Citation
Egan, J. P., Cooper-Ioelu, P., Spence, F., & Petersen, M. L. (2018). The curricular and technological nexus: findings from a study of eportfolio implementation. International Journal of ePortfolio, 8(2), 127-138.
Abstract
This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of ePortfolio experiences among health professions students at a major Australasian research-intensive university. This exploratory study of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) aims to understand the experiences and perspectives of students introduced to program-level ePortfolios across multiple curricula in the health sciences. Six key themes emerged from the data: benefits of an ePortfolio at the curriculum level, ePortfolios as an enabling technology, the value of reflection, the role of user support, the speed and quality of feedback, and mitigating distance and isolation. These data show that a program-level strategy that embeds ePortfolios across a curriculum, including delivering assessable tasks in the ePortfolio platform, is beneficial to students when a scaffolded, structured approach is taken.
Annotation
The focus of this study was to “examine the interplay between curriculum, teaching, and learning from the perspectives of students” (p. 130) using e-Portfolios in one of “multiple curricula in the health sciences” (p. 129) faculty at a university in New Zealand. The study’s authors sought to understand undergraduate students’ experiences with, perspectives regarding the value of, and the opportunities and challenges experienced when working with e-portfolios (p. 130). The study was exploratory and qualitative [analysis] in nature, and through interviews, the authors found that while the experiences and perspectives among students varied, six key themes emerged: “(a) benefits of an ePortfolio at the curriculum level, (b) ePortfolios as an enabling technology, (c) the value of reflection, (d) the role of user support, (e) the speed and quality of feedback, and (f) mitigating distance and isolation” (p. 130). Interestingly, “how an ePortfolio is embedded across and within a curriculum seems to significantly [and positively] impact students’ experiences” (p. 133).