Learners in the 21st century are expected to acquire disciplinary (and even
interdisciplinary) knowledge, skills, and abilities and to integrate their learning in different situations and across their learning careers. Yet often the curriculum does not provide opportunities for learners to document what they know, understand, and are able to do beyond traditional disciplinary concepts and skills, neglecting the learning that happens outside the classroom. Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios), when applied as a pedagogy (Catalyst for Learning), provide learners with opportunities to create different representations of their various learning experiences (academic, workplace, community), and make visible the authentic “evidence of [their] experience” (Scott, 1991). Empowering learners to reflect on their various learning experiences to discover their own pathway (Penny Light et. al, 2012; Penny Light, 2015) is at the heart of this pedagogy and allows them to become adept at managing complexity, tolerating ambiguity, and valuing others (Kuh, 2009) as they develop their intellectual identities. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to ePortfolio initiatives and learning activities that highlight the affordances of this pedagogical approach and to an ePortfolio Implementation Framework (Penny Light et. al., 2012) that has been used internationally to effect curricular change. Participants will leave with resources to enable them to continue to reflect on this approach for implementation on their own campuses.
This session has been designed so that participants will have an opportunity to:
- Identify the benefits of ePortfolio pedagogy and extrapolate ways to use the ePortfolio Implementation Framework in their own context;
- Identify opportunities in their curriculum where ePortfolio activities can enable learners to make connections between their various learning experiences;
- Reflect on ways to effect change in higher education curriculum and assessment design using ePortfolios.
