Student ePortfolio Project

ePortfolio is not just a tool, but a process of engaging students in activities that allow them to identify, reflect on and develop evidence of their developing Graduate Qualities and Professional Skills,  and to justify and explain their skills and qualities to others. UOW has been strategically developing and trialling ePortfolio tools and projects since 2002.

A University of Wollongong ePortfolio Community was launched on 13th May 2008 via the Innaugural ePortfolio Symposium to celebrate and share the diversity of approaches, activities and tools used by the

2007 and 2008 cohorts.

Future plans include working with the emerging National ePortfolio Community (developed and developing by the Carrick ePortfolio project), regular meetings of the UoW ePortfolio Community via CEDIR Academic Staff development programs.

Why ePortfolio?

In recent years electronic portfolios (known as ePortfolios) of student work have become more popular, taking over from paper-based versions (Avraamidou and Zembal-Saul, 2006). Benefits include better educational outcomes afforded by the ability to annotate and contextualise items in the portfolio, as well as the ability to cut and paste text into other applications.

ePortfolios facilitate reflection, recording and articulation of the university experience and hence have connections to our capacity to (as the AUQA audit recommends) "embed the Graduate Attributes into the curriculum and into teaching and assessment practices" as well as draw on the individual's whole of life experiences outside the curriculum. In addition, some accrediting bodies such as the NSW Institute of Teachers and the Australian Medical Association have made it compulsory for graduating students to show evidence of learning outcomes against complex sets of over 40 Professional Skills criteria.

Click Here to go to the ePortfolio website.

Contact Ms Sarah Lambert, CEDIR, for further information.