Abstract

This paper will focus on the method of analysis and the evolving findings from three entangled cases studies on the use of ePortfolios. The findings in this paper are part of a five-year study into exploring the conditions needed within individual courses, across courses and in three professional programs (teacher education, nursing and social work) that enable an eP process to develop. Working within an action research design, collaborative findings from each course experience were analyzed and reflected upon to inform subsequent planning. Instructor and students observations and evaluative insights on course experiences using an ePortfolio were collected through interviews with consideration of students’ ePortfolios. To guide the analysis process cloud based applications including Youtube and Googledrive were developed utilizing their secure, collaborative and indexing capabilities. This paper will explore the utility and ethical considerations for such an approach.