Writing Assignment help on: E-portfolios

PART A

E-portfolios are an advanced adaptation of the original portfolios into the electronic domain. However the ‘e’ cannot and would never be dropped but it becomes necessary to highlight the unique and beneficial features digitisations and electronic access has given to the portfolio process as compared to the old paper-based version of the portfolios (Mason, Pegler and Weller, 2004). Since they have different uses and are prepared for varied purposes and use different types of resources too they are being classified as: those developed for purpose of development, for the purpose of assessment and for the presentation purposes. Therefore an e-portfolio can be defined as a kind of digital container which is highly capable of not just storing visual content rather it also stores auditory content which includes sound, video, text as well as images. E-portfolios can also be in the form of software tools because they are very helpful in organising content as well as they are creatively designed to help in a variety of assessment purposes as well as pedagogical processes (Abrami, 2005).

However the  California  State University of Los Angeles replaces the word e-portfolio with webfolio as it claims that  the use of webfolios for  assessment will have great impact on not just the breadth rather on the depth of  the student learning’s and mainly in the field of distance education (Mason, Pegler and Weller, 2004). Thus the webfolios can also be utilised as the outcomes assessment of the students in very authentic manner especially for the varied courses which are being offered through distance learning because the students would be able to provide feedbacks instantly after sharing their views and opinions. The work-in-progress webfolios of the students would be easily accessible to one another all through the course period utilising Web with the help of intensive learning community which will be created and developed by technology. The webfolios are able to provide a completely new perspective about student evaluations as the students sharing knowledge would be able to experience completely different kind of synergies related to collaborative learning rather than competitive learning during the examinations or tests. So although it has been analysed that some of the benefits attached with e-portfolios are just for short-term purposes, the underlying concept of e-portfolios is to make contributions in regular manner by the learners to their portfolio all through their learning span and at the same time draw on it for regular assessments too in relation to job interviews and to maintain a record by the learner for their achievements during their learning period. There are several advantages which have been identified in the literature which can be derived from e-portfolios during each and every stage like the collection, selection, projection, presentations and reflection (Barrett, 2003). This is the reason why in the recent years e-portfolios and webfolios have emerged as highly valued and next age innovations in the field of education (Kilbane and B., 2003). With the gaining popularity in the field of education, it has been analysed that the portfolio assessment through e-portfolio has an edge over the traditional, objective-based and one-time test assessments. AS suggested by experts and educators the Objective-based test assessments are simple focussed upon the products and along with that they curb the learner’s ability to showcase their learning process. The traditional assessment simply does not let the learner’s focus on the particular issues of development which are vital to the learner rather, they force the leaner to emphasise on whatever their teacher’s considers to be important (Gathercoal, Love and McKean, 2003). The education experts also argue that the e-portfolios allow the learners to show their widespread knowledge which they feel is very crucial to their learning experience. With the help of properly constructed and well documented webfolios the learners can derive great benefits and even chronicle the very much longed for moments of discovery which they, might have gone through their journey of learning (Herman and Morrell, 1999).

 However there have been criticisms too of the innovative webfolios or portfolio assessment which some educators feel that it revolves around the problems which are very substantive like the “reliability and validity” along with it there are issues like unable to find out whose work it is as well as the whose time and efforts have been used for doing particular work.  The major two criticisms faced by e-portfolios and webfolios are of “time and effort” and “reliability and validity” and these have been more connected with the old paradigm of webfolios. But the advent of webfolios in the education system has given it a new dimension which makes these criticisms completely invalid. Since the current webfolios are found to be much more student-centred so automatically the webfolio technology enhances the productivity of the teacher when he/ she gets involved completely in the portfolio assessment tasks. Currently it is seen that the educational practices in modern times are being driven by the standardised tests. And the webfolio systems are able to provide a very viable substitute for these standards-based tests (Koretz, 1998). In case of  thoroughly and wholly implemented webfolio  systems the  professional educators also get rid of standardised  tests and follow the webfolio systems  which help in gaining authentic  assessment , which are totally standards –based along with  programs and instructors evaluations  and the reporting as the  main driving forces  which can be implemented efficiently in the educational practices making them more transparent. It is the need of the hour that the learning teams along with the teaching teams should not be restricted to just one or few groups of students or lecturers rather they should aspire for collaboration at a much higher level (Baskin and Anderson, 2003). This kind of collaboration should include the almost everyone from the education community like social workers, health safety and welfare officers, classroom teachers, and school guidance counsellors too. The reason being with higher level of collaboration greater opportunities are being created for the team members so that they can easily put across their views as well as respond to varied kinds of ideas expressed. And this will simultaneously help in creating and discovering new ideas along the learning curve as suggested by eminent writers in education field (Damoense, 2003). This will indirectly help in bridging the gap between the professional practice and the university studies through the development of strong professional networks, all because of webfolios and e-portfolios (Sorin, 2002). Thus essentially a new community of learner’s would be created  which will give a platform to the students to learn from each other and also from the professionals  and along with the professionals will also get enriching  and learning experiences to add to their practices. Thus being a part of the learning community even I believe that novices should also be allowed to be a part of these arenas of matured practice and to become a part of this learning community students like us need to develop an e-portfolio or webfolio as a university student before graduation (Lave and Wenger, 1991). It is suggested that the students should get engaged in valuable learning experiences through these communities to be more learned and to gain knowledge (Damoense, 2003). Having a webfolio of my own before graduation will enable me to interact and will indirectly promote a sense of belonging to a richer as well as much wider learning environment than any classroom (Baskin and Anderson, 2003). Webfolios mainly target three generic skills which are problem solving, communication and group work. Developing a webfolio of my own will help in developing group work because it covers the learning experiences where the participants not just share knowledge rather question (Government., 2001) and take part in the learning communities  which involve and promote ethical and professional practices (Professional standards for graduates and guidelines for preservice teacher education programs, 2002). It will also help in honing my problem solving  skills which covers  implementation of  evaluation , critical  thinking , reasoning and  analysis  in order to  define as well as resolve the problems (James Cook University School of Education, 2002) . Webfolio development will also contribute towards communication skills development as it will help in establishment of relationships and connections with the whole world which lies across the classroom (James Cook University School of Education, 2002) (Government., 2001). Since the webfolio project is completely established upon the Engagement theory as a learner  authentic tasks and problems are being given which help in constructing,  collaborating and  interacting with others  in order to find a solution to the problem (Damoense, 2003).Moreover, enhanced collaborative learning will  also help in creating authentic and  in-depth learning  and will help as a learner to  develop a methodology of modelling which can be applied easily in the classroom (Herrington, Oliver and Reeves, 2003).

