Later Thoughts on the Eportfolio

What makes eportfolio viable as a pedagogy for our students should also be a significant factor in convincing our peers of its merit. That’s just one reason I think it’s been very useful over these last two and a half months to look at the scholarship on portfolios and their use in composition. I was certainly interested to see working models of the application of these ideas. If, for example, one of our goals is to increase the likelihood that our students will be lifelong learners (which has probably always been one of our hopes anyway), then I’m wondering what kind of specific assignments within this model would promote that while also meeting the department’s SLOs for the course. It seems, as some of the articles have pointed out, that the way to do this is to get the students beyond seeing the class as a box to tick off on their way to graduation, and if we had a way to make eportfolio something they could take beyond the class, then that would be one way to go. If, for example, the final exam was an assignment to create an eportfolio space outside of class where they could continue to develop their sense of self as scholars if they choose to, then they’d have a platform to do so.

Dr. Doukopoulos and I have created a website where we've archived much of the scholarship we've read this summer, along with some of our commentary. You can find it here.