Recently I was delighted to be interviewed for a podcast by
Kristina Hoeppner on
the use of e-portfolios in Mahara's '
Create. Share. Engage' series. We talked about how these are used in the ANU Techlauncher program, using techniques I learned as a student of Debra Hoven at Athabasca University. With this approach the student is guided through the development of the portfolio, including peer feedback, and as part of their coursework, rather than being left as something extracurricular to complete later.
A slight variation on this, is to have the student prepare the portfolio in the form of an application for a real job which they would like on graduation. This makes sense as a capstone exercise, at the end of a program of study, as many students are then looking for jobs. This transforms the portfolio from something which might be of use to the student one day, to something of vital importance right now. At the moment I am overseeing the assessment of 400 student portfolios by a dozen tutors.
