ePortfolios are a collection of digital artefacts curated by the student. This digital collection can combine a mixture of assignments, videos, posters, artworks – anything to do with both the learning journey and personal journey while at university. Another way to describe the ePortfolio is as a personal website showing visitors who you are; samples of your work; and the skills you’ve mastered. 

This type of digital media is multimodal as it includes text, images, videos, infographics – anything you’d find on a public website. It also encourages collaborative intelligence, whereby peers, teachers and family can comment on the portfolio.

Sample homepage of a student's ePortfolio.

This kind of digital portfolio requires the learner to be motivated to maintain the site. it will need updating throughout their academic career but it also provides the learner with agency over what and how they wish to display their learnings. This ties in with the active knowledge-making aspect of elearning because the students are building and creating their products.

Furthermore, the University of Waterloo explains:

‘ePortfolios fall within a learning theory known as social constructivism, which proposes, in part, that learning happens most effectively when students construct systems of knowledge for themselves, rather than simply having information presented.’

So on the one side, we have the student making an interactive portfolio, showcasing their work and personality; and on the other side we have the knowledge maker (the student) engaging in a reflective process of how this learning has impacted their development – both personal and professional. This helps students not only document their studies, but it helps deepen their understanding.

The University of Waterloo calls this a WatCV, as the objective is not just to list the essays or projects you’ve worked on, but rather to ‘help students articulate the full range of their skills to prospective employers.’

The excellent outcome of doing an ePortfolio is that it teaches the student to critically assess their work and connect how the course work has enriched their learning in other indirect ways. It also means they need to decide the best way to display their message for viewers, so they are engaged in what digital format will produce the required result for their message. This kind of practice is essential for the ongoing multimedia skills they’ll need.