DOI: 10.7250/eunis.2013.009
USE OF THE E-PORTFOLIO IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Sandra Kučina Softić , Tona Perišić Pintek , Zvonko Martinović , Zoran Bekić
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University of Zagreb University Computing Centre, Croatia
Abstract
E-portfolio is a learning tool that is recognized as valuable in enhancement of the quality of teaching
and learning and orientation towards student-centred learning. It can be used for various purposes in
education, from storing learners’ work, recording achievements, as assessment of and for learning, as
a means for monitoring learners’ progress, for presentation and marketing purposes or for mobility
between educational institutions. E-portfolio has been present for more than a decade and its benefits
in education were immediately recognized with predictions for prominent future. But today, it is still
being rediscovered, explained and introduced despite some really good examples of use. The
University of Zagreb started with the process of e-portfolio implementation in 2008 by establishing the
university e-portfolio system and providing support to users. In 2012, this process was fostered with the
project “Use of the e-portfolio system in the educational process” in cooperation with the University of
Porto, Portugal. The presentation will summarise opportunities of using e-portfolio in higher education
with emphasis on the e-portfolio as a learning activity. Also, an overview will be given on the e-portfolio
implementation process at the University of Zagreb.
What is e-portfolio?
There are many definitions of a portfolio and it can be used for different purposes. In general it can be
said that a portfolio is a collection of artefacts produced by the same person. The most familiar
example of portfolios are those of artists with a collection of their work. When talking about a definition
of a portfolio in education it is usually defined as a collection of documents which describe learning
process. An electronic portfolio uses digital technologies, allowing the portfolio developer to collect and
organize portfolio artefacts in various media types (audio, video, graphics, text). An electronic portfolio
is also known as webfolio, e-portfolio or digital portfolio. Usually, webfolio is a portfolio in a digital form
published on the Internet. E-portfolio is webfolio developed using software which enables basic and
additional functionalities. Main actors in higher education are students, teachers and institutions, so eportfolio can be defined upon the type of user as: student e-portfolio, teacher e-portfolio or institution eportfolio. Another way of classification is the one upon the context. Usually there are four types of eportfolios classified in such a way: developmental, assessment, showcase and hybrid.
E-portfolio as a learning activity
Although e-portfolios can be used for summative assessment their main purpose should be supporting
formative assessment for learning. Formative assessment provides students with information on their
progress upon which they can take some action. Based on this information they can reflect upon their
work, improve it or get confirmation that they are progressing well. If it is done continually during the
course students can demonstrate their learning process and not only final results. Students also
become used to review their work upon received feedback and to self assess themselves as well. Eportfolio can be a learning activity which enables evaluation of knowledge a student has acquired
during the semester/course, and it can be created in a form of a page or a journal. Students develop
their web page through which they can demonstrate their knowledge (seminar work, homework,
assessment test). Teachers can then give feedback on their work and it is possible that feedback is
given by students as well. This activity can be individual, but it can also be a team work. The journal
developed in the e-portfolio can be used for the discussion purposes and reflection on the learning
process. Students have a possibility to give their opinion and discuss about the course content, defined
learning outcomes, learning materials, acquired knowledge, other materials and texts related to the
course subject, on their personal development (i.e. difficulties which they have encountered in learning
and accessing learning materials...) and so on. Journals can be in freestyle and entries can be
reviewed and commented chronologically.
DOI: 10.7250/eunis.2013.009
By providing feedback to each student during the course, teachers are giving students a possibility to
personalize their learning process and to be in charge of it. Information gained in formative assessment
through learning activities can help teachers get better picture of each student’s progress, to adapt the
teaching and meet the learner's needs.
Implementation of the e-portfolio in the educational process
A teacher can decide to use e-portfolio in the education, but decision is usually not enough. They also
need a tool, support (technical and pedagogical) and students who will want to use it. Teachers also
have to be aware and prepared that implementation of new tools and new methods of teaching require
significant amount of time and effort in the beginning. Better preconditions for the e-portfolio use have
teachers who have centralised e-portfolio installation and teacher’s trainings programmes at
institutions, so they can focus on methodology and reasons of the e-portfolio implementation. But that
is a small number; the majority of teachers are often left to themselves to think about how to engage in
something new. Institutions often think that purchasing technology is enough and they forget support
and training which should be provided to teachers and all the academic staff and we shouldn’t forget
students as well. They need support and training as well.
Students can easily lose interest if they find a tool complicated to use while support and some training
is not available. It is very important that students see purpose of using e-portfolio activity in the course
because if it is forced upon them and they don’t find it interesting and applicable, the cause of the use
is lost. Not all students will find a personal benefit to use something new proposed by a teacher and
majority will need a motivation. They can be motivated in a way that it is obligatory (i.e. to finish the
course) or that they see a benefit in it. It is desirable to introduce it as a possibility which will bring
series of benefits. Along with that, clear instructions at the beginning of the course on how to use it,
what is its purpose in the course, how it is related to the learning outcomes or that it can be of help in
their learning or research are also very important.
Unfortunately, today, lots of students still rely on the traditional model of learning in which they are
passive participants and find reflective learning hard because it requires them to engage and the high
level of commitment and effort. Although it can be hard for teachers and students in the beginning,
usually achieved results justify the effort and bring the smiles to the faces of the both.
Today, two things make e-portfolio the one of the most interesting fields of development in the
education and training process. The first is the prefix “e” which makes a portfolio digital and enables
transformation of passive information to dynamic, flexible and growing, which can be shared,
developed, put in the different contexts, searched or looked at from different perspectives. The second
issue is shift to the lifelong learning which place students in the centre of the learning process. The
ability of active learning with use of e-learning technologies has become an element of general literacy
in any knowledge-based society. Students should and need to take the control over their educational
process, continually self-assessing and reflecting on their learning path and achievements, deciding
which further steps to make and which knowledge they need to achieve it. So, e-portfolio can be used
as a good catalyst to enhance that.
