RAPPORT Vol 3 RAPPORT Vol 3 Issue 1 | Page 62

RAPPORT Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018) The International Journal for Recording Achievement, Planning and Portfolios Students’ and teachers’ perceptions about the use of ePortfolios as learning tools in the Early Years Education Degree in Mondragon Unibertsitatea Sirats SantaCruz Elorza, Nagore Ipiña and Eugenio Astigarraga Mondragon Unibertitatea, Spain Abstract The aim of the present study is to analyse students’ and teachers’ perceptions about the use of ePortfolios as learning tools. The research was carried out in the Faculty of Humanities and Education from Mondragon Unibertsitatea in the Early Years Education Degree. Data was gathered by means of two semi-structured interviews conducted with the teachers and two focus groups carried out with first year students. Results show that students consider ePortfolios as significant tools to foster self- reflection about learning and personal and professional growth. Teachers are likely to believe that ePortfolios are important tools to promote learning and to get to know students deeply. However, students found difficulties to understand the aim of the ePortfolio and the nature of the artefacts. Teachers agreed that more criteria to mentor the progress of students’ learning process are needed. Conclusions drawn from this study show that explicit training on ePortfolios is necessary to foster awareness on the importance of reflective practices for learning. The use of Learning ePortfolios 1 in higher education ePortfolios are becoming an important and commonplace element in higher 1 Although the term portfolio may refer to both electronic and paper portfolios, the concept ePortfolio will be used throughout this paper to make explicit reference to the digital portfolio. education (Alcaraz, 2016; Clark & Eynon, 2009; Cobos, López & Llorent, 2016; Soto, Barquín & Fernández, 2016). But the use of ePortfolios in educational contexts began mainly in the USA and in the UK when dissatisfaction about standardised tests arose (Alcaraz, 2016). In fact, ePortfolios have been used to organise, design and assess students’ learning processes (Bahous, 2008) as well as to collect experiences and reflect 61