Portfolio
Definition
Portfolio is a secure Web site at the University of Minnesota for entering, saving, organizing, viewing, and selectively sharing personal educational records. It was introduced by the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1995 and built by the University of Minnesota Enterprise Web Development Team, Office of Information Technology.
All current University students, faculty and staff members may use Portfolio to
- enter and view personal educational records,
- share selected Portfolio elements with one or more individuals, and
- view other people's Portfolios to which access has been granted.
Individuals outside of the University community may view Portfolios to which they have been granted access by individuals at the University.
Educational Uses
Student portfolios can enhance the educational experience in a number of ways.
- In the context of the individual course, portfolio-creation activities can be an invaluable capstone project, requiring the student to identify artifacts that demonstrate mastery of core course competencies and to explain how those artifacts exemplify the student's intellectual evolution within the context of the class.
- Although often used as summative assessments (e.g., as aids to decision-making in the processes of admission, certification, and/or accreditation), portfolios also can be useful in formative assessment by providing to academic advisors a more comprehensive picture of the quality of students' work.
- Once the student has been admitted to a major, the establishment of portfolio-construction expectations can foster a greater sense of coherence across multiple courses and afford opportunities for metacognition in which the student can reflect on how her or his coursework fits together as a meaningful whole.
- As the student transitions from the University to the workplace, having a learning portfolio provides him or her with the raw material from which to construct a job-search portfolio and demonstrate with real world artifacts how his or her academic experiences and achievements map on to professional competencies.
Issues
Instructors should be aware of issues such as the following when they use this technology.
- Published reports suggest that, to be most successful, portfolio-creation assignments ought to be required—not voluntary—and fully supported by instructors and departmental and collegiate administrators and academic support staff members. Students will only commit the time and energy required to create reflective portfolios if they recognize that their instructors and advisors are also committed to substantive review of these materials, ready to allot the course time necessary to complete this work effectively, and willing to establish policies that identify course and curricular milestones at which portfolios are subject to evaluation and comment.
- The attribute most frequently associated with successful student learning portfolios is metacognition. Although selecting work products to represent a student's best work may be a valuable exercise in itself, experiences reported in the literature suggest that student learning is greatest when the student is asked to explain how and why the selected artifact is representative of her or his intellectual development.
- Another factor frequently associated with success in the literature is the authenticity of the portfolio-creation activity. Activities that resemble their real-world analogues (e.g., completing and reflecting on a series of structured assignments that replicate the inquiry processes of experts as preparation for generating a final report or other capstone project) or that address realistic problems (e.g., assembling problem-solutions that relate to professional certification competencies) are likeliest to motivate students to do their best work.
Resources
The following sources may help you use and teach with this type of tool.
EDUCAUSE Resources
EDUCAUSE maintains a searchable database of guides and articles about technology-enhanced learning topics, including educational uses of portfolios.
Instructions
Instructions about how to use Portfolio to enter, share, and view personal digital information is available in PDF format on the TEL at UM site.
Portfolio at the University of Minnesota
Research
The following research literature has been published about the educational uses of this type of tool.
Barrett, Helen C. "Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement." 2 June 2006. http://electronicportfolios.org/reflect/whitepaper.pdf.
Cambridge, Barbara L., ed. Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and Instititutional Learning. Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education, 2001.
Harris Stefanakis, Evangeline. Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios: A Window into the Learner's Mind. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002.
Gathercoal, Paul, Douglas Love, Beverly Bryde, and Gerry McKean. "On Implementing Web-Based Electronic Portfolios." EDUCAUSE Quarterly 25, no. 2 (2002): 29–37. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0224.pdf.
Land, Susan M., and Carla Zembal-Saul. "Scaffolding Reflection and Articulation of Scientific Explanations in a Data-Rich, Project-Based Learning Environment: An Investigation of Progress Portfolio." Educational Technology Research & Development 51, no. 4 (2003): 65–84.
Mullin, Joan A. "Portfolios: Purposeful Collections of Student Work." New Directions for Teaching and Learning 74 (summer 1998): 79–87. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/101523607/PDFSTART.
Treuer, Paul, and Jill D. Jenson. "Electronic Portfolios Need Standards to Thrive." EDUCAUSE Quarterly no. 2 (2003): 34–42. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0324.pdf.
Zubizarreta, John. The Learning Portfolio: Reflective Practice for Improving Student Learning. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing, 2004.
