Create an e –portfolio - my experience Dr. Vaikunthan Rajaratnam

The portfolio is a collection of student’s work that is purposefully performed to provide evidence of the student’s efforts, progress or achievement in a given area or areas. This bundle of evidence must include the student participation in the selection of the contents, the guidelines for selection, and the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection.

So therefore the portfolio is a source of evidence from which judgements of achievement can be made as a form of an assessment of learning. This can be in the form of formative assessment as part of the process of learning and if learning is clearing and provide remedial measures and feedback. It can also be utilised as a summative assessment. It would include achievements and results from authentic tasks, performance assessment conventional tests and even work examples. It is documentation of evidence over an extended period of time and therefore is a much more authentic form of assessing learning.

E portfolios are therefore merely a portfolio that has been compiled electronically and usually on a website.

So in creating my e-portfolio the processes that I had utilised include processes that show me as a learner, growing. I chose the contents and materials that were included in the portfolio that would reflect my learning on the domain of cognition and knowledge, to skill and that of attitude and performance. I ensured there was enough evidence of reflection in the portfolio. As an adult life long learner, my learning occurred both synchronously and asynchronously and I ensured that I was able to collect and collate learning moments easily.

As part of a clinical learning process, I am constantly looking at outcomes of my surgical practice and therefore needed to document clinical outcomes of my patients.

For any new skills that have I have learnt, I attempt to document it through annotations and reflections of how I would apply that in my practice. If it was something that was observed online I would store it as a bookmark data in my portfolio. If I had viewed this in a live performance then I would record it on my mobile device.

For issues on attitude component of learning, in our practice to be one of professionalism , I will include in my portfolio any commendations, appreciated notes from patients, emails of recommendation, feedbacks from lectures, complaints, negative comments by students, this will be collated and stored in the portfolio.

So therefore the challenges facing this task of capturing, collating, storing and retrieving this evidence can be quite phenomenal. As such I chose an electronic format to store the evidence of my lifelong learning portfolio.

The requirements of the general medical Council in the United Kingdom for the revalidation of practising doctors required the maintenance of evidence of good medical practice.  This consists of connecting evidence in 4 domains, which included:-

• 1.     professionalism,
• 2.     knowledge skills and performance,
• 3.     safety and quality, and the
• 4.     domain of maintaining trusts.

In keeping with this I chose various mediums to maintain my electronic portfolio. I use a Twitter account for work based e-portfolio maintenance and the note keeping software Evernote for the maintenance of my research and learning portfolio.  I use the group function of LinkedIn to enhance my learning to the posting of difficult problems for my community of practitioners from around the world to teach and learn from. This has been a very powerful tool as the group consists of over 900 practitioners from around the world forming a community of practice of hand surgeons. It provides free exchange of ideas and documents to commence feedback and interaction among the participants. This forms a very strong evidence of on-going learning that is occurring in my practice.

In the Twitter account I would create notes on cases seen that pose a diagnostic dilemma with digital images or videos and post them on the Twitter account to show my clinical practice. 

Obviously all confidential data is preserved so as not to breach any data protection issues. These bits of information are also used as learning bites for my undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. There can be engagement with others who follow me on Twitter and this provides for learning and teaching. Outcome of my surgical practice are documented through images and videos and posted on the Twitter site.

Evernote has been a very useful tool for my continuous learning process. Its add-in to within the browser allows for me to collect and collate and store learning that is occurred through my web surfing. It also allows for me to record any learning points during attending conferences of taking snapshots of events including what is written on this whiteboard as notes and evidence of my learning. To enhance this process the notes would have added tags and annotations to show reflection and learning. By being present on multiple devices Evernote allows me to be able to collect and collate evidence anywhere and at any time. Its features of syncing to the cloud ensure that all evidence is ubiquitous. I am able to access them on the desktop laptop and my phone and can share this evidence with whoever requires it. I am also able to drag and drop camera uploads from a smart phone to my Evernote folder of all digital imaging that had been utilised as part of my evidence collection for my portfolio.

