RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.AC.UK
Issue 1 (2017)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
Eportfolio is a Big Word: The Meta Cognitive Space of Eportfolio
A personal perspective
Trent Batson, AAEEBL
During 15 years of working within the eportfolio community – at the University of Rhode Island, on the
Board of the Mellon Foundation-funded Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSP became part of Sakai),
and then founder and president of The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence -Based
Learning from 2009 to 2016 – and, as I wrote dozens of published articles about eportfolio and
numerous “Batson Blogs” for AAEEBL during those same years – I have reviewed my own view of
“eportfolio” constantly.
I evolved in my own thinking about eportfolio from first seeing it primarily as a technology application
that elicits good practices for student development to now seeing eportfolio (the technology AND the
theory) as a direction-setter for how information technology in higher education, used perceptively, can
re-form HE globally. Eportfolio, as it is being best used as a high-impact practice, is a learning-design
model for the current era.
The Many Understandings of “Eportfolio”
I have boiled down this evolution in my thinking
to this question: Is “eportfolio” a small or big
word? Does it refer to one specific function
within higher education or does it apply across a
spectrum of uses? Or is it even a bigger word
than that?
• The term “eportfolio” to many in global
higher education may mean assessment
at the course level. It therefore might
suggest using eportfolio technology to
collect student assignments in one place,
digitally, making the job of reviewing
student work easier.
• To others, “eportfolio” may mean a web
site that can help a student get a job
through showcasing the student’s record
of achievement.
• Or, it may mean a way to track student
progress toward learning outcomes for
institutional purposes (in the U. S., this
use is in response to the “accountability”
movement).
• To others, “eportfolio” is a way to enrich
advising.
• And, to others, “eportfolio” means using
the eportfolio “space” to improve
learning.
The classic trope of the many views of