RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
‘Personal Development Planning’ and
supportive scaffolding for the OU’s
distance learning students. This links to
the interest of Yancey and others in
‘ePortfolio as Curriculum’. Their account
also highlights the use of technologies not
designed as ePortfolio systems but
supporting the functionality associated with
ePortfolio practice, another seminar
theme. They make the case for a simple
tool customisable by the user, another
element of discussion at Dublin. Helpfully,
their pilot work, focussing on a ‘personal
learning ePortfolio’, provides us with some
indicative evidence that such scaffolded
support can support distance learners in
developing an increased sense of
responsibility for, and ownership of, their
learning, with increased confidence and a
greater ability to make connections
between different areas of their lives,
increase their motivation and sense of
engagement, and develop a different view
of their studies and themselves.
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Moving along, Lynsay Pickering takes us
to a very different context for UK higher
education, a Year 2 internship module at a
campus-based university. This was a
specific career development intervention.
Interestingly, some emerging but already
familiar themes can be found here also:
ePortfolios as a context for the
development of digital literacy; links to
employability; the use of WordPress as
opposed to a commercial ePortfolio tool;
moving from an assessment tool toward
one with the potential to offer a showcase
Portfolio of the kind envisaged by Nino.
There is still work to do, but student
feedback seems pretty positive so far.
Then to the work of Michele O’Sullivan and
Geraldine Lavin, who apply interest in
ePortfolios as an assessment tool to a
very particular context; namely a module
called Creativity and Discovery in the
Business School at Dublin City University
(our host institution for the Seminar). This
account documents a formative piece of
action research with a focus beyond
assessment of learning per se,
emphasising the ‘benefit of e-portfolios for
student learning, creativity, creative
problem-solving, reflective practice and
assessment’. There was much learning by
the authors: the process highlighted
administrative (late student registration)
and technical issues, as well as the
importance of student support. Results
suggest that students were not
disadvantaged by the use of ePortfolios,
and some really took engagement and
presentation to new heights.
Next comes the perspective provided by
the work of Sirats SantaCruz Elorza and
colleagues who consider the use of
ePortfolios within a specific curricular
context, an Early Years Education degree
at Mondragon University (a non-profit
cooperative private university in
Catalonia). This contribution retains a
strong focus on learning. Again a tool not
specifically developed as an ePortfolio -
Wix 7 was used to introduce students to
the initiative. Results were generally
positive, with some familiar themes
emerging: of the value of the tool for self-
6
See (UK) Guidance at
https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaas/enhancement-
and-development/pdp-guidance-for-institutional-
policy-and-practice.pdf?sfvrsn=4145f581_8
7
A cloud-based development platform. See
https://www.wix.com/
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