What is an ePortfolio?

After many long discussions between the eLearning Advisers, here at RSC-Northwest, we have agreed upon three types of ePortfolio.

1. eAssessment Portfolios
2. eRARPA Portfolios (Recording And Reporting Progress & Achievement) and
3. ePDP Portfolios (Personal Development and Planning).

I think it is fair to say that currently, performance portfolios (eAssessment and eRARPA) are created as an end result of 'project/assignment/task' work. Teachers/tutors/trainers/lecturers are increasingly aware, and communicating this to learners, of what will gain a good grade and/or show progress & achievement; we end up with 'projects/assignments/tasks' and therefore ePortfolios which are not real, which are, in many cases, fiction, which have no real sense.

Professor Richard Kimbell, from Goldsmiths, states that this is one of the reasons that girls do better than boys - girls have more patience and creativity for presenting the results in a well-finished manner.

Kimbell asks three questions when he is looking at technology...

1. Does the technology make learning better?
2. Does it make assessment better?
3. Does it make learning more enjoyable?

He found a problem with all three of these key questions with ePortfolios. He concluded that they need to change.

In this publication we look at a sample of free tools that learners can use to gather, record and present evidence for their ePortfolios.