Thus developing an e-portfolio which is a student e-portfolio it will definitely help in showcasing the accomplishments and can be shared with the prospective employer for getting or finding a better job after completing graduation. A student e-portfolio can also be used as a document which delivers specific learning outcomes  during the learning course and  also covers rationale , description and  discussion of the  digitized artefacts which will create a very powerful tool  for  reflection ,  revision as well as representation (Acker, 2005).

PART B

Basically there are four kinds of e-portfolios which have been identified and suits the needs of the students and they are home-grown, commercially viable, software generated and open source (Lorenzo and Ittelson, 2005). A home-grown portfolio is being created by the institution itself and is being customised as per the institutional needs which are very unique. However it has been found that home-grown e-portfolio creation is burdensome, time- consuming and expensive too. Whereas the open source e-portfolio is available publically without any charge and the source code is also available for customization. However it is risky to acre open source e-portfolios because the cost is being incurred by the institution so the upgrades might be available timely and the initiative taken might get disbanded the whole user community. The commercial e-portfolios are available for purchasing by the vendors and due to excellent technical support are also well developed too (Sweat-Guy and Buzzetto-More, n.d.). However they might be costlier to buy and the support services might not be satisfactory or might be expensive too. Finally the software generated e-portfolio is the one which utilises the common tools like the PowerPoint or FrontPage for creating the portfolios. These are however inexpensive but are very difficult for the students to create and are sometimes over simplistic in nature. An effective e-portfolio should have six criterions to be fulfilled which are: identification of the skill areas. Learning strategies identification, evidence-based collection, creation of outcomes which are measurable, performance indicator identifiers and assessment. The designs of the e-portfolios should be much more influenced by the educational goals and not by the technical goals (Love and Cooper, 2004). Therefore during the creation of e-portfolio the potential benefits, versatility and the future users should be kept in mind (Jafari, 2004). The features which should be present in an e-portfolio are :  advisement, assessment,  course management,  artefacts,  communication and collaboration,  evaluations /observations, intended user and type of user,  reflections,  rubrics,  course management,  hosting and support,  learning outcomes,  reporting,  surveys,  technological requirements ,  sharing of informational and  templates. After reviewing my webfolio critically it has been analysed that there are few parameters where it is lacking. The webfolio does not carry the certificates, awards or any other recognition which I have received over the years. There should be an option to scan and attach the awards, recognitions and certificates to authenticate that I have received them in real and it will also help me in getting a competitive edge while applying for specific job. A second feature which is not found in my webfolio is the proper communication and collaboration. the electronic portfolio systems should have  feature which would allow me as student to  not just send and receive messages  rather there should be an option or features of engaging in chats and discussions and sharing information’s with other groups or communities which it is lacking (Sweat-Guy, 2006).

 Since it lacks the sharing of information feature the webfolio is also devoid of the feature to get assessed by a team of external assessors (Buzzetto-More and Alade, 2006). Therefore the students or the faculty cannot invite multiple individuals within or from outside of the closed institution to either comment on the portfolio or to review e-portfolio. This also diminishes the professional promotional edge which I could have got as a student. Another feature which the e-portfolio does not have is the ability to create multiple portfolios. Since I have done my graduation with science subject however my core expertise is in management I would like to apply for both the field for job, but since I can create single profile I have the option of just adding information related to one field only.Therefore some of the vital features which should be added to the e-portfolio are: firstly an option to scan and attach the awards, recognitions and certificates, so that the portfolio gets authentication feature too. There should be sharing of information in effective manner like there should be platform for communication and collaboration with the learning community. Engaging in chats and discussions would enhance the sharing of information and knowledge. There should be permission for the external assessors to leave comment and assess my portfolio which will enhance the sharing of information. Adding the feature of reflections (Chun, 2002) will help in translating learning into productive practices. If multiple portfolios would be allowed I can create portfolio for applying for management jobs as well as I can also look for jobs in the science field too after completing my education.

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