E – PORTFOLIO

as an Assessment Tool and as

a Communication Medium
 “ The E - Portfolio is the central and
common point for the student experience.
It is a reflection of the student as a person
undergoing continuous personal
development, not just a store of evidence.”
- Geoff Rebbeck
INTRODUCTION
 Learners must focus on their collective work, think about how it
will be portrayed and what the work says about them as an individual
learner. Learners are then in charge of their learning and the choice of
where to demonstrate their proficiency. Learners also reflect on what
they have learned and how they plan to build and improve themselves.
This helps them develop their skills, such as writing and multimedia,
critical thinking and creative skills. Today, students use multimedia
such as Facebook, Twitter, and texting – all in the informal setting. In
contrast, the electronic portfolio is used in a formal setting where
students must apply their knowledge on how the web works as they
convey their message. Many schools are currently working to make
sure that students gain practice and experience with electronic
portfolios so that they are able to use them well.
 MEANING OF
E -PORTFOLIO
 E – Portfolio
~ a digital portfolio of course-related work like essays, posters,
photographs, videos, and artwork created by students
 Academic E – Portfolio
~ can also capture other aspects of a student’s life, such as
experiences, extracurricular activities and more
 In other words, an E – Portfolio documents and makes visible
student learning. But a good E – Portfolio should be more than just a
collection of products. A good E – Portfolio is both a product (a digital
collection of artifacts) and a process (of reflecting on those artifacts and
what they represent). Like a Learning Management System (LMS), an E
– Portfolio exists online and supports student learning. It differs from a
Learning Management in two ways: namely, ownership and control. In a
university course, the Learning Management System is “owned” and
controlled or managed by the instructor who decides who has access,
what tools are turned on or off, and so on. With an E – Portfolio, the
student is in charge. The student decides who can view the E – Portfolio,
what artifacts get added, how it is designed, and so on. Typically, a
student loses access to the LMS when courses end; in contrast an E –
Portfolio remains the student’s property after finishing university.
 THE LEARNING THEORY
BEHIND E - PORTFOLIOS
 Basken (2008)
~ “are a way to generate learning as well as document learning”
Both generating learning and documenting or recording learning are
important, but the process of generating learning sometimes gets
overlooked. E – Portfolios generate learning because they provide an
opportunity and virtual space for students to critically assess their academic
work, to reflect on that work and make connections among different
courses, assignments, and other activities, such as work experience,
extracurricular pursuits, volunteering opportunities and more. E – portfolios
are effective learning tools because they support students’ own knowledge
construction, make otherwise invisible aspects of the learning process
visible and place agency in the hands of students which fosters learners’
motivation. This means that E – Portfolios make learners get actively
involved in their own learning.
Constructing Knowledge
~ E – Portfolios fall within a learning theory known as social constructivism
 Social Constructivism
- states that learning happens most effectively when students construct
systems of knowledge for themselves rather than simply receiving information
presented
- also states that another determinant of effective learning is that it happens
in a social context – that is, learners construct knowledge through dialogue and
interaction with others

With E – Portfolios, the process of reflection originates as a solo activity,

but becomes social through a feedback loop, as the learners’ teacher, peers,
mentors and even family members respond to and provide commentary on those
reflections. Making and then sharing an E – Portfolio with others is somewhat
like telling a story, the story of one’s learning journey. This is indeed,
constructing knowledge not simply receiving information presented.
Making Learning Visible
 Bass and Eynon (2009)
~ described the process of critical reflection that is involved in the
creation of effective E – Portfolios as one that makes “invisible
learning” visible
 Invisible Learning refers to two things:

