What's New - April 2007

Student Portfolios

Introduction
Helen Barrett¹ (2005) suggests that student portfolios are a means "to support reflection that can help students understand their own learning and to provide a richer picture of student work that documents growth over time." A critical component of a student portfolio, according to Barrett, is the "learner's reflection on the individual pieces of work (often called "artifacts") as well as an overall reflection on the story that the portfolio tells." She distinguishes among the various purposes for which portfolios are created in education, i.e., learning, assessment, employment, marketing, and to showcase best works.

Danielson and Abrutyn² (1997) also identified three main types of portfolios as follows:

• Working (also known as "process" or "learning") portfolios contain works in progress, track student learning over time, and may be temporary, due to students moving on to assessment or showcase portfolios.
• Showcase portfolios exhibit students' best work and are generally used to demonstrate the level of accomplishment that students attain.
• Assessment portfolios are structured and standardized, and students select content based on mandated curricular outcomes.

Similarly, the Northwest Evaluation Association³ (NEA, 1990) describes portfolios as "purposeful [collections] of student work that [exhibit] the student's efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas." The NEA goes on to say that students must be involved in selecting the contents for the portfolio, and that the portfolio should include evidence of student reflection as well as the criteria for selection and the criteria for judging the merit of the selected contents.

In the past, student portfolios have been primarily paper-based, however, video, audio, and other digital files of student work are now being used to create electronic or e-portfolios, also known as digital portfolios.

Read on to learn more about what student portfolios are, how they are created, and for what purposes they are used. References to research studies that identify the potential benefits and limitations of student portfolios are also provided. See also related What's New⁴ items.

Alberta Education

Alberta Education provides several resources that support the use of student portfolios in the K-12 classroom. These resources are described briefly below.

"An Electronic Portfolio to Support Learning", Wade, Abrami, and Sclater, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Volume 31, No. 3, Fall 2005.
http://www.cjlt.ca/content/vol31.3/wade.html

This paper describes a research project that looked at portfolio use within a middle school in Quebec. The authors discuss the development of their web-based e-portfolio tool within the context of the Quebec educational system, their plans for further development of the tool, and their research plans related to the use of portfolios to support learning. Their aim was to combine research evidence on portfolio use with practical feedback from the field in an attempt to develop a software tool to support active self-regulated student learning.

Becta's View: e-Assessment and e-Portfolios, January 2006
http://ferl.becta.org.uk/content_files/acl/resources/keydocs
/Becta/e-assessment%20and%20e-portfolios.pdf

This document briefly introduces e-assessment and e-portfolios, how they might develop, and why Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) strongly believes that they will support engagement and achievement in learning. The following excerpted quote illustrates Becta's support of e-portfolios:

"E-portfolios allow learner and practitioner to track progress, carry evidence of their work across transition points (for example, from school to college), reflect on their learning and build a skills profile across a lifetime."

A complementary presentation can be found at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/content_files/ferl/resources/becta/resources/stuart_jones
/e_portfolios_bett_2006.ppt.

"Demonstrating and Assessing Student Learning with E-Portfolios", Lorenzo and Ittelson, Educause, 2005
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3003.pdf

In this article, Lorenzo et all describe the potential of e-portfolios to allow students to demonstrate competencies and reflect upon experiences, and document academic preparation and career readiness. They suggest that creating e-portfolios enables students to enhance their learning by giving them a better understanding of their skills, as well as where and how they need to improve to meet academic and career goals. Their report reviews how selected higher education institutions have implemented assessment e-portfolio systems that demonstrate and assess learning.

"Power of the Portfolio: Project Uses Student Work Analysis to Improve Teaching", Goff, Colton, and Langer, Journal of Staff Development, Volume 21, No. 4, Fall 2000
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/goff214.cfm

This article describes a three-year research project that provided support for teachers in the form of Colton and Langer's Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning (CASL) process. Mississippi teachers used and adapted this process to analyze student work and plan improvements that were more precisely focused on student learning.

Together, teachers analyzed student work samples and documented their findings about the relationship between teaching and learning in a portfolio. In the process, teachers developed a richer repertoire of teaching strategies and deepened their content knowledge. Teachers reported that they gained a strategy for thinking about, and the confidence to solve regularly-faced instructional problems. Student benefits were also reported (e.g., of the 110 students studied, 82% showed improved learning in their work samples).

Rubric for Assessing Electronic Portfolios
http://www.uvm.edu/~jmorris/rubricep.html

Joyce Morris Ed.D. of the University of Vermont, Department of Education provides a 5-level scoring rubric for electronic portfolio assessment that describes desired skills in terms of mechanics, structure, graphics, use of tools, content relevancy and captions/reflections. A scoring rubric designed for K-8 classrooms is also provided.

