E-portfolios are becoming more prevalent as a form of completion project and as something students can use to help achieve employment goals. There are four primary types of e-portfolio: product based, process based, hybrid, and evaluation. In the E-portfolio Learning Commons we have focussed on the hybrid e-portfolio, which documents and tracks the learning process but also leaves students with a high-level final product that can be used in future academic or employment applications. This type of e-portfolio allows the student to show what and how they have learned but also what they are able to do.
Our decision anticipates the needs of our audience. In today’s job market and post-graduate environment, students are increasingly required to demonstrate their knowledge in diverse areas. Teachers have a responsibility to address this need. With the hybrid portfolio, teachers have an opportunity to help students create this demonstration, but also to use it as a learning experience in itself. In the section of the Guide devoted to learning theory, you may read more about how a constructivist approach supports the student through a process applicable both to their lives as learners and to their future goals as earners. Teachers work as facilitators of the final product, allowing the e-portfolio to take on the shape desired by the student.
Our decision also addresses the needs of teachers as students of the e-portfolio process. Self-directed learning and reflection, which are enhanced by e-portfolios, are key skills for teachers as well as students (Tur & Marin, 2013, p.435). Our project develops those skills by encouraging the use of, and reflection upon, social media and other technological tools that encourage dialogue, collaboration, and content creation. A practical goal of the Commons is for our primary audience (teachers of young adults) to gain the knowledge and skills to discern which types of artifacts and reflections to include, and how to select and use technologies to best showcase and demonstrate abilities. In essence, the Commons is designed to provide information, resources, and tools for both educators (as students of e-portfolios), and their students (as curators and creators of meaningful artifacts).
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