E-portfolio implementation process at the University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is a traditional and research oriented university. Implementation of the
Bologna process and reform of higher education brought new challenges in maintaining traditional
values of university education and synergizing them with a new kind of knowledge and skills.
Implementation of e-learning technologies with the aim to enhance university education and to achieve
some of Bologna principles started in 2007 with the adoption of the university e-learning strategy.
The E-learning Centre at the University Computing Centre SRCE at the University of Zagreb was
established as the central point at the university level which provides assistance in the implementation
of e-learning. One of the tasks of the E-learning Centre became e-portfolio implementation defined as
an activity which should be realised within the University of Zagreb E-learning Strategy.
E-portfolio as an e-learning tool is relatively new at the University of Zagreb. There have been some
attempts for its use in education by individuals but to the broader audience it was introduced in 2008.
Within the E-learning Strategy, e-portfolio was seen as the system for students’ support during their
DOI: 10.7250/eunis.2013.009
education enabling them to record their achievements and experience obtained during studies, but also
as a way to present their qualifications and competencies to future employers in pursuing adequate job
and starting of professional career. Faced with challenge of the e-portfolio implementation, the Elearning Centre at SRCE decided to find the tool which is reliable, accessible and will be free of charge
to users. Decision fell upon the e-portfolio system Mahara as the e-portfolio tool which has the
possibility to stand alone but also to be connected with a LMS, to provide multiple pages and can be
easily administered especially regarding the access. After the installation, the e-portfolio system was
connected with the university LMS (based on Moodle) using single sign-on and thus creating virtual
environment easily accessible to users. Along with the accessibility of e-portfolio system, the E-learning
Centre at SRCE organized training and support to users. Organized support can be decisive for users
and knowing that it exist and is available makes users less reluctant to try something new. E-portfolio
was introduced to the academic community at the events, disseminated through web pages and the
network of the e-learning representatives at schools of the University of Zagreb. But majority of
teachers didn’t find it appealing, because as faced with the emergence of digital tools it was not easy to
distinguish and decide which one to use and to implement in the educational process.
Project Use of the e-portfolio system in the educational process
In 2012 the E-learning Centre started with the project Use of the e-portfolio system in the educational
process in cooperation with the University of Porto, Portugal. This one year project had a goal to foster
the e-portfolio implementation in the educational process and to train teachers on the e-portfolio and its
use as a learning activity, to enable them to see it as a way to enhance their teaching methods and to
adapt education to the needs of today’s society.
Lectures and workshops were held in the project with the aim to introduce e-portfolio and its
possibilities for use in the educational process to teachers. Within these lectures and workshops
teachers were also able to hear and see examples of the good practice of e-portfolio use as a learning
activity from colleagues at the University of Zagreb and the University of Porto. This was also a good
opportunity for a discussion and acquiring of new ideas about how to implement e-portfolio in the
teaching and getting the way to engage students to actively participate in the course and at the same
time to monitor their learning process. The project has started in March 2012 and lasted one year. In
the project, besides lectures and workshops, web pages on Croatian and English were established as
a way of dissemination of information about the project and project activities but also as a repository of
materials and recordings of lectures. One of the results of the project is the Manual on the use of eportfolio as a learning activity for teachers which have been published in Croatian and under the
Creative Commons licence and is available on the project web pages. The plan is to translate it into
English so that teachers worldwide can use it.
The project attracted mostly teachers who have already started using new methodologies in the
teaching process and who are known as the “early adopters” and “early majority”. Reliable support and
recognition which the E-learning Centre at SRCE has gained during years has also helped as teachers
were more open to listen and learn. The number of teachers using e-portfolio has been slowly
increasing. We can conclude that on the received feedback from teachers who have started using it as
a learning activity, increased number of questions to the E-learning Centre related to the use of the eportfolio and number of groups (related to the courses) on the e-portfolio system. Questions related to
the e-portfolio have been included in the annual survey on e-learning at the University of Zagreb. The
E-learning Centre will continue with further promotion of e-portfolio and it possibilities for use as
learning activity and will provide reliable and sustainable support to users in future.
Conclusion
The issue is how to find an appropriate way to introduce and to use technology and how to manage the
process of change in the university teaching and learning. E-portfolio demonstrated a great potential in
the educational process but in order to implement e-portfolio, teachers, students and institutions need
to have a clear idea what it is, what its purpose is and why it should be used in education. Today’s
educators are not properly trained to embed ICT in their pedagogical practices. They have to find its
benefit in the development of the learning process. In order to do that, institutions should spend time to
introduce it to the academic community, to involve all interested stakeholders in the discussions on its
DOI: 10.7250/eunis.2013.009
effectiveness in the educational process and to focus primarily on the necessary changes in the
teaching and learning process which cannot be delayed any longer.
References:
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1. JISC (2008). Effective Practice with e-Portfolios - Supporting 21 century learning. Retrieved on
December 17, 2012.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/effectivepracticeeportfolios.pdf
2. Martins, I., Correia, T. and Soeiro A. (2008). Digital Portfolios in University of Porto: defining goals.
Retrieved on December 17, 2012, http://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/bitstream/10216/56249/2/903.pdf
3. Project “Use of the e-portfolio system in the educational project”, University of Zagreb University
Computing Centre, web pages http://www.srce.unizg.hr/homepage/products-services/education/elearning-centre/international-relations/use-of-e-portfolio-system-in-educational-process/