This portfolio that I maintain is an evidence for my revalidation requirements of the general medical Council United Kingdom, which can be considered as a form of formative assessment of my continuous learning. It shows the process of learning through reflection, through understanding through errors and successes. It shows the journey of learning rather than the endpoint which would be a summative assessment. Assessment is in the form of the knowledge testing through recall like an exit examination, be either multiple choice or assignments, look at an endpoint rather than the whole process of learning. Portfolio allows for formative assessment and over an extended period of time showing evidence of deep learning and of a behaviour of self-directed   and lifelong learning.

So the portfolio not only documents achievement but also self-evaluation and also analyses a learning process through analysis of the reflections that are maintained. It also collects evidence when failure has occurred and sees whether learning has occurred in those instances. It assesses the role of metacognition of learning by showing how, when, who, where and why, one has learnt. It would be difficult to establish portfolios as a summative assessment as it would be expensive in terms of time and resource management and there may be issues of reliability in terms of grading and standards. However this can be overcome by ensuring assessors have exemplar to work with and comprehensive and robust rubrics for grading.

Keeping this portfolio has been assisted by having a clear purpose of this. In my case this portfolio is   part of the process of revalidation. So the evidence that is collected is clear and well defined. The time required to maintain this portfolio has been made easy by the use of electronic tools like Evernote, LinkedIn and Twitter and the use of ubiquitous devices. I’ve been assisted by the clearly defined domains required by the general medical Council in helping me choose the content that is needed to maintain my portfolio. The good medical practice guidelines that were issued by the general medical Council in 2013 establish clear performance indicators that are required to be met in the evidence.

Assessment Methods  

‘Assessment and feedback practices should be designed to enable students to become self-regulated learners, able to monitor and evaluate the quality and impact of their own work and that of others.’ David Nicol (2010)

Assessment is a key component of any learning program and ensures objectives are met. But also assessment drives learning and ensures motivation to learn and achieve.

The purposes of assessment are to:

1. ·       promote learning
2. ·       measure performance, and attainment of the stated learning outcomes;
3. ·       determine progression;
4. ·       provide feedback to students learning gaps
5. ·       provide feedback to teachers learning needs and diagnose ineffective teaching.

Key to effective assessment are the linkages between outcomes, the design of assessment tasks, criteria, marking procedures and feedback - the blueprint and rubrics of education and assessment.

Assessment can be both summative and formative and recent evidence is clear that the use of formative assessment allows for deeper learning to occur and encourages the lifelong learner is the eventual outcome of adult education. Well-designed assessment allows for engagement of students and helps them direct their learning especially for those who are on self-paced and on demand learning platforms.

Assessment should allow for determination of performance, against the intended outcomes of the program. So therefore it requires a link between the learning outcomes and clear guidelines on the expected behaviour that will be assessed.

The assessment process should provide for appropriate and timely feedback. It is through feedback that an individual obtains the learning that is meaningful and ensures that the material that has been thought has been received and the objectives achieved.

The use of clearly stated rubrics is essential for assessment to be effective it is here that the student can obtain clear guidelines of the framework of the assessment and the descriptors of the grading and thereby making assessment transparent, equitable and fair.

Assessment methods should provide for a range of assessment instruments and processes to encourage the development of a range of attributes and skills. These tools must match the type of knowledge that is being assessed from the level of basic reproduction of facts like remembering to that of higher order thinking - the creation of new knowledge according to Bloom’s taxonomy.

Assessment should be reliable and valid. This is the cornerstone of any assessment. Both in terms of its content, construct and acceptance to the students and in terms of the contexts in which it is being used the assessment must be valid. Its reliability must be ensured with the use of appropriate psychometric testing that the true measures of what it is meant to measure correctly in different environments and uses.

Assessment tasks and methods should take into account, where possible, past experience/prior student feedback. This is important for the individualisation of the assessment tool to the learning needs of each and every student.

Assessment design should be responsive to students' context such as multiple curricula, different study environments and different cultural contexts. Assessment methods should provide reasonable accommodation for students with a disability. So online assessment can be in the form of written assignments, interactive activities, quizzes, collaborative assignment, portfolios, online examinations, practicals, simulations, case studies, forums, online discussions, publication of student work and presentation, Journal and reflections.

In the context of online assessment the following are some of the best practices   from research in online assessment.

