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E-Portfolios Project
Funded by the Higher Education
Academy and JISC as part or their Distributed E-Learning Programme, Phase 2

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E-Portfolios Project

Demonstration Portfolios

Following the generation of the CEBE Briefing Guide on Recording and Reflecting during periods of practice experience, three demonstration e-portfolios were set up using generic e-portfolio systems. The aim was determine how appropriate each of the systems was to support the recording and reflection on workplace experience in Built Environment subject areas. In each case the portfolio’s content is fictitious, and was developed for demonstration purposes only. The content was based on a standard specification.The following portfolio systems were used:

Blackboard (View Demo)

Blackboard produce an e-portfolio system as part of their Academic Suite. Their system allows students to collate a set of documents, web-links and student-generated web pages into a single portfolio . Web-Pages are created using a web based visual text editor that allows text to be formatted using HTML. It is possible to provided students with a series of page templates which can act as pro-formas for particular reflective tasks. Other assets are stored in the Blackboard Content Collection, a folder based file store. Assets in the portfolio and Content Collection can be shared with users within and without of an institution.

Since this demonstration was created, Blackboard have released a new e-portfolio system. This provides the students with greater flexibility and consistency in terms of the look and feel of their portfolio as well as an updated interface by which students can store assets.

Further information on Blackboard Portfolio System

Joomla Content Management System (View Demo)

Whilst a number of E-Portfolio systems are available as plug-in modules for the open source Joomla CMS, these lacked the flexibility to meet the required specification highlighted below. Instead the Community Builder module was used, to generate an e-portfolio system. Community Builder, permits the generation of a series of form fields, that can be linked to an individual’s profile. These fields can be conveniently arranged in a series of tabbed pages. Where more discursive information is required, text can be edited using a visual text editor. In the case of this demonstration the FCK visual text editor was installed, as this allows the selection of pro-forma templates and style sheets ensure that text is well formatted and accessible.

Further information in the Joomla CMS
Further information on Community Builder

PebblePad (View Demo)

PebblePad is a comprehensive commercial E-Portfolio product. PebblePad allows students to collect, and reflect upon assets in a variety of forms. These assets can be combined into an e-portfolio. It has a strong in-built structure that designed to guide students through the process of reflection. In this case, a hosted version was used on Pebblepad’s own server. This meant that it was not possible to make changes to the structure provided by the software.

Further information on PebblePad

A specification for a typical e-portfolio

In order to make a useful comparison between the three systems a standard specification for e-portfolio content was established. It suggests a fairly specific set of articles to be included, and there may be alternative ways to encourage reflection. For the purpose of this exercise, an Architecture student undertaking a year out in practice was chosen as the subject for the portfolios.

The principal elements of the portfolios are:

  1. An introductory page, providing details of the student’s place of employment.
  2. A brief record of the work that the student has been involved in. This is something that is of particular importance for architecture students, where there is an expectation from professional bodies, that a range of work is experienced at various points of the building design and construction process. Ideally this should be set up in the form of a table, or chart that allows a rapid inspection of the range of experience. It was not possible to provide this in tabular form within PebblePad.
  3. An opportunity for students to evaluate their overall skill set and progression, and to suggest areas and goals for improvement.
    Of the portfolios tested, only PebblePad had a feature that could actively facilitate this. The other systems used a simple pro-forma template that could be edited in a visual text editor. This template used headings based on Eraut et al’s (2004) typology of what typically gets learned during periods of workplace experience (See Briefing Guide)
  4. An opportunity for students to reflect in more depth on a particular key (critical) incident that they have encountered. The headings developed by Cox(2005) based on Johns (1994) seemed particularly helpful here.(See Briefing Guide)

Whilst many e-portfolios permit students to collect a wide variety of assets, such as images, documents etc…it was felt that in order to encourage high levels of reflection, the emphasis should be placed on reflecting through writing, rather than the accumulation of information.

  • In addition it was felt important that:
    The e-portfolios should be easy to set up, and update
  • The e-portfolios should be clear to navigate, and well presented
  • It should be possible to share the content of the portfolio with other students, with employers and tutors.

References

Cox, E. (2005) Adult learners learning from experience: using a reflective practice model to support workbased learning. Reflective Practice, 6,459-472.
Eraut, M., Furner, J., Maillardet, F., Miller, C., Ali, A. & Blackman, C. (2004) Early Career Learning at work - The LiNEA project. TLRP Conference, Cardiff,
Johns, C. (1994) Guided Reflection. in Palmer, A., et al. (eds.) Reflective practice in nursing: the growth of the professional practitioner. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. pp 110-130