The research shows that ePortfolios are a valuable tool that can be used throughout a student's academic career to help them succeed and learn from self-reflection. ePortfolios will help students become more successful academically, but also in a social and emotional capacity. As educators, we have to continue to see the whole child and not just a test at the end of their academic year. Electronic portfolios allow for teachers and students to see so much more, but also allow for a student’s continued academic growth. According to Harring, K., & Luo, T. (2016), ePortfolios are a strong instructional tool that may help students study more deeply and reflect on their learning in a variety of settings. This digital assignment can support integrative learning by making learning visible to students, teachers, and other stakeholders. ePortfolios give students a place to exhibit their academic and co-curricular experiences, reflect on and integrate their learning, and share their work with others. ePortfolios, like high-impact educational methods, encourage students to spend substantial time outside of the classroom on a task, give chances for meaningful student-faculty engagement, provide regular feedback on student work, and show students how their learning improves over time. Some of the major trends that continue to pop up when researching this topic are; reflection, student success, digital learning, success, authentication, retention, employability, and so many more. My research will focus on student success through the use of ePortfolios.
In the article written by Hakel, Gromko, & Knight, (2008) I came across talks about how electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are a promising assessment tool for giving feedback on student performance to improve curricula and pedagogy, determining individual students' mastery of learning and providing feedback for improvement, and actively engaging students in the assessment process. This study looked into the relationship between ePortfolio participation and student accomplishment. Despite many limitations, the current study found that after controlling for background factors, students with e-portfolio artifacts had significantly higher grade-point averages and retention rates than a comparable group of students without e-portfolio artifacts. There were also some significant positive connections between the utilization of an ePortfolio and grade point average. In this study, there were no significant differences in the surveys or questionnaires that they conducted. In Deneen and Brown’s article, Students' conceptions of ePortfolios as assessment and technology, they also discuss the idea of a positive connection to student use of ePortfolios and their successes. The article states that from a technological standpoint, there appears to be a stronger adoption of ePortfolios, which appears to contribute to improved perceptions of how formatively ePortfolio evaluation works. Furthermore, a favorable attitude toward ePortfolios' technology features leads to higher trust that instructors are utilizing assessment formatively to adjust their education, as well as comparable self-regulatory usage by students and coworkers. The students in this study strongly supported the formative functions of assessment, and they had a favorable attitude toward ePortfolio technology-enhanced versions of these. This research shows that while using ePortfolios for evaluation, it's important to think about how students comprehend both the technology and assessment elements of the system. The connection between student views regarding ePortfolios and their academic performance is evident in their GPAs (Deneen and Brown, 2017).
Another idea gleaned from the research completed is that increased retention and enhanced learning are linked to the usage of student learning ePortfolios. Additionally, when ePortfolios are used for periodic formative assessment, they have been shown to stimulate student response to feedback and improve the quality of student work—both indicators of increased student engagement. (Fuller, 2017) Fuller goes on to mention that,
In our study, the implementation of low-stake assignments in ePortfolio fostered a dialogue between the instructor and student outside of class time and provided opportunities for formative assessment of individual student and overall class learning prior to larger, high-stakes summative assessments. Furthermore, ePortfolio allowed the instructor to give students feedback on their work, creating opportunities for confirmation of learning or extended learning outside of class. Through intentional and embedded use of ePortfolios, we have created a learning environment that fosters more interaction with course material outside of class, better assignment turn-in rates, and improved exam scores, for increased success rates in the course. These results describe a promising intervention that can improve success rates in introductory biology courses.
Overall, it seems that educators and researchers are finding that ePortfolios show continued success, both academically and socially, for students. The use of ePortfolios in schools may serve as a platform for students to connect with and reflect on their work in order to become more flexible learners and critical thinkers, as well as a means for students to interact with their classmates. While the ePortfolio's selected technology allows for this, it is the instructors' actions that will distinguish between portfolios that truly assist the learning process and those that simply flaunt the product (Rate, 2008). Each student's ePortfolio will emphasize their accomplishments while also giving teachers detailed information about their interests and hobbies. It will allow students to see their successes and grow from their mistakes. Learning from ePortfolios continuously gives students a sense of accomplishment and guides them to become more aware of their abilities, both academically and in a social/emotional capacity. Morris and Burt (2020) state that;
With traditional assignments and assessments, students make note of their grades in the moment. By keeping track of their successes, failures, and everything in between over time, students are able to understand where they need to improve and celebrate how far they’ve come. Combined with ownership of their digital space and autonomy of expression, student results can soar.
While this review supports all of these variables, there is little data on how ePortfolios affect children directly. To discover if using an ePortfolio may assist students to enhance their full understanding of the impact of ePortfolios, more study is needed. Educators will have to compare data from student surveys. The New Zealand curriculum outlines the steps that instructors may take to help students learn more effectively. Students' learning will benefit by actively promoting reflection, providing supportive learning settings, sharing learning, and linking to past learning (Rate, 2008). The concept that an ePortfolio may help with process improvement while producing a product makes it a good platform to examine further (Strampel & Oliver, 2010). Student output of an ePortfolio will allow them to frequently visit past work and ideas to improve their future academic performance. Through continued research and implementation, there will be a better understanding of the true success students feel throughout their completion of an ePortfolio.
Resources
Deneen, C. C., Brown, G. T. L., & Carless, D. (2017, January 17). Students’ conceptions of eportfolios as assessment and technology. Innovations in Education and Teaching International
Fuller, K., 2017. Beyond Reflection: Using ePortfolios for Formative Assessment to Improve Student Engagement in Non-Majors Introductory Science. The American Biology Teacher, 79(6), pp.442-449.
Hakel, M. D., Gromko, M., & Knight, W. E. (2008). The Relationship Between Electronic Portfolio Participation and Student Success. Association for Institutional Research, 107(Spring), 1–16.
Hinton, C., Towell, J., MacFarlane, A., Refling, E., McCloy, U., Amesbury, J. (2017) Student Success ePortfolio: Student, Faculty and Employer Perspectives on the Value of ePortfolios in Assessing the Development of Essential Employability Skills. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
Harring, K., & Luo, T. (2016). Eportfolios: Supporting reflection and deep learning in high-impact practices. Peer Review: Association of American Colleges & Universities, 18(3), 9-12.
Morris, K. (2020, July 17). The Complete Guide To Student Digital Portfolios. CampusPress. https://campuspress.com/student-digital-portfolios-guide.
Rate, Nick. (2008). What are the formative benefits of ePortfolios? Retrieved from: https://core-ed.org/assets/Uploads/UploadsVince-Ham-eFellowships/nick-eportfolios.pdf
Strampel, K., & Oliver, R. (2010). They think they are learning, but are they? Strategies for implementing Web 2.0 to positively impact student learning. Retrieved from http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/procs/Strampel-full.pdf
Comments