1. Online assessments should be aligned with the curriculum and relevant to the course learning outcomes.

2. Online assessment instructions and question wording should be clear, concise and free from ambiguity.

3. Timely and meaningful feedback should be provided. The extent and nature of this feedback should reflect the purpose of the assessment and the nature of the online assessment method.

4. Marking schemes should be fair, transparent, weighted appropriately and clearly communicated to students.

5. Online assessment tasks should be designed with accessibility in mind. Provision for ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate students with special needs should be considered as should appropriate alternatives should potential adjustments prove inadequate.

6. Where appropriate, online assessment tasks should incorporate a range of question types in order to assess the breadth and depth of student knowledge.

7. Online assessments incorporating objective questions should include suitable and relevant distracters to minimise the potential for guessing.

8. Online assessment approaches should be guided by the level at which the student is studying.

9. Careful consideration should be made in relation to the time (stage) at which online assessment tasks are employed during a student’s course of study and also to the realistic time frame in which students could be expected to complete the task.

10. Online assessments should not test a student’s information technology skills or their adeptness at using a specific online assessment tool unless that is the explicit purpose of the assessment.

The advantages of online assessment include learner centeredness, encourage and self-reflection. It includes rubrics for discussion assignments and collaboration and encourages self and peer assessment. It helps to contextualise and align the learning to the learning outcomes and allows for learner input. Online assessments are reusable and efficient though initial design and deployment may be resource intensive. It allows for student input into assessment design and empowers the students in their own assessment. It also allows for timely and personalise feedback if the design ensures detail in the creation of the online feedback. The technologies allow for both self and peer assessment.

The major disadvantages of online assessment are a technical ability needed to design and deploy these assessments. As always, fear and anxiety about the reliability of the technologies will always be there. Whether plagiarism and assistance is obtained while the student is performing the online assessment and practical skill assessment may be difficult to monitor and control.

Reference

http://www.reap.ac.uk/

Boud, D. & Falchikov, N. (2006). Aligning assessment with long-term learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 31(4), 399-413.

David Nicol 2010, Principles of good on line assessment http://www.reap.ac.uk/reap/reap07/Portals/2/CSL/feast%20of%20case%20studies/ Principles_of_good_online_assessment_design.pdf

Nicol, D., J. & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education 31(2), 199-216

Evidence for digital education

Literature review for IT in medical and surgical education

Digital learning is about the use of technology to enhance the students learning experience. It is not merely online learning but the efficient utilisation of high-quality instructional material designed specifically for the varying learning styles of students allowing for on demand ,self-paced, ubiquitous learning environment. The characteristics of Digital learning include the ability to personalise learning material that is flexible. This is led by teachers but with significant support and allows for collaboration and is aligned to a common vision. It has high-quality resource materials and encourages a transparent and ongoing learning environment. (Alliance for excellent education).

Solvie & Kloek, have shown in the paper that technology tools have the ability to address students’ varying learning needs and styles and preferences. In the study they show that as they work within constructivist environment, these technologies tools can be used successfully and integrated to support the students learning. In their study they found that the students believe indicated they believed technology tools were assisting them in the construction of knowledge. They also showed that “preferences for technology are not as indicative of performance as is a match between characteristics of the tool and learning styles.”

From simple technology tools like the use of audience response system, it has been shown that students feel more engaged in learning and experience and enhanced learning process.(Sternberger, 2012) . The Centre for learning and performance technology, in 2012 listed the top 100 tools useful learning by professionals. Some of the tools listed include Twitter, Skype, dropbox, you tube, slideshare, Google drive.  The plethora of digital tools for learning poses challenges for the 21st century teacher. It has been shown that the creation of an authentic learning experience with the use of technology enhances learning .(Herrington & Kervin, 2007). According to the authors, the learning environment should:-

1. Provide authentic contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be used in real life

2. Provide authentic activities 

3. Provide access to expert performances and the modelling of processes 

4. Provide multiple roles and perspectives 

5. Support collaborative construction of knowledge 

6. Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed 

7. Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit 

8. Provide coaching by the teacher at critical times, and scaffolding and fading of teacher support 

9. Provide for authentic, integrated assessment of learning within the tasks 

Herrington and Kervin have shown that technology can be used as a cognitive tool within authentic learning environments rather than just merely disseminator of content and information. These technology tools allow students to be more engaged with tasks and allows for ownership of the knowledge. They provide practical ways in incorporating technology within the learning environment to enhance the learning experience. They argue that the teacher’s role is to align the technology experiences of the student with that of the purpose of the learning.

