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Designing ePortfolios

A portfolio is a collection of artifacts that demonstrate a person’s skills, knowledge and competencies to a given audience. In an ePortfolio (electronic portfolio), all of the artifacts have been digitized so they can be delivered over the internet or on a CD or DVD. The ePortfolio can be more effective than a traditional portfolio because you can organize and distribute large amounts of information to your audience efficiently.

Although a portfolio is usually seen as a self-marketing tool, there are in fact many different purposes for creating an ePortfolio that are relevant to academic communities. An ePortfolio can be:

  • A learning tool by documenting your growth over time, requiring you to reflect on your body of work and organize it in a way that is meaningful to others;
  • A professional development tool where you can demonstrate your credentials and growth within a given field;
  • An assessment tool where students illustrate to an instructor evidence of learning related to a course outcome; and
  • An organizational tool that enables you to gather, categorize and store your work in a way that is easy to navigate and share.

The ePortfolio Process

There are many ways to create an ePortfolio, but following the process below will help you ensure your final product is well organized, looks professional and achieves your intended objectives. This process involves several stages:

  • A planning stage where you ask general questions about the purpose and desired outcome of the portfolio, the intended audience, and the artifacts that are to be included;
  • A design stage where you make decisions about how the ePorfolio will look and how the artifacts will be presented and organized;
  • A creation stage where you digitize your selected artifacts, build a web page template using a web editor, populate your web pages with appropriate content, and edit and revise your work; and
  • A publishing stage where you upload your final product to a server connected to the internet or burn it to a CD or DVD.


When planning and designing an ePortfolio, you may find the following worksheet helpful as a guide:

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a a ePortfolio Planning Worksheet (PDF)
Teaching and Learning Centre, Vancouver Island University
PDF document that lists important questions to consider when planning and designing an ePortfolio.
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a a ePortfolio Planning Worksheet (Word)
Teaching and Learning Centre, Vancouver Island University
Word document that l ists important questions to consider when planning and designing an ePortfolio.

 

When creating an ePortfolio, you may find the following helpful as a guide:

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a a ePortfolio PowerPoint Template (PPT)
Teaching and Learning Centre, Vancouver Island University
If you would like to try creating your own ePortfolio and have limited experience in web design, this PowerPoint file contains a basic template that can be used to create an ePortfolio that is optimized for Internet Explorer 6 and greater. The included directions are written for PPT 2007.
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a a Website and Portfolio Templates
Consortium for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching With Technology
Example templates of ePortfolios.

 

There are many different programs you can use to create your web pages. Three of the most popular programs are Dreamweaver, FrontPage and PowerPoint. You may also need to use graphic editing tools like Photoshop or Illustrator as well as other programs like Acrobat to digitize your artifacts. If you are faculty or staff at Vancouver Island University, you can use and receive help with many of these programs at the Malaspina Employee Technology Centre in room 450 of building 305 on the Malaspina campus.

Here are other links that you may find useful:

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a a A Review of the Literature on Portfolios and Electronic Portfolios
Philippa Butler, Massey University College of Education
A comprehensive introduction to research and discussion related to use of portfolios and ePortfolios in education.
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a a Rubric for Electronic Portfolio
University of Wisconsin
An example rubric for evaluating student ePortfolios.
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a a E-Portfolios for Learning
Hellen Barrett
A comprehensive website and blog from an education consultant in Washington.
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a a E-Portfolios
Steven Downes, National Research Council, Institute for Information Technology
A comprehensive blog from a Canadian guru for educational Web 2.0.