Student perspectives of eportfolios

A longitudinal study of growth and development

Abstract

Electronic portfolios (eportfolios) offer different ways to support learning through their capacity to collect evidence and demonstrate development, especially over time. Their potential ability to support reflection and learning and to respond to assessment and evaluation settings across a range of settings suggests their value for formal study and lifelong learning contexts. This technology has come to prominence as one of the new Web 2.0 technologies and much of the literature to date provides accounts by teachers of the introduction of eportfolios, there being far less research which places students and their experiences at the centre of the investigation. This paper describes the establishment of a longitudinal study of student perspectives and discusses some early data.