Student feedback in technology mediated learning has been very positive. Hardaway and Scammell in their paper looked at the student response with the use of technology in a business course.   (Hardaway & Scamell, 2005).  They showed that students by working with various search engines were able to locate relevant information, and then by using web authoring tools to compose their documents, conducting discussions on the bulletin board, and taking an on-line final exam, the students utilise all the technology features during their learning experience. “By including these technology features in the course, students gained an appreciation for the value of technology within a learning context and the relationship that technology has to the process of learning. “ (Hardaway & Scamell, 2005). They concluded that the challenges of teachers today is the development of courses that are designed to use technology to enhance the learning experience for the student and then use valuable face-to-face time to provide richer environment and productive activities.

Therefore the creation of learning objects becomes crucial in Digital learning. Huang (2005) who notes   from the Virtual Labs Project at Stanford University, that current methods for the design of multimedia learning modules are not standardized and lack strong instructional design. (Huang, 2005). The author discusses the  phases in the  development of a multimedia module , which includes :” (1) understand the learning problem and the users’ needs; (2) design the content to harness the enabling technologies; (3) build multimedia materials with web style standards and human factors principles; (4) user testing; (5) Evaluate and improve design.”(Huang, 2005). Here we therefore see the principles of instructional design being used in the development of digital content to facilitate learning.

 Asynchronous tools are useful digital tools to help students to share ideas and exchange cultural perspectives outside the physical boundaries of a classroom.(Walker & Jeurissen, 2003). In this study the authors created a hybrid course in which they added an e-learning discussion and posting of knowledge by the participants in addition to face-to-face learning. They found that the e-learning discussion groups facilitated open and frank discussion which otherwise would not have been possible for certain students within the class who may have been marginalised. 

Among the various tools available for digital learning to occur there certain preferences among educational professionals. Among certified educational profession it was found that virtual learning networks, videos sharing and online events scheduling were the most important web 2.0 application while social bookmarks, social networks and music were the least important.(Pritchett, Wohleb, & Pritchett, 2013). They also commented that many educators are not aware of the benefits technology can offer them as professionals in carrying out the implementation of the curriculum in their classrooms.

On-line feedback tools play an important role in Digital education.  Results show that students’   prior experiences with traditional feedback guide their perceived preferences regarding online feedback.” Students were aware of many specific challenges that they faced during online research, and expressed a strong desire for technologies that could support identification of valid and relevant online content. Self-reported, online feedback needs were consistent with successful features of digital learning environments that have been shown to support deeper learning”(Ferrara & Butcher, 2012).

As technology, becomes universally excepted in education, this framework to understand and describe the kinds of knowledge required by teachers for effective pedagogical practice resulted in the creation of the term called Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK).  It therefore embraces the concept of effective technology integration for teaching specific content or subject matter and requires understanding and negotiating the relationships between these three components: Technology, Pedagogy, and Content. This framework then includes the skills of instructional designers, educational technologies and subject matter experts.   Teachers are able to connect the use of technology to concepts and skills within their curriculum.(Swan & Hofer, 2011). In this study the authors use podcasting as a technology to deliver content in an economy course. They found that the teachers discovered podcasting added value to the learning experience with student motivation and offering opportunities for meaningful alternative assessment and student expression.  They also found   that teachers demonstrated strong technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) i.e. but a lack of technological content knowledge (TCK) in the design and implementation of the podcasting projects. (Swan & Hofer, 2011).

If teachers were trained in TPACK , they were found to have enhanced used of technology in the   selection and use of learning activities and technologies,  becoming  more conscious, strategic, and varied; their instructional planning became more student-centred, focusing primarily upon students’ intellectual, rather than affective, engagement; and (c) their quality standards for technology integration were raised, resulting in deliberate decisions for more judicious educational technology use .(Harris & Hofer, 2011)

It is clear from this literature review that digital learning is becoming more and more popular in the research literature and digital tools have been used effectively to deliver learning programs. Generally students find digital tools and the way learning has been designed to deliver content producing a more enriching and engaging experience resulting in a much more positive acceptance of technology in learning. Educators are incorporating more digital tools but must be backed with sound principles of instruction design to ensure that the tools just become enablers of learning.

