E-PORTFOLIOS

What is it?

E-Portfolios (or digital portfolios) are collections of writings, documents, and other artefacts collected over time to demonstrate student learning. While there are different types, we will explore the Learning Portfolio, which facilitates and demonstrates learning over time (rather than the best pieces being evaluated at the end).[i]

Benefits

Making Learning Visible

By collecting, documenting, and reflecting on different pieces of work over a period of time, digital portfolios allow students and instructors to see progress that has been made. The insights that digital portfolios provide help educators give targeted feedback seamlessly and allow parents to follow along with their child’s learning. At the end of the unit / class, students walk away with a tangible representation of their learning.[ii]

Metacognition

Digital portfolios allow opportunity for students to reflect on feedback, past work, and their learnings in a way that encourages growth. Built in opportunities for self, peer, and educator feedback can help students deepen their learning.

Building Independent Learners

Digital portfolios can support the development of self-directed learning and representational learning. Through the gradual release of responsibility, teachers can support students in finding new and creative ways to represent their learnings.[iii]

Digital Tools

E-Portfolios can be kept on a number of different platforms; some offer the benefit of simplicity, while others allow for greater creative freedoms and options. Here are some ideas:

  1. Google Slides: students document their learning through notes / images on Google Slides. The teacher may create a template that provides a clear structure, but the Slides are somewhat limiting. Great video example here.
  2. Microsoft OneNote: Students could have their own section or section group in which they can add a multitude of media types. This has the advantage of everything being easily accessible in a single Notebook. Guide here.
  3. WordPress: Students can create a website through which they can blog and add media, like we’re doing in our class. Some students may find the platform challenging without a lot of guidance. Guidance here.

NOTE: Students can complete a lot of their portfolio without computers in class through writing, drawing, etc. They just need to take photos of their work and upload them once they have access to a computer.

Assessment[iv]

Self-Assessment: The portfolio format allows students to self-assess how well they’ve demonstrated their learning.

Peer-Assessment: Through comments or separate submissions, peers can provide feedback and direction. Both self and peer-assessment should be supported by clear criteria and expectations around how to give it. If using a site like WordPress, you may ask students to read and respond to the works of others, using hyperlinks. You may have students work in “peer blog mentor” groups to help facilitate this. Teachers should still review all feedback.

Teacher Assessment: Ongoing meaningful feedback is critical for students. Teachers may choose not to give grades throughout, and instead provide written / oral feedback that students can incorporate in their future posts.

Check out the below rubrics for E-Porfolios:

  1. Assessment Rubric
  2. ePorfolio Project
  3. Blogging Rubric

Steps to Implementation[v]

  1. Develop and communicate a clear purpose, focus, and structure
    1. Determine where will there be choice for how students reflect their learning, and where will you give them clear structure
    1. Structure should be clear, but not overly rigid
    1. Don’t overwhelm them with all the information at the beginning for a long portfolio.
  2. Choose a platform and create a template for each student to use
  3. Facilitate students developing and creating media / learning artefacts
    1. Start a lesson by telling students what their portfolio output look like at the end of a lesson / unit. This will help them begin with the end in mind, and engage with the material intentionally.
  4. Support skill development and time management
    1. Remind students regularly to put work in their portfolio
    1. Avoid a “digital dump”’ – make sure that everything they upload adds something.
    1. Build in time for reflection, self assessment and peer assessment. Check out some strategies / questions for facilitating metacognition here.
  5. Support students in keeping the contents of their portfolio at the end.

Possible Products in an E-Portfolio

  • Artwork
  • Audio recordings / podcasts
  • Book reports / reviews
  • Charts and graphs
  • Essays (drafts and final copies)
  • Self and peer evaluations
  • Interview results
  • Blog / journal entries
  • Maps
  • Classroom notes
  • Photographs of experiments / monuments / etc.
  • Videos of presentations, debates, interviews, or simulations
  • Mind Maps
  • Embedded social media posts from figures
  • Posters / Digital Posters
  • Activity sheets and other assignments

Examples

  1. Create a digital museum exhibit with some of the most important items from history. Each entry should center on a different object related to what we learned in class and be supported by evidence.
  2. Your digital portfolio is based around the question: how do we see the past in the present? As we explore themes in our class, you will reflect on ways that it relates to your life today using tools of inquiry.
  3. Your digital portfolio for English will be where you house your responses to the different texts we explore. You will be prompted with specific questions relating to the texts that build on one another week to week.
  4. Your digital portfolio for HPE will track your research and learning around what makes a healthy lifestyle. This will inform your personal health plan, which will be the summative assessment.
  5. Your digital portfolio will be where we track your learning throughout the semester. You’ll answer the question “Why is science important?” at the beginning, and regularly return to ways that your thoughts have been broadened and deepened.