1. the intermediate steps that occur whenever a student, or any

person, is attempting to learn something or do something, and
2. the learning that goes “beyond the cognitive to include the
affective, the personal and issues of identity”
 The intermediate and invisible steps of learning and doing
before the product – learning how to do better the next time and
learning more deeply – tend to be overlooked as one gets focused
exclusively on the final product.
The other aspect of invisible learning is affective in nature. In
other words, the process of learning something doesn’t involve just
the rational mind rather, feelings, personality, and sense of self are
all involved – sometimes facilitating that learning process and
sometimes hindering it. By reflecting on those affective, personal
and self – identity factors, students can develop meta – cognitive
skills that can enhance their learning.
Fostering Student
Activity
 Tosh, Penny Light, Fleming, & Haywood, 2005
~ Finally, because E – Portfolios are a student – centered activity –
one in which the learner is free to reflect on the process of their learning
– they foster engagement and motivation.
 Entwistle & Karagiannopoulou, 2014; Kuh et al., 2005
~ Research on learner engagement with learning suggests that
when learners perceive that they have choices in how to learn they are
more engaged and motivated to move beyond simple information
acquisition to try to gain an understanding of the subject.
 E – Portfolios offer this opportunity for learner control
and can support or promote deep learning as learners are
able to make connections between the learning that occurs
in different contexts. Indeed, it is this recognition that
learning occurs beyond the classroom that makes E –
Portfolios attractive to many educators.
TYPES OF E - PORTFOLIOS
 Some educators see E – Portfolios primarily as tools for generating
new or deeper learning while others view them as a tool for assessment
(of students and, by extension, of school programs).
 Barrett (2008)
~ described the difference in perspective this way: “There’s a distinction
between student-centered and school – centered E – Portfolios.”
 School – Centered E – Portfolios
~ are driven by “assessment of learning” (summative assessment)
 Learner – Centered E – Portfolios
~ are driven by “assessment for learning” which refers to academic tasks
that fulfill the traditional role of assessing student learning while at the same
time providing an opportunity for students to learn as they complete the
assessment.
Kinds of E – Portfolios
according to Purpose of
the E – Portfolio for
the Student
 Assessment E - Portfolio
~ the audience is internal to the school and the goal is to support
institutional outcomes assessment

 Learning E – Portfolio
~ the audience is students themselves and the goal is helping students
examine and reflect on their learning

 Career/transfer E – Portfolio
~ the audience is external, and the goal is to provide students with a
tool for showcasing their achievements to employers or transfer
institutions.
Best Practices in the
Use of E - Portfolio
 When E – Portfolios have broader institutional uptake,
students will be encouraged in all of their courses to use their E –
Portfolio and to reflect on and make connections between all of
their courses and academic experiences. For this reason, E –
Portfolios are most effective when they are established as an
institution – or program – wide initiative, however, they can still
be successful at the individual course level. To ensure this
success, it’s important to observe a number of proven best
practices.
1.) Explain the benefits of E – Portfolios to students.
 can help learners develop new or deeper learning, which
results in higher grades;
 help learners develop a better sense of themselves as
students and as individuals;
 can be shared with friends and family members; and
 showcase learners’ achievements when they are applying for
a job.
2. Establish clear expectations.
Explain to your students what you expect them to do in
their E – Portfolios. Learners may have difficulty understanding
the need for them to reflect on their work and the need for them
to make connections between different lessons and experiences.
3.) Provide numerous examples of successful E –
Portfolios created by students.
Direct students to examples of effective E –Portfolios, like
Inkless, a project-focused E – Portfolio or this E – Portfolio by
Knowledge Integration, that features “course skills spotlights”
and more.
4.) Scaffold student learning.
Helps students start small. Ask them to choose just one
artifact (such as an essay) and have them reflect on the
challenges they had to address as they wrote their essay or have
the students select two assignments from different subjects and
have them reflect on how each of those assignments helped
them to better understand the other assignment.
5.) Walk the talk.
Create an E – Portfolio for yourself and share it with your
students. You’ll better understand the challenges and benefits of
maintaining an E – Portfolio and it will also persuade students
that it is a useful endeavor.
6.) Tie E – Portfolios to assessment.
Maintaining an E – Portfolio demands a significant
amount of time and energy from students and they will
resent it if their time and energy are not reflected in their
final grade. If E – Portfolios are merely an optional
assignment that is encouraged but not required, most
students will not undertake one.
7.) Make it social.
Integrate viewing and commenting on other students’ E –
Portfolios as part of the assessment. You could, for example,
have a link to each student’s blog in the online space that your
course has in your school’s LMS. Additionally, you could create
a discussion forum in that online space where students make
helpful and encouraging comments on one another’s E –
Portfolios. The E – Portfolios, then, become an integral part of
the online community of students. Adam Rothman, of
Georgetown University, refers to this approach as the hub – and
– spoke model.
Assessment of
E - Portfolios
 Because E – Portfolios require a significant investment
of time and energy from students, it is important that they
be assessed carefully and that the assessment contributes in
a substantial way to a student’s final grade in a course.
However, there are challenges to assessing E – Portfolios:
how, for example, does one evaluate the quality of a
student’s “reflections”? Furthermore, if students come to
see their E – Portfolios as “just another assignment,” then
they will not engage with it in an authentic way and it may
become just another “hoop” for them to jump through.
 Helen Barret (2005)
~ suggest that “high stakes assessment and accountability are
killing E – Portfolios as a reflective tool to support deep learning”

