Universities Champion e-Portfolios to Help Facilitate Student Reflection

Ever felt the pressure of a job interview? Failed to impress a potential employer in a short time? Frustrated that your performance wasn’t quite your best? These are just some of the challenges facing graduates entering the labour force today though with e-learning technologies now extending its reach far beyond the confines of the academic world. Now, help will finally be on the way.

The use of electronic portfolios is the answer: currently taking universities by storm and re-engineering the way students perceive and reflect on their goals and accomplishments.

Also known as an e-Portfolio or digital portfolio, an electronic portfolio gives students the opportunity to showcase, organize, archive and reflect on their work via text, electronic files, images, multimedia means, blog entries and hyperlinks.

The City University of Hong Kong (CityU), which rolled out its own e-Portfolio project some 18 months ago, believes this medium to be an effective tool that can help students assess the impact of their entire education experience.

“e-Portfolios encourage students to record their learning goals, track learning outcomes, and think of ideas that help develop results. All this can get students into a reflective mood so they can adequately assess their success and failure, and think about how to move on. This isn’t just good for the purposes of education, but also for careers too,” said Professor Lilian Vrijmoed, CityU’s Advisor to the Vice-President (Student Affairs) on Student Learning.

CityU first piloted e-Portfolios by integrating the concept into two of the core courses offered by the university’s English Language Centre. “An e-Portfolio gives students an additional means to think about what they have learnt, set goals for themselves, understand their own weaknesses and strengths, and showcase a body of work that best demonstrates to instructors how they have met the learning outcomes of the course,” said Mr Dean Fisher, Associate Head at the CityU’s English Language Centre.

The university made the decision to integrate the e-Portfolio into its English Language courses in a bid to help sharpen students’ use of the language.

“With the growing number of employers in Hong Kong assessing graduates’ English language level by way of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the university felt there had to be more ways for our students to demonstrate their talent. An e-Portfolio can do just that. For example, students can post a 30-second video clip of themselves talking to a potential employer in English. That way, a recruiter can also hear and see what the student is like, rather than depending solely on one test score,” explained Mr Fisher.

The advantages of using an e-Portfolio are tremendous, pointed out Professor Vrijmoed, though students only ever see the benefits after they have gone through the experience.

Though the university does make upkeep of an e-Portfolio mandatory for students on overseas exchange programmes, it is unlikely the tool will ever be made compulsory institution wide. “If we make the e-Portfolio mandatory, students will see it as homework,” said Professor Vrijmoed, emphasizing that the university does, however, hope to inculcate its use across all levels of study eventually.

Many students have begun using digital storytelling in their portfolios, drawing on the software tool to help package photos, videos and audio input into a compelling self-presentation.

“We want to promote an e-Portfolio culture at the university. Students can also learn about the values of collaboration, reflection, sharing, and analysis during the process,” said Ms Hokling Cheung, Education Development Officer at CityU’s Education Development Office. She further added that effective practices associated with the upkeep of an e-Portfolio could also better prepare students for job interviews in the future.

“Given the constraints of time, students often find it difficult to articulate their achievements to an employer. An e-Portfolio, in effect, gives them the opportunity to rehearse and encourage further self-reflection,” she explained.

The tool’s portability has also heightened its growing appeal, according to Dr Gary Allan, a Project Manager of Academic ICT Integration Division at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT). The RMIT is currently conducting a strategic trial of the e-Portfolio, applying its use to some of the more vocational disciplines.

To ensure sustainability and success in the long-term, Dr Allan suggests the route of customization, a crucial aspect not to be overlooked, as students need to feel ownership and association with their own e-Portfolio.