The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
An Inquiry into Curricular Elements of ePortfolios:
What Conference Attendee Responses Help Us Understand about ePortfolios
Kathleen Blake Yancey
Kellogg Hunt Professor and Distinguished Research Professor
Florida State University, USA
Abstract:
Conference attendees at the Dublin CRA/AAEEBL- sponsored seminar Eportfolios and
More: The Developing Role of Eportfolios within the Digital Landscape participated in an
opening session inviting them to define ePortfolio features and values. Results affirm the
continuing value, for these participants, of what we might identify as the three
traditional ePortfolio defining features, regardless of the purpose of the portfolio:
collection, selection, and reflection, with reflection cited most commonly. As important,
however, are two newer features: curation and integration - which might be seen as
intertwined with reflection; and features including digital literacy that may assume more
importance in the future.
In planning my contribution to the Dublin
ePortfolio conference, I had thought
principally about two sessions: first, the
session I shared with my good colleagues
and friends Susan Kahn and Sharon
Burns; and second, about my opening
session. An opening session can be
difficult to plan, and the one in Dublin, I
thought, might be especially tricky, in part
because the audience, with
representation literally from around the
world - attendees from Ireland, the UK,
Canada, and the US of course, but also
from Switzerland, Australia and Japan -
would be so diverse. Would there be a set
of ePortfolio topics of interest to all of
us? Might it be an interest in
assessment? That seemed reasonable,
given the ePortfolio literature. Might it be
an interest in employability, another
important motivator for ePortfolio work?
Might it be an interest in pedagogic
practices supporting ePortfolio work? Or
might there be interest in a curriculum
that might support ePortfolios?
I confess that the last question isn’t
innocent at all: I’ve been thinking about
the relationship of curriculum to
ePortfolios for several years now. And at
two earlier ePortfolio conferences, both
sponsored by the Association of American
Colleges and Universities in the US, one