1. ePortfolios at Virginia Tech
Dr. Marc Zaldivar, Dr. Jennifer Sparrow, Dr. Teggin Summers,
Director, Director, Associate Director,
ePortfolio Initiatives Emerging Technologies ePortfolio Initiatives

2. A definition…
• A portfolio is a purposeful collection of
student work that exhibits the student's
efforts, progress and achievements in one or
more areas. The collection must include
student participation in selecting contents, the
criteria for selection; the criteria for judging
merit, and evidence of student self-reflection.
– Northwest Evaluation Association (1990). Portfolios and
Assessment. Paper presented at the Annual Conference
for the Northwest Evaluation Association.

3. ePortfolios: balancing process and
product
• Individual learning
portfolios
Assess • Course-based
Share
learning portfolios
• Programmatic
Select Reflect
assessment portfolios
• External accreditation
Collect
portfolios

4. ePortfolios: balancing goals and
functionality
Learning Academic
Learning
Portfolios Accreditation
eP@VT
Professional
Assessment
Development
Departmental
Development

5. Learning: SERVE Community
• Year-long, two-course
sequence
• Primarily private,
only shared w/teacher
• Student is main
audience
• Highly cyclic
• Feedback & Reflection
• Scaffolded learning
experiences
https://sites.google.com/site/livingle
arningserving/service/subtle-service

6. Advantages of “Folio Thinking”
• Aids students’ self-assessment
• Enables the tracking of student development
over time
• Emphasizes process over product
• Highlights connections between assignments
(and courses)
• Facilitates academic richness - personal
contact with instructors, advisors, and
mentors

7. Professional Development:
Kelly Anne Stahl

8. Professional Development:
They are watching…
• CareerBuilder.com (2009) survey of ~3000
HR managers
• Primary finding: 45% used social networking sites
to research job candidates.

9. Professional Development:
They are watching…
• Why they did NOT hire employees:
• Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs
or information - 53 percent
• Candidate posted content about them drinking or using
drugs - 44 percent
• Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-
workers or clients - 35 percent
• Candidate showed poor communication skills - 29 percent
• Candidate made discriminatory comments - 26 percent
• Candidate lied about qualifications - 24 percent
• Candidate shared confidential information from previous
employer - 20 percent

10. Professional Development:
They are watching…
• Why they DID hire employees:
• Profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality
and fit - 50 percent
• Profile supported candidate’s professional qualifications - 39
percent
• Candidate was creative - 38 percent
• Candidate showed solid communication skills - 35 percent
• Candidate was well-rounded - 33 percent
• Other people posted good references about the candidate -
19 percent
• Candidate received awards and accolades - 15 percent
• Doesn’t that sound like a portfolio?

11. Professional Development:
ePortfolios offer…
• Focus on Growth and Continuity of Learning
• Networked and Symphonic Selves
(Cambridge, 2009)
• Controlled and Presented by the Student
• Direct (multimedia) examples of abilities and
skills
• Easily coordinated to professional standards

12. What is The Process for Assessing
Student Learning Outcomes?
1. Identify 2. Gather and Analyze
And Articulate Information About
Student Student
Learning Achievement
Outcomes Of Outcomes
3. Use Information
Gathered
To Improve
Student Learning

13. ePs for Assessment
• Help us to provide evidence of our students’ achievement
of learning outcomes.
• Provide students and faculty a tool for organizing their
assessment work.
• Provide opportunities for students and faculty to reflect on
teaching and learning.
“We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we create
time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with only our
reactions.”
– Rebecca Blood

14. Learning and Assessment
• “For me, my ePortfolio was a personal learning
space that I could tailor to reflect the teacher I had
become at this point in my teaching career. By
taking the time to intricately tie together all I had
learned, I found that I had a better understanding of
pedagogy and application within the English
classroom as well. Thus, the connections that link
together each page within my ePortfolio truly create a
rich realm of learning, reflecting, and applying.”
-- Crystal Beach, ’09, Secondary English Education,
M.Ed.

15. How do we do ePortfolio?
• We have two tools:
• Portfolio templates (for self/programmatic
reflection and showcase portfolios)
• Matrix/Forms (for scaffolded learning and high-
level assessment)

16. The Portfolio Template
• Student-centered • Sharable: Public or
• Program-customized private?
• Flexible

17. The Matrix: Summative
assessment
Students choose (“are guided Students reflect, on the “big”
to choose”) what goes here, as level, about goals at the end of
the term/year progresses the term/year.
Goals can be customized to
include programmatic goals for
each program. You can design
your reflection prompts, also.

18. Some other examples…
• Examples can be found at
https://eportfolio.vt.edu/gallery.html

19. 8 Issues Central to Implementation
(Chen & Penny-Light, 2010)
1. Defining learning 5. Including multiple
outcomes forms of evidence
2. Understanding your 6. Using rubrics to
learners evaluate ePortfolios
3. Identifying 7. Anticipating external
stakeholders uses of evidence
4. Designing learning 8. Evaluating the impact
activities of ePortfolios

20. Conditions for Success
(Knight, Hakel, & Gromko, 2008)
• eP-based curriculum
• Feedback
• Include engagement and personalization
• Examples
• Time for development
• Faculty promote value of eP
• Technical assistance

21. Faculty Visioning Process
• When and from where will student work be
collected?
• Are there specific assignments that
correspond to specific goals?
• Who will evaluate student work?
• Who has access to student work?

22. Putting it all together
Learning Academic
Learning
Portfolios Accreditation
eP@VT
Professional
Assessment
Development
Departmental
Development