References

http://www.all4ed.org/digitallearning/what-is-digital-learning  Alliance for excellent education   

http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/  centre for learning and performance technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Pedagogical_Content_Knowledge

 Camillan Huang. (2004). Designing high-quality interactive multimedia learning modules. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 29, 223–233. doi:10.1016/j.compmedimag.2004.09.017

Ferrara, L. A., & Butcher, K. R. (2012). Exploring Students’ Perceived Needs and Ideas About Feedback in Online Learning Environments: Implications for Digital Design. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology & Learning, 2(2), 48.

Hardaway, D. E., & Scamell, R. W. (2005). Use of a Technology-Mediated Learning Instructional Approach For Teaching an Introduction to Information Technology Course. Journal of Information Systems Education, 16(2), 137–145.

Harris, J. B., & Hofer, M. J. (2011). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in Action: A Descriptive Study of Secondary Teachers’ Curriculum-Based, Technology-Related Instructional Planning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 43(3), 211–229.

Herrington, J., & Kervin, L. (2007). Authentic Learning Supported by Technology: Ten suggestions and cases of integration in classrooms. Educational Media International, 44(3), 219–236. doi:10.1080/09523980701491666

Pritchett, C., Wohleb, E., & Pritchett, C. (2013). Educators’ Perceived Importance of Web 2.0 Technology Applications. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 57(2), 33–38. doi:10.1007/s11528-013-0643-3

Reynolds, R., & Caperton, I. (2011). Contrasts in student engagement, meaning-making, dislikes, and challenges in a discovery-based program of game design learning. Educational Technology Research & Development, 59(2), 267–289. doi:10.1007/s11423-011-9191-8

Solvie, P., & Kloek, M. (20070600). Using Technology Tools to Engage Students with Multiple Learning Styles in a Constructivist Learning Environment. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 7(2), 7–27.

Sternberger, C. S. (2012). Interactive Learning Environment: Engaging Students Using Clickers. Nursing Education Perspectives, 33(2), 121–124. doi:10.5480/1536-5026-33.2.121

Swan, K., & Hofer, M. (2011). In Search of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Teachers’ Initial Foray into Podcasting in Economics. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 44(1), 75–98.

Walker, R., & Jeurissen, R. (2003). E-Based Solutions to Support Intercultural Business Ethics Instruction: An Exploratory Approach in Course Design and Delivery. Journal of Business Ethics, 48(1), 113–126.

 A critical examination of the growth and development of portfolios within Higher Education and  their value in the development and application for students learning and assessment  and providing evidence of student learning.

The portfolio is a collection of student’s work that is purposefully performed to provide evidence of the student’s efforts, progress or achievement in a given area or areas. This bundle of evidence must include the student participation in the selection of the contents, the guidelines for selection, and the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection.(Tochel et al., 2009a),(“ePortfolios | Towards Open Education,” n.d.)

So therefore the portfolio is a source of evidence from which judgement of achievement can be made as a form of an assessment of learning. This can be in the form of formative assessment as part of the process of learning and if learning is occurring and provide remedial measures and feedback. It can also be utilised as a summative assessment. It would include achievements and results from authentic tasks, performance assessment, and conventional tests and even work examples. It is documentation of evidence over an extended period of time and therefore is a much more authentic form of assessing learning.(Tochel et al., 2009b)

When portfolios were originally introduced in education as instruments for authentic assessment, they closely resembled the portfolios of architects and artists, as a portable case for keeping, usually without folding, loose sheets of papers, drawings or photographs. Building on the principle of triangulation  all kinds of evidence can be brought together in those portfolios that, in combination, give the possibility to draw valid conclusions about competence.(Tochel et al., 2009a).  

