ePortfolios

ePortfolios are both a product—an archive of learning artifacts—and a process that supports student learning: Building an ePortfolio leads students to naturally make valuable connections between various courses, assignments, and cocurricular activities through reflection of their past work. Whether showcasing students’ knowledge and skills for graduate school or a job application, ePortfolios paint an accurate portrait.

ePortfolios also allow faculty and other educational professionals to measure a student’s level of mastery across a wide range of learning outcomes. When combined with AAC&U’s VALUE rubrics, ePortfolios provide a means for direct assessment of student work drawn from the curriculum, co-curriculum, and beyond the campus. Did you know that the Integrative Learning VALUE Rubric was originally designed with collections of work like ePortfolios specifically in mind? “Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus” (AAC&U, 2009, p. 1). As the definition suggests, ePortfolios can be an ideal tool for facilitating students’ integrative learning. VALUE rubrics can be used as is or modified to meet the needs of the course, program, and/or institution at large.

A unified ePortfolio system guides students through curated courses, programs, activities, internships, research projects, and other high-impact practices. Work embedded within these experiences becomes the basis for measuring student progress and attainment. Beyond the individual student, ePortfolios enable reporting to external audiences and the benchmarking of achievements among and between peer institutions.