What are the rewards of developing an e-portfolio?
"In contrast to transcripts, e-portfolios (with their added value of the "e" or electronic nature) allow students to gather in one place a range of digital artifacts that can be used to demonstrate presentation skills (e.g. a video of a presentation and accompanying slides), inquiry and analysis (e.g. a paper that includes instructor feedback and is annotated by the student to highlight key points), or intercultural knowledge (e.g. reflections on a term spent abroad illustrated with photos and reflections). The representations of learning in an e-portfolio reflect the individual student's view of the breadth of his or her education-including what was learned both inside and outside the classroom and as the learning was experienced by the student and not just as it was delivered or packaged by the college or professor."
(Helen Chen, June 3, 2010 entry entitled "The Promise of E-portfolios to Improve Learning and Help Students, Faculty, and Employers"; Association of American Colleges and University's Liberal.EducationNation blog)
(Helen Chen, June 3, 2010 entry entitled "The Promise of E-portfolios to Improve Learning and Help Students, Faculty, and Employers"; Association of American Colleges and University's Liberal.EducationNation blog)
Though the portfolio development process can be rather work-intensive, an e-portfolio can help you land your dream job. Like an extensive resume, e-portfolios are an impressive way to display your talents to future employers. An e-portfolio lets you showcase all of your lifelong learning in a way that is continual and coherent. Allowing for a versatile format, e-portfolios may contain video clips, links to personal websites, papers, sound recordings, and images of material products, among countless other options. In compiling artifacts in a seamless digital format, faculty members and employers are able to understand your work in the meaningful context of your entire life- a viewpoint which lends itself to connection on a more intimate, impactful level.
Research has shown that e-portfolios allow students to show employers what Terrel Rhodes calls "evidence of their capacity for critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and integrative learning" (Change: The Magazine of Higher Education, "Making Learning Visible and Meaningful Through Electronic Portfolios", Jan-Feb 2011). This type of learning goes far beyond the kind of content learning that a transcript or a resume displays. In the job market today, this kind of higher-order learning is in demand.
Developing an e-portfolio is a powerful, introspective experience that allows you to reflect on, and make sense of, your lifetime accomplishments, while also clarifying your life goals. The portfolio process requires you to relate your past learning experiences to your educational goals, to exhibit critical self-analysis, and to demonstrate your ability to organize documentation in a clear, concise manner. It is hoped that this course will allow you to positively extend your self-esteem, your self-concept as a learner and an evolving human being, enhancing your ability to clarify and reach life/work goals. Portfolios become a tangible and overt statement of your own uniqueness as a human being. (PLACE manual, p. 11)
The risk in the life of most goal-oriented, ambitious people is that time for reflection and introspection about the importance of it all, where we have been, where we are going, what we have learned, how we are growing and what it all means, is not provided for. One experience is added to another, to another, and to another without getting a sense of proportion, without exploiting its meaning and purpose. Many of us simply do not take the time to savor the pleasantness, to learn from the pain, or to understand precisely what contributes to our own well-being in the world. A major goal of the portfolio development course is to sensitize you to the movement and texture of your life. The message is an obvious one: to the extent that you become sensitive to your own unique existence and competence, you will be better able to meaningfully define goals, clarify your needs, establish pathways, and achieve your highest potential. (PLACE manual, p.12)