Group Work

The best way top facilitate group work with portfolios is creating small groups that are accountable to reviewing and providing feedback to one another. Additionally, products that are created together could be shared across different platforms or linked between them.

Drawbacks / Risks

  1. Access to technology. Many students may struggle if they don’t have reliable access to computers or the internet. This could be mitigated if they have a phone (can upload at school through photographs), but still adds an additional burden on that student. It is recommended you survey your students’ situations and provide fair accommodations before beginning.
  2. A lot to keep track of. It’s critical to provide regular and ongoing feedback because if you’re not on top of it, you could fall behind. Having a clear roadmap with milestones and opportunities for metacognition and different types of assessments will help ensure it stays under control.

An Illustrative Example

Ms. Brown’s wants to use an ePortfolio in her social studies classroom across the entire semester. She surveys the students to get a sense of their access to technology and provides alternatives ways of participating and looser deadlines for students with more limited access. She decides she wants to use WordPress and so sets aside class time in the computer lab to walk students through signing up for the platform and getting familiar with it. She plans to use the portfolio as a way to track student thinking and learning, as well as facilitate collaboration and feedback. Ms Brown explains the benefits and purpose behind the portfolio for the students, outlines the criteria they will be evaluated on (which includes creativity), and explains that she will be explicit about when they need to add something to the portfolio. She chose this strategy rather than “upload whenever you want” because she thought her students would benefit from the direction, it would make assessment more straightforward, and would ensure higher quality work rather than risking a “digital dump.”

She also outlines the different options for students, explaining they can use a pseudonym and works with the class to develop rules that everyone is comfortable with (ie. Don’t use last names, etc.). She has students submit their websites to her in a form, and emails the parents of the students to let them know that they are encouraged to follow along.

Ms. Brown splits the class into groups that will support one another’s portfolios. Ms Brown is the only person to initially provide feedback, but instead of giving a mark, she gives concrete praise and suggestions for improvement, which her students can choose to immediately implement for a small boost of their grade. After a few weeks, she supports students in understanding how to self-assess, which she then begins requiring before she assesses, to help support student metacognition. A few weeks later, she teaches students how to give effective peer feedback, and occasionally requires this through the use of private comments, which she oversees and corrects when necessary.

Ms. Brown frames each unit around 1 or more critical inquiry questions, that allow the students to demonstrate their evolving understanding through their portfolio. One unit for instance, is framed around the question “Which social movement most drastically reshaped our world?” The students submit assignments like a digital infographic on the impacts of the Pride Movement, an interactive map to capturing dimensions of the Idle No More movement, a photo essay of evidence of the current day feminist movement around their neighbourhood, and a podcast interview of someone who lived through a major social movement. Additional submissions range from larger items (such as a group project timeline) to smaller pieces (such as a paragraph detailing the student’s top takeaways from a single class discussion.)  Ms. Brown also requires periodic reflection posts that encourage students to make connections between topics and recognize their learning strategies and skills that have been successful thus far. For each major content submission, Ms. Brown tries to give a few options of the multimedia type of submission that can be used but explains that diverse modes of communication are part of the criteria for assessment. Rather than expect students to know how to utilize these different types of multimedia effectively, Ms. Brown provides step-by-step guides and encourages peer mentorship within the groups.

Part way through the semester she has students fill out a survey to get a sense of how they are finding the portfolio, and if she can make any changes to make things simpler for them. At the end of the semester, Miss Brown asks the students to choose 1-5 portfolio submissions that represent their biggest learnings from the class and supports them in writing a short paper explaining and backing up their choices.

[i] Cleveland-Innes and Wilton (2018), Guide to Blended Learning. Retrieved from: http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/3095

[ii] Morris, J. (2003). Digital portfolios reflect how we learn. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education

International Conference (pp. 122-127). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

[iii] Wall, K., Higgins, S., Miller, J., & Packard, N. (2006). Developing digital portfolios: Investigating how digital portfolios can

facilitate pupil talk about learning. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 15(3), 261-273.

[iv] Burt, R., Morris, K. (2020). The Complete Guide to Student Digital Portfolios. Campus Press. Retrieved from:

The Complete Guide To Student Digital Portfolios

[v] Case, R., Clark, P. (2020). Learning to inquire in history, geography, and social studies: An anthology for secondary teachers.

The Critical Thinking Consortium.