Update Newsletter
Students and faculty will be able to present their academic and professional achievements online when a new e-Portfolios pilot project launches at UBC this September.
“e-Portfolios provide a way for self-reflection on the process of learning and a way to celebrate the achievement of knowledge, skills or competencies you’ve acquired over time,” said Karen Belfer, Community of Practice Coordinator for the e-Portfolio project. “They show something about your accomplishments, the breadth of skills and how you acquired those skills.”
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“e-Portfolios give students a better understanding of themselves, how they think and process information, and how they feel about particular learning situations.” |
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An e-Portfolio is a collection of a person’s work that has been developed over time. It shows what they have done in a course, degree program, or during their career.
e-Portfolios are hosted digitally over the Web and can be customized so that the owner can choose only to show certain aspects of their work to others, such as an instructor or potential employers. The owner can include written reflections about their work and invite feedback from reviewers.
Approximately 500 students and faculty will take part in the first year of the project, which is comprised of five pilot projects involving five different departments, including Education, Agricultural Sciences, Science, Pharmacy, and the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG). Other departments, such as Enrolment Services and Student Development & Services, are also part of the university-wide collaborative project.
e-Portfolios will be integrated into courses and programs in different ways in each project and department. Students in Agricultural Sciences and Science are creating e-Portfolios for a single course, while Education and Pharmacy students will develop their personal e-Portfolios over the span of one or four-year programs.
“Students have a greater sense of autonomy, power and control over their work and how they are representing themselves,” Belfer said. “e-Portfolios also give students a better understanding of themselves, how they think and process information, and how they feel about particular learning situations.”
e-Portfolios are not only for students. Faculty will be involved as well, evaluating student work and, for the pilot, developing their own. The pilot project by TAG will expand on faculty members' teaching portfolios that are already used for performance reviews, hiring purposes, promotions and tenure. Instead of using the current paper-based system, instructors will host their portfolios online.
Ingredients for Creating an e-Portfolio
The students who take part in the pilot projects will create assessment e-Portfolios. Instructors will use these to evaluate the knowledge and skills students acquire in their courses or programs. An e-Portfolio can include essays, presentations, research papers, images, videos, projects, reports, or anything else.
Students start by collecting these pieces of work, which are referred to as artifacts, and then carefully choose and evaluate each artifact they want to present in their e-Portfolio.
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“It’s not just storing things online, but reflecting on what you’ve done in a way that talks more about the artifact, and them.” |
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A key aspect of developing the e-Portfolio is that students write comments reflecting on each artifact, why they created it, what they learned and what they would like to improve on. They also think about pieces in relation to each other, by comparing something they created early in the course or program to something they developed at the end, or by explaining what a collection of artifacts means to them.
“It’s not just storing things online, but reflecting on what you’ve done in a way that talks more about the artifact, and them,” said Belfer. This reflective process gives people a chance to learn more about themselves and their abilities. As the students evaluate each artifact and decide whether it should be part of their e-Portfolio, they are evaluating their work and themselves.
For Belfer, the most valuable aspect of creating an assessment e-Portfolio is that students have an opportunity to think about what they’ve learned and what areas they need to develop next, rather than just focusing on their marks. And having a record of what they’ve done over a period of time also helps raise students’ self-esteem.
“At the end of your fourth year, your first year is far away and you may not remember everything you did or all the projects you worked on during your degree,” said Belfer. “It’s not fresh in your mind, but the e-Portfolio gives you a way of looking back on what you accomplished and it helps you remember what you are able to do. If you know you could do it four years ago, you know you can do it now.”
Students can also use their e-Portfolios to show their skills and experience to potential employers once they’ve finished their degree. Throughout their careers, students can continue developing their e-Portfolios by adding new artifacts, and reflections that show new achievements and professional growth.
Enabling Learning Through Technology
The e-Portfolio project is part of UBC's e-Strategy, under the e-Learning component, where technology is used to enable an improved learning environment for students and faculty.
“With e-Strategy, we place people at the centre of a process,” said Michelle Lamberson, Director, Office of Learning Technology. “In the case of the e-Portfolio, the owner is placed at the centre of their learning process – having access to data, tools and systems that allow them to document their learning over time through a reflective and community-oriented process. The learner and learning centred approach promoted through the e-Portfolio creation process links directly to the core of UBC’s academic mission.”
The e-Portfolio program also gives students and faculty a chance to develop their skills and abilities in information technology. By digitizing their work, developing and managing their own personal e-Portfolio Web sites, they will be getting hands-on experience with a wide variety of technologies that they may not have had access to previously. The program will also include training and technical support for both faculty and students.
An e-Portfolio community of practice is also being developed as part of the project. This community is for anyone at UBC who is interested in learning more about e-Portfolios and needs information and support to integrate them into their course or program. There are monthly meetings for those involved in the pilot projects, and others are welcome to attend.
There are other possible applications for e-Portfolios that could be implemented across UBC in the future. An aligned effort in Enrolment Services and Student Development & Services is investigating the use of e-Portfolios for evaluating students for programs that have different criteria, in addition to grades, for admission.
e-Portfolios could also be used by UBC staff for career development and performance evaluation, and to encourage the practice of life-long learning.
“I encourage everyone to follow the path of the project,” said Belfer, who is coordinating the development of the community of practice. “We’ll have many examples of e-Portfolios, guidelines for creation and implementation, and research papers that demonstrate their learning value.”
More Information
Contact: Karen Belfer
e-Portfolio Resources on the new UBC e-Learning Web site
Key Contacts for e-Portfolios at UBC
Presentation on the e-Portfolios project, given at the e-Strategy Town Hall in June, 2003
Presentation on possible uses for Staff e-Portfolios at UBC, given at the e-Strategy Town Hall in June, 2003
Information about Communities of Practice
About UBC's e-Strategy
UBC's e-Strategy enables students, faculty and staff to excel in one of the world's leading universities by enhancing learning, research and community through leading-edge technology initiatives.
e-Strategy is a guiding framework to align UBC's technology initiatives with the university's strategic goals. Activities include project development, information and resource sharing, and setting long terms goals for technology at UBC.
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