E portfolios are therefore merely a portfolio that has been compiled electronically and usually on a website.(“ePortfolios | Towards Open Education,” n.d.) . There has been a drive for the growth of e portfolios. According to Clark and Eynon,, the 4 major ones are

1. is pedagogical change in higher education, a growing interest in student-centered active learning

2. the dynamism of digital communication

3. pressure for increased accountability in higher education 

4. Increasing fluidity in employment and education.

(Clark & Eynon, 2009)

The growing body of research in e portfolio and the impetus from the Association for authentic experiential and evidence based learning(AAEBL) has placed pressure on many institutions to go along a path of the portfolio as an evidence of learning.(Kahn, 2014). According to Clark and Eynon, “The growth of e-portfolio use is directly related to its elasticity, to the diversity of purposes for which it can be used, including enriched learning and improved career development, transfer, and assessment.”(Clark & Eynon, 2009)p19. They conclude that the three factors that will shape the growth and development of e portfolios are:-

• how the web 2.0 and social networking technology will evolve in the future

• the conflict between learning and assessment focus

• the impact of international growth

E portfolios has the potential to enhance teaching, learning and assessment. They can support 

• student advisement and career preparation

• student or a alumni credential documentation

• sharing of teaching philosophy and practices

• Department and programmed self studies and

• institutional and programme accreditation process

The challenges of e-portfolio have been the following:-

• its authenticity as the students work

• the volume of space required as materials added on for every student year by year

• ownership of the e portfolio

• role of institutions in promoting and supporting the e-portfolio

• the validity and reliability of the portfolio assessment

• incorporating critical reflection in the design and implementation of the portfolios

 (Tochel et al., 2009b)

There has been a call for more empirical research on the effectiveness of e-portfolio practices. It should also include measures in which student outcomes have been impacted as a result of the use of the portfolios. Specific areas that need to be looked into would be the assessment of multimedia artefacts that are produced in E portfolios. Further understanding is required in the role of each portfolios in producing meta high impact practices among students.(Kahn, 2014)

There are three types of portfolios: developmental, assessment and showcase:

Developmental Portfolios: demonstrate the advancement and development of student skills over a period of time. Developmental portfolios are considered works-in-progress and include both self-assessment and reflection/feedback elements. The primary purpose is to provide communication between students and faculty.

Assessment Portfolios: demonstrate student competence and skill for well-defined areas. These may be end-of-course or program assessments primarily for evaluating student performance. The primary purpose is to evaluate student competency as defined by program standards and outcomes.

Showcase Portfolios: demonstrate exemplary work and student skills. This type of portfolio is created at the end of a program to highlight the quality of student work. Students typically show this portfolio to potential employers to gain employment at the end of a degree program.

Hybrids: Most portfolios are hybrids of the three types of portfolios listed above. Self-reflection is an important component of electronic portfolio development without which, they will not gain from the rich learning experience that e-portfolio development can provide.

(Kahn, 2014)

E-portfolios provides an environment in which students/trainees/knowledge worker can collect, select, reflect upon, build, and publish a digital archive of their activity work.  (Van Tartwijk & Driessen, 2009)(Kahn, 2014)(Eynon, Gambino, & Török, 2014)

E-portfolios are practices more than technologies and not a panacea for all assessment needs.  The value of e-portfolios is dependent on inclusive planning—ensuring all stakeholders in education are connected.(Bass, 2014). They provide a mechanism for integrated learning at the same time allowing integration of institutional measures of learning. E portfolios also provides a means of for clarifying and affirming the institutional values.(Bass, 2014)

These should be designed and embedded in the curriculum so that they motivate the user to use and allow for the complete ease of use of all the functionalities. To be effective in medical education they need to be able to perform these functions as per the report from Imperial Medical School in UK:-

1. To assess students against specified learning objectives. 

2. To record clinical observations and practice. 

3. To map clinical observations with clinical skills. 

4. To map clinical observations and skills to learning outcomes. 

5. To help student analyse patterns in their own learning. 

6. To measure against state-based standards. 

7. To support reflective practice.  

Technically for it to be effective it needs to be 

1. Value-added to student learning. 

2. Infrastructure costs: integration, sustainability (cost-effectiveness). 

3. Maintenance and support costs. 

4. Ease of use, including ability to transfer grades to and from an LMS into the e-portfolio system. 

5. Choice of back-end technology and tools. 

6. Ownership of the artefacts and final product. 

7. How the data will be managed and user-support required. 

8. Setup, maintenance and upgrade costs (especially costs of maintaining space for students over the life of their studies and for some time after graduation).  

