Combine the technology of the new millennium with the student-focused pedagogy that emerged in the 1960s and you get e-portfolios. Although e-portfolios are used throughout education from high school through graduate studies and from schools of education to art and design, they are just catching on in social work education and are doing so successfully.
With a genesis in curriculum evaluation and the U-M SSW’s privilege, oppression, diversity, and social justice (PODS) initiatives, Assistant Professor Dale Fitch, Assistant Research Scientist Melissa Peet (’99, e-portfolio manager at the U-M Duderstadt Center), Associate Professor Beth Glover Reed, and Professor Rich Tolman have implemented e-portfolios in a focused manner. They documented their work in an article entitled “The Use of ePortfolios in Evaluating the Curriculum and Student Learning,” published in the fall 2008 issue of Journal of Social Work Education. Data reported in the article came directly from the group’s execution of the concept at the U-M SSW.
As they are guided through the portfolio concept, students are asked to reflect on their learning experience, seeking both the relevance and meaning of their own goals, as well as their social work-related career goals. Students may also use the resulting products as a place to store evidence and milestones of their education.
Fitch, Peet, Reed, and Tolman investigated the execution of portfolios, typically paper-based products, using technological support. E-portfolios are comprised of a folder-and-file system, which acts as a repository for artifacts. These artifacts can range from classroom assignments to reflections on the field experience to career documents.
The e-portfolio concept is unique for several reasons, including that students have control of their content via their ability to grant access to specific artifacts and/ or people. Additionally, artifacts can be multi-purposed —for example, a class reflection can also be used as a philosophy statement. Unlike paper documents, which are copied or scanned to be shared between multiple reviewers, documents in an e-portfolio are limited only by a student’s own structure and intent. Taken as a whole, e-portfolios allow for easier and greater content management compared with a paper process. Thus, in using electronic resources, the building of a portfolio becomes less about creating the final product and more about participating in the process of self-discovery.
Reed and Peet have developed an integrative portfolio manual that can be used in seminars to assist students in learning how to develop artifacts and philosophy statements. Associate Dean for Educational Programs Mary Ruffolo and Director of Field Instruction Betsy Voshel are piloting an e-portfolio seminar using the manual as a guide. The overall goal of the manual and seminar is to guide students through the integrative learning approaches.
Student Edmund Lewis feels that everyone should be exposed to the e-portfolio concept. “The class taught me how to express my passion and talents honed in social work in a very different way. I now have something that I can reflect on and share with my peers and professors.”
The faculty members’ research indicates several anticipated and unseen issues with the e-portfolio concept, including ownership and access to the work and who gives permissions to view various levels of the portfolio. Further, they document a challenge in the usability of the portfolios system (including hardware, software, and demand) from a systems integration standpoint, concluding that portfolios can be used successfully if integrated with existing course management systems. Separate logins, duplicative process, and other aspects were not conducive to a complete experience.
Even considering the minor roadblocks of getting a system up and running and making it both pertinent and functional within an educational context, Fitch, Peet, Reed, and Tolman support the idea that portfolios, and especially the multi-functional e-portfolio, can expand and enhance the learning process for students. While a job after graduation is important, portfolios can assist a student in deciding who they are, how they view the world, and perhaps even how they want to change it.
—Melissa Wiersema is assistant director of administration at the School of Social Work.