e-Portfolios beyond education and training

• Andrew Williams, Jerry Leeson
• Education.au

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03 December 2009This investigation compiles the evidence currently in existence to build a case for implementation of an Australian e-portfolio or e-portfolios.

E-portfolio applications have been around for a number of years and are widely adopted in Australian education institutions. However, once learners are no longer involved in formal education, their access to e-portfolio services can be severely limited, even though they are by no means at the end of their education and are just beginning the work phase of their career. Several e-portfolio implementations around the world demonstrate the potential of e-portfolios for users post-education, including:

• supporting workers facing redundancy
• career development
• workforce development and planning
• continuing professional development
• lifelong learning
• articulation of skills and experience.

E-portfolios have the potential to contribute to the policy response to an economic environment that includes complexities such as skills shortages, ongoing adjustment of the Australian labour market, the life-long learning agenda, and the impact of the global financial crisis.

Worldwide, e-portfolios are at an interesting stage. Many implementations are considered highly successful by their stakeholders, in terms of benefits for individual users and labour market outcomes. However, the implementations are too recent for a solid base of evidence to have emerged, which means that several successful e-portfolios have been developed and implemented simply on the basis of an understanding that this is the way of the future.

This investigation is one of the series commissioned by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) as part of the Strategic ICT Advisory Service (SICTAS) project.

Definition: An electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web. Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. E-portfolios are both demonstrations of the user's abilities and platforms for self-expression, and, if they are online, they can be maintained dynamically over time. Some e-portfolio applications permit varying degrees of audience access, so the same portfolio might be used for multiple purposes. [Wikipedia]