What is an ePortfolio?

Portfolios can mean different things to different people. Hence, let’s start with a definition of an ePortfolio.

While in most cases, ‘e’ in ePortfolio refers to an electronic portfolio, some educators argue that we should refer ‘e’ to education instead. I think the idea of ePortfolio as ‘Education portfolios’ is so relevant to us. Hence, from now on when we talk about ePortfolio, within our community, we would mean both electronic portfolio and education portfolio. Does that sound alright to you?

ePortfolio is your personal website that represents you in a professional way. Your portfolio is a collection of a variety of authentic evidence. It is storytelling about who you are, what, when, where and how you have done, learned and achieved something over time.

While many people view an ePortfolio as a product curated by its creator, many people, including me, consider an ePortfolio as a process of learning. I believe we should equally pay attention to both the learning process and the learning product. There are a range of processes involved when we develop our ePortfolios, including:

• Planning. Planning is an essential part of ePortfolio development. ePortfolio' s owner needs to identify their audience and the purposes of their ePortfolio and create a list of evidence that may serve their purposes.

• Synthesising. ePortfolio owners analyse their evidence against their audience and the purposes of their ePortfolios and curate evidence in meaningful ways. This may include developing artefacts that involve multiple pieces of evidence, such as videos, infographics or images.

• Sharing. The ePortfolio owners often share their ePortfolios with their audience.

• Discussing. By sharing their ePortfolios, they may discuss their ePortfolios with their audience.

• Reflecting. The reflective process is involved in every process mentioned above. For example, a person might identify the goal of one page on their ePortfolio as an expert in learning design. They would think about the capabilities and attributes that a good learning design has and then what kind of artefacts will reflect that they have those particular capabilities and attributes. While looking for those artefacts, the person might ask themselves:

- What situation was I facing? How did it make it feel?

- What was my task? What was my responsibility or expected to do?

- What did I do?

- What was the outcome?

- What should I have done differently to optimise the results?

• Providing, receiving and responding to feedback. Often, the ePortfolio involve feedback process where the creator may seek feedback from someone such as their teachers, supervisors, peers and family.

Through these processes, we not only develop knowledge and skills but also sense of self concurrently. Below is a summary of what ePortfolio is.

What is an ePortfolio (modified from Slade & Bowker, 2022 in Taptamat N, 2022)

AuburnWriter describes quite well the definition of ePortfolio. Please take a moment to watch this video.

Please share your definition of ePortfolio or how ePortfolios have or might help you in your personal and professional life.

Reference

Nantana Taptamat. 2022, 25 February. SEAMEO- AUS EduLink webinar series. Webinar 1 How we use feedback in ePortfolios. [Video]. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBeqZXBiEck&list=PLG0cadwzzvWxPoEhoJcIltPcenLPAhJ1J&index=4