Projects – E-Education 

E-Portfolio Pilot Projects

Blackboard pilot:

Invited lecturers already using portfolios as part of their teaching and learning practice participated in the pilot. Two groups completed the pilot. The first group, fourth-year Physiotherapy students, built individual portfolios based on templates. The students populated their portfolios with artefacts from three clickUP modules. The second group, postgraduate students in Early Childhood Intervention, created collaborative group portfolios for reflection within blank portfolios.

Data about the pilot was collected from instructional designers, lecturers and students through observation, interviews, surveys and analysis of participants’ reflections. The experience of the two groups differed. Both groups were positive about the educational value of online reflection and about collaboration possibilities in this portfolio.

The results further indicated that although the application allows all the functionalities an e-portfolio system needs, the design of the application is such that users will need more than the two-hour orientation sessions they received. Limited computer skills might hamper users, which will result in more attention being paid to technical, rather than educational aspects of the eportfolio. The factor on which all participants were agreed on as the most debilitating, was that the portfolios built in this environment could not be transferred and were useful after they completed their studies.

The e-education group is currently evaluating a number of other e-portfolio systems.