It also need to be able to record and store the following

1. Actual marks/grades

2. Detailed tabulation of practical training/clinical skills etc. against a matrix. 

3. Reflective work (e.g. blogs, comments on assessments, responses to peer mentor, or faculty reviews). 

4. Presentation of particular achievements, e.g. graphic designs, artwork, creative writing. 

5. Video/audio of student-patient interactions with reflective commentary. 

6. Peer reviews of joint projects. 

7. Faculty feedback on any of the above.  "E-PORTFOLIOS EVALUATION REPORT." (2009)

E portfolios in practice in higher education

The requirements of the general medical Council in the United Kingdom for the revalidation of practising doctors required the maintenance of evidence of good medical practice.  This consists of collecting evidence in 4 domains, which included:-

Professionalism, 

Knowledge skills and performance, 

Safety and quality, and the 

Domain of maintaining trusts.

Junior doctors are required to maintain an E PORTFOLIO as evidence for their revalidation requirements of the general medical Council United Kingdom, which can be considered as a form of formative assessment of my continuous learning. (Vance et al., 2013) It shows the process of learning through reflection, through understanding through errors and successes. It shows the journey of learning rather than the endpoint which would be a summative assessment. Assessment is in the form of the knowledge testing through recall like an exit examination, be either multiple choice or assignments, look at an endpoint rather than the whole process of learning. Portfolio allows for formative assessment and over an extended period of time showing evidence of deep learning and of a behaviour of self-directed   and lifelong learning. The key process is the provision of evidence by reflecting upon the learning that has taken place.(Kitchen, 2012)

So the portfolio not only documents achievement but also self-evaluation and also analyses a learning process through analysis of the reflections that are maintained. It also collects evidence when failure has occurred and see whether learning has occurred in those instances. It assesses the role of metacognition of learning by showing how, when, who, where and why, one has learnt. It would be difficult to establish portfolios as a summative assessment as it would be expensive in terms of time and resource management and there may be issues of reliability in terms of grading and standards. However this can be overcome by ensuring assessors have exemplar to work with and comprehensive and robust rubrics for grading.(Chen, Mou-Te Chang, Chen, Huang, & Chen, 2012)

Keeping this portfolio has been assisted by having a clear purpose of this. For the doctors in the UK, this portfolio is   part of the process of revalidation. So the evidence that are collected is clear and well defined. The time required to maintain this portfolio has been made easy by the use of electronic tools like Evernote, LinkedIn and Twitter and the use of ubiquitous devices. The learner is assisted by the clearly defined domains required by the general medical Council in helping them choose the content that is needed to maintain their portfolio. The good medical practice guidelines that were issued by the general medical Council in 2013 establish clear performance indicators that are required to be met in the evidence.

In a recent review of the use of the portfolios by the foundation doctors in the United Kingdom showed Trainees remain unconvinced about the educational value of the e-portfolio (Vance et al., 2013). They conclude that considerable practical difficulties in maintaining and implementing the key portfolio in a busy clinical setting and explain the persisting negative perception of e-portfolios among junior doctors in the United Kingdom.

 

References 

Bass, R. (2014). The Next Whole Thing in Higher Education. Peer Review, 16(1), 1–2.

Chen, M.-Y., Mou-Te Chang, F., Chen, C.-C., Huang, M.-J., & Chen, J.-W. (2012). Why do individuals use e-portfolios? Educational Technology & Society, 15(4), 114–125.

Clark, J. E., & Eynon, B. (2009). E-portfolios at 2.0-Surveying the Field. Peer Review, 11(1), 18–23.

ePortfolios | Towards Open Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bcopened.org/resources/eportfolios/

Eynon, B., Gambino, L. M., & Török, J. (2014). Completion, Quality, and Change: The Difference E-Portfolios Make. Peer Review, 16(1), 1–11.

Kahn, S. (2014). E-Portfolios: A Look at Where We’ve Been, Where We Are Now, and Where We’re (Possibly) Going. Peer Review, 16(1), 1–6.

Kitchen, M. (2012). Junior doctors’ guide to portfolio learning and building. Clinical Teacher, 9(5), 308.

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