What is an ePortfolio?

One of the most comprehensive definitions of ePortfolios comes from Gabriele Bauer from Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Delaware:

The academic ePortfolio is a selective set of online, reflective, integrative, and personal documents that present how you have developed as a scholar-teacher in your discipline. It offers evidence of your accomplishments and activities across all aspects of your academic life (research, teaching, and service) and outlines your growth. It extends your CV and provides future employers with a comprehensive portrait of your academic training, achievements, and future career goals. It’s a living document that needs to be modified over time.

Even better.  But how about some examples?

Indeed.  The following are examples of academic/educational ePortfolios:

• Sample ePortfolios from Humber College (done on Weebly)
• Sample ePortfolio by Laura Guertin (Penn State)
• Sample ePortfolio by Shona Ellis (UBC)
• Sample Portfolio  by Andria (Faculty Developer, Penn State)

I’m just about convinced.  What are some more advantages of creating an ePortfolio?

Well, Vanderbuilt University’s Center for Teaching explains that teaching portfolios:

• Provide documented evidence of teaching from a variety of sources—not just student ratings—and provide context for that evidence
• Can help one reflect on and improve one’s teaching through the process of selecting and organizing material for a portfolio
• Are a step toward a more public, professional view of teaching as a scholarly activity.
• Can offer a look at development over time, helping one see teaching as on ongoing process of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection
• Can capture evidence of one’s entire teaching career, in contrast to what are called course portfolios that capture evidence related to a single course.

 

Do you have any more resources that I can peruse as I prepare for the upcoming sessions?  

ePortfolio resources from other Teaching and Learning Centres:

1. Elements of a Professional Academic ePortfolio  (Gabriele Bauer, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Delaware
2. Creating a Teaching Portfolio (Washington University in St. Louis)
3. Teaching Portfolios (Vanderbilt University)
4. Student and Faculty ePortfolios Toolkit (UBC )
5. Developing a Professional Portfolio (University of Central Florida)
6. Teaching Portfolio (Ohio State)
7. Teaching Portfolio Resources: Faculty (Texas Tech University)
8. Teaching Portfolios (University of Saskatchewan)
9. Selected Readings: Teaching Portfolios (Iowa State University)

More Reading

1. Univ of Waterloo: ePortfolios: What, Why and How? (Student Focused)
2. Chronicle of Higher Education

If you have any more questions, please email learnsupport@viu.ca or phone 250.740.6179.