{"id":2188,"date":"2018-12-21T08:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2018-12-21T08:58:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:58:35","slug":"e-portfolios-highly-engaging-powerful-tools-for-learning-and-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/2018\/12\/21\/e-portfolios-highly-engaging-powerful-tools-for-learning-and-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"E-portfolios: Highly Engaging, Powerful Tools for Learning and Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Decorative<\/p>\n

\u201cA well-executed e-portfolio program is an incredible tool for higher education. They provide institutions with authentic assessments of student learning and promote the deeper learning that we want for our st<\/strong>ude<\/strong>nts…\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>-Candyce Reynolds, associate professor, Post-Secondary, Adult, and Continuing Education, School of Education, Portland State University,<\/span><\/i> from <\/span>PeerReview: Emerging Trends and Key Debates in Undergraduate Education<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

What Is an E-portfolio?<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are now more ways than ever to showcase one\u2019s work as a student or professional. Long gone are the days of lugging around an actual folder full of plastic sleeves containing paper prints. Today, students and professionals routinely choose electronic contexts to house their best works. This digital context for storing selected pieces is referred to as an electronic portfolio or e-portfolio, and the items in the portfolio are referred to as artifacts.<\/span><\/p>\n

To best understand what we are talking about when we speak of e-portfolios, let\u2019s start with a definition. As a former instructor of English to speakers of other languages, I find that word etymology opens my eyes to rich context. For example, in this case, \u201cport\u201d is Latin for haven or harbor. And the \u201cfolio\u201d part of the word comes from the Latin word \u201cfolium,\u201d which means leaf (foliage) or sheet. From these etymological roots, we can think of the word <\/span>portfolio<\/span><\/i> as translating to a harbor or haven for your sheets of paper, in a sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

In order to contextualize this definition within a contemporary academic setting, I turn to a working definition of e-portfolios, such as this one from <\/span>Lorenzo and Ittleson<\/span><\/a>: \u201cAn e-portfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts, including demonstrations, resources, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, community, organization, or institution.\u201d In other words, for our purposes, an e-portfolio is a selection of a student\u2019s best works, displayed in an electronic format. <\/span><\/p>\n

The electronic portfolio may be used for assessment or to track progress in a course, for example. An e-portfolio may take the form of a number of electronic contexts, including a user-friendly web-based website design (such as <\/span>Wix<\/span><\/a>), within the modules of a learning management system (LMS) such as Canvas, in video, as docs within a Google Drive folder, or even within a simple pdf document (<\/span>Lorenzo and Ittleson<\/span><\/a>). In any case, there are two main elements in an e-portfolio: a digital context and a selection of works. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Benefits: Here Are a Few Things That E-portfolios Can Do:<\/span><\/h2>\n