Exemplars of DCU Best Practice with eportfolio based assessment

Exemplars of best practice with Eportfolio Based Assessment at Dublin City University

Edited by Lisa Donaldson, SFHEA

Foreword by
Dr Helen L. Chen, Stanford University

Whether you are new to eportfolios or an experienced educator, there is an ongoing need for examples of how the affordances of the eportfolios are operationalized to support teaching and learning. This collection demonstrates the different ways in which eportfolios can be adopted to address assessment of learning (summative) and for learning (formative) in a range of disciplines. In some cases, the process of eportfolio creation together with reflection becomes evidence of the learning itself (assessment as learning).

Instead of leading with the technology, each exemplar thoughtfully situates eportfolios within disciplinary learning and the opportunities for pedagogical innovations in the creation and redesign of activities, assignments, and projects are highlighted. The introduction of eportfolios in this context is accompanied by additional skills and outcomes such as digital literacy, integrative learning, multimodal composition, and metacognition. This set of case studies identifies promising strategies for more effective alignment of eportfolio outcomes with course and program learning objectives and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how eportfolio practice continues to evolve in higher education.

Acknowledgements

The examples in this ebook were generously contributed by Dublin City University (DCU) academic staff outlining that many ways in which the DCU eportfolio platform, Loop Reflect, was integrated into assessment strategies across the university. Loop Reflect is built on the open source Mahara platform. Support on using Loop Reflect is available from the Teaching Enhancement Unit, DCU by contacting lisa.donaldson@dcu.ie and is accessible through https://bit.ly/reflecthelp.

This ebook is an output of DCU’s Assessment Practice project funded by the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) project fund from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

A sincere thank you to all contributors for sharing their practice.

Supporting successful eportfolio practice

Eportfolio practice has grown significantly in higher education over recent years and when 'done well' can be seen to have significantly enhanced student learning and assessment (Eynon & Gambino, 2018). In fact, since the last eportfolio assessment ebook was released, eportfolio has been included as a High Impact Practice by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U).

Eportfolio can support student centred and authentic assessments which enable students to creatively reflect on their learning experiences. Mihai et al (2021) describe eportfolio as a means to provide students with a "personal learning space while also enabling teachers to monitor, scaffold, and assess knowledge and skill building." Scaffolding the introduction of eportfolio for students is critical to their success. Some key points for the integration of eportfolio to assessment practices are outlined next.

References:
Eynon, B., & Gambino, L. (2018). Catalyst in action: Case studies of high-impact ePortfolio practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC
Mihai, A., Questier, F., & Zhu, C. (2021). ePortfolios in Political Science: The Interplay Between Independent Learning Space and Collective Knowledge Building. International Journal of ePortfolio, 11(1), 11-24.