e-Portfolios Checklist
Institutional Checklist
Here are some issues that institutions may like to consider when implementing an e-portfolio (based on the work of Lorenzo and Ittelson and Stefani et al):
Considerations for tutors
- What is the purpose of the e-portfolio for learners? Who is going to explain this to the learner and when?
- How prescriptive will tutors be regarding the use of the e-portfolio and regarding the artefacts used by learners?
- What effect will it have on the curriculum?
- What programme re-design, and possibly re-validation, will be required?
- What aspects of the e-portfolio will be assessed and at which levels: module, programme or institutional?
- Will the e-portfolio be integrated within programmes or an additional optional activity?
- Will it be mandatory?
Legal considerations
- Who owns the e-portfolio? (see Ownership and IPR section plus IPR considerations under the Technical Checklist)
- What data will be added to the e-portfolio by the institution eg from student database? Who will be responsible for this? (see legal issues)
- What advice will learners be given about what files not to upload into an e-portfolio?
Development and support considerations
- Who will be providing staff support and development? Have tutors been consulted about the type of development they would like? The ePISTLE project found that tutors had very different attitudes to e-portfolio especially related to how they valued reflection in learning
- What are the roles of tutors and what are the roles of support staff, for example, careers advisors for the e-portfolio implementation? e-portfolios cannot be deployed in isolation - learners need extensive guidance on how and why to use them
- Who will show learners how to use the system? Will there be an institutional programme or will it remain the responsibility of the tutor? In their Guidelines 3, the ePISTLE project emphasised that guidance for learners was essential
Technical Checklist
'A key issue is that technology must be fit for purpose'
A number of technical issues should be considered when planning the implementation (these are based on the EELLS project and also draw on the work of Lorenzo and Ittelson and Stefan et al):
Hardware and software considerations
- Integration - how will the issues of integrating an institutional MIS and/or the VLE with the e-portfolio be dealt with and by whom?
- Server performance and storage - scaling up to cope with increasing numbers of e-portfolio users and the growing size of the e-portfolios as users expand them over time?
- What plug-ins, file formats and browsers will be required or supported?
- What technologies will be used to implement an offline, portable e-portfolio that authors can take with them? (XML, content packaging, etc)
- Service level agreements for future software releases - once the system is being used on a basis wider than a pilot study and a resilient and reliable delivery becomes paramount
- What back up systems are in place to ensure operational integrity and disaster recovery?
Support and scalability considerations
- Can the system scale adequately as its usage grows and storage expands
- Will there be adequate staff to develop, deploy and maintain the system?
- Will there be an infrastructure in place to properly train learners and administrators how to use the e-portfolio system?
- Will there be adequate online help or will a staffed help desk be required?
Security and privacy considerations
- What policies need to be in place for governing information access, security and privacy? How will they be controlled?
- How will Data Protection Act agreements be 'signed' on a larger scale?
- What are the issues associated with pre-18 year olds using the system
- What progress can be made with a unique identification number?
- Local security issues with institutions allowing access to MIS/VLEs for learner records.
Ownership and IPR considerations
- How will the e-portfolio system authenticate that all the work, documentation and demonstrations were created by the author?
- Who is the real owner of the artefacts in the e-portfolio file repository?
- How will intellectual property used in an e-portfolio be protected?
- What can or cannot be included in an e-portfolio?
- Who owns the learner record (transcript)?
Adoption
- How likely is it that learners will accept and use the e-portfolio system?
- Will the system be user-friendly enough for adoption?
Maintenance
- How will information be maintained over time?
- What policies are needed for transporting or deleting e-portfolios?
- How will long-term storage requirements be managed?
Interoperability and standards
- How will data entered for e-portfolio purposes be utilised in other ways? By other systems?
- How will standards be adopted into a system that is being developed before robust standards are established?
- Usability - low threshold for participation is required
Further information:
- Getting what you want from e-portfolio systems:
- Institutional Managers in HE
- MIS Managers in HE