A balance needs to be found, one that strives to help students

appreciate the genuine benefits that they will experience by developing
an E – Portfolio that captures their work and personal reflections but
which also acknowledges that assessing E – Portfolios is not a merely
“subjectively” matter. It other words, E – Portfolios can be personal in
nature, and yet still assessable by objective standards.
 Perhaps the best way to overcome these assessment
challenges, while still ensuring that students benefit from their
E – Portfolios, is to assess E – Portfolios with a rubric.
Furthermore, consistent formative feedback, either left by the
instructor or by other students, helps learners maintain
motivation to work on their E – Portfolio, while also providing
feedback to assist in subsequent reflections or other additions
to their work. In this case, there is no need to provide a grade
for the work they have contributed – scaffolded feedback to
guide them in their learning journey can be very beneficial.
 E – Portfolio
Assessment Rubric
E – Portfolio Purpose:
The purpose of creating and maintaining an electronic
portfolio is for students to reflect on their years of education.
The portfolio should include a statement of the students’ goals,
philosophy of education and files which showcase the
student’s best work. The work selected by the student for the
electronic portfolio should be organized and reflected upon.
Reflections:
The electronic portfolio shows examples of different kinds of
work, such as PowerPoint presentations, Excel files, digitally
manipulated photograph examples, and Word documents. Each
example is accompanied by a reflection composed by the student.
The reflection includes the course for which the file was created, the
time it took to create the file, a brief description of why the file has
been included in the E – Portfolio and an explanation as to why this
file demonstrates achievement.
Category Exemplary Proficient Partially Incomplete
(20 pts) (17 pts) Proficient (5 pts)
(13 pts)
All artifacts and Most artifacts and Few artifacts and Most artifacts and
work samples are work samples are work samples are work samples are
Selection of clearly and directed related to the related to the unrelated to the
Artifacts related to the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the
purpose of the E – E – Portfolio. E – Portfolio. E – Portfolio.
Portfolio.
The use of The use of audio/ The use of audio/ No use of audio/
audio/video/ video/ graphics/ video/ graphics/ video, or graphics.
graphics/ photographs is photographs/ is The photos and
Use of photographs is included but is used audio or video are
included and
Multimedia integrated seamlessly
appropriate.
randomly and distracting from the
into several different without purpose . content of the
artifacts. portfolio.
 All reflections Most of the A few reflections Reflections are
clearly describe reflections describe why missing, and those
describe why that are there do not
why artifacts in artifacts in the describe why
the E – Portfolio artifacts in the E – Portfolio
Reflections artifacts in the
demonstrate E – Portfolio demonstrate E – Portfolio
achievement. demonstrate achievement. demonstrate
achievement. achievement.

Creativity & The index serves its Most artifacts and Few artifacts and Most artifacts and
purpose and shows work samples are work samples are work samples are
Purpose of creativity. The related to the related to the unrelated to the
the Index layout and design is purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the
attractive and well E – Portfolio. E – Portfolio. E – Portfolio.
 The document is
fully hyper – Hyperlinks are Hyperlinks from
linked between organized into the index (or
the index (or Table of The Index is
Ease of logical groups.
Table Of Contents) are plain with few
Not all possible
Navigating Contents),
features have linked to the links, if any.
artifacts and
been employed. artifacts but lacks Some links are
reflections. The
organization. “broken”.
index is well
organized and
easy to navigate.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
♥ An E – Portfolio is a digital collection of course – related work
and other aspects of a student’s life, such as co-curricular and
extra-curricular activities.
♥ The social constructivist theory emphasizes that learners
construct knowledge through social interaction with others. As
learners work on their E – Portfolio, they have to work with
others. They learn by co-constructing and reconstructing
knowledge along with teachers and classmates.
♥ Some types of E – Portfolio are: school – centered E –
Portfolio, learner – centered E – Portfolio, Assessment E –
Portfolio, Learning E – Portfolio, and Career E – Portfolio.
♥ School – centered E – Portfolio is administered by the school for
summative assessment purposes, while learner – centered E –
Portfolios serve the formative purpose of assessment for learning.
They help learners assess themselves in the process of teaching-
learning.
♥ Assessment E – Portfolios are meant to support assessment of
institutional/school outcomes and are therefore intended for the
school as a whole.
♥ Learning E – Portfolios are meant for learners to help them
examine and reflect on their own learning.
♥ Career/transfer E – Portfolios are meant to provide students
with a tool for showcasing their achievements to employers or
transfer institutions.
♥ To ensure that E – Portfolios are used most effectively:
- explain the benefits of the use of E – Portfolios to students,
- establish clear expectation,
- provide numerous examples of successful E – Portfolios
created by student,
- scaffold student learning
- walking the talk, and
- tie portfolio to assessmentric.
 Group 3 Reporters
Galindo, June B.
Badian, Regina Joyce B.
Benederio, Vanessa
Casco, Jullianne Eunice J.
Delmo, Ruth Jean B.
Lerio, Kharen S.
Rodriguez, Kimberly