"The Digital Portfolio: A Richer Picture of Student Performance", Essentialschools.org David Niguidula, June 2002
http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/225

Niguidula's article discusses the pilot of a computer-based prototype for "planning backwards" called The Digital Portfolio, developed in the late 1990s. This tool was designed to help schools answer the following three questions:

1. What should a graduate of this school know and be able to do?
2. How can a student demonstrate the skills and knowledge that a graduate should have?
3. How can the school arrange its systems so that all students can exhibit the desired skills and knowledge?

The article briefly describes the tool and discusses technical considerations, design issues, and how the tool would be implemented in a school. The implementation of this tool in two schools is discussed. A link to more information about how to get started with digital student portfolios is also provided (see http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/resources/dp/getstart.html).

More recent articles and webcasts by Niguidula include:

• "Documenting Learning with Digital Portfolios", Educational Leadership, Volume 63, No. 3, November 2005 where he discusses core questions for schools planning to use digital portfolios such as: What is the purpose of portfolios, what will go into portfolios, and how will portfolio quality be assessed.
• "Digital Portfolios: A Dozen Lessons from a Dozen Years", from the July 2005 National Educational Computing Conference, in Philadelphia, PA (access webcast at http://www.kidzonline.org/necc/agenda.html and a complementary paper sharing the same title at http://www.richerpicture.com/dozenLessons.pdf), where he details each of the twelve lessons including:
  • Schools need to address essential questions around vision, purpose, audience, assessment, technology, logistics and culture;
  • Teacher support is required;
  • Portfolios are primarily for students;
  • Portfolios have to 'fit' how students and teachers work;
  • Portfolios are not about the technology;
  • Collect, select, reflect and present are the activities that comprise the portfolio process;
  • Portfolio tools are not created equal;
  • Implementation of portfolios takes time;
  • Portfolios have to 'stretch' how students and teachers work;
  • Feedback/coaching between teachers and students is the most important aspect;
  • Portfolio development is worth the effort; and
  • The audience matters.

Using Technology to Support Alternative Assessment and Electronic Portfolios
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios.html

This web page provides links to information related to the use of technology to support alternative assessment. Originally developed and maintained by Dr. Helen Barrett, School of Education, University of Alaska Anchorage (retired), this page includes links to:

• A bibliography of books on portfolios in K-12 education (e.g., Stefanakis, Evangeline (2002) Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios: A window into the learner's mind; and Sunstein, Bonnie S.;
Lovell, Jonathan H. (eds.) (2000) The Portfolio Standard: How Students Can Show Us What They Know and Are Able to Do);
• Information about Barrett's CD-ROM-based Electronic Portfolio Handbook (http://electronicportfolios.org/handbook/index.html) which describes five stages of portfolio development including:
  • Setting the portfolio context and goals;
  • Creating the working portfolio;
  • Creating the reflective portfolio;
  • Creating the connected portfolio; and
  • Presenting the portfolio.
  Barrett also provides an online tutorial for the creation of electronic portfolios (see http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/howto/index.html);
• A list of Barrett's favourite links on alternative assessment and electronic portfolios (see http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/bookmarks.html) including links to K-12 examples, as well as open source and commercial e-portfolio vendors;
• Several videos and podcasts on e-portfolios and more.

WCET edu·tools: e-Portfolio Review
http://eportfolio.edutools.info

WCET's Edu·tools web site offers a recent e-portfolio comparison (see http://eportfolio.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=16) which allows the visitor to select which of seven e-portfolio systems they want to compare and provides an extensive comparison based on several features and functions (e.g., annotation, editing, and formatting options; content development, reflection and evaluation templates; organizing, sharing and publishing options; and more). The site also links to a complementary webcast that reveals the research results from Edu?tools' comparative study of ePortfolio systems (see http://www.mnsat.mnscu.edu/programs/compareportfolio/index.html) and features virtual tours, and interviews with experts from the California State University System, Portland State University and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The webcast license fee or DVD cost per site is $289.76 Cdn.

Note: The Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) is a member-supported organization open to providers and users of educational technologies. Their mission is to promote and advance the effective use of technology in higher education.

White Paper: Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement, Helen C. Barrett, Ph.D., 2005
http://electronicportfolios.org/reflect/whitepaper.pdf

This paper provides the theoretical background for a study of student learning, engagement and collaboration through the development of electronic portfolios. An overview of the research on portfolios in education is provided, as well as a discussion of the definitions, multiple purposes, and conflicting theoretical paradigms. Principles of student motivation and engagement are covered, along with philosophical and assessment issues and the importance of reflection in learning. The relationship between storytelling and reflection is elaborated. Finally, the paper describes several technology tools that engage learners in reflecting (e.g., blogging and digital storytelling).