e-portfolios and ‘legacy’ assessment

Batson, T. (2010) The testing straightjacket Campus Technology, July 7

Fusch, D. (2010) Integrating e-portfolios in your assessment strategy Academic Impressions, July 16

Chen, H. and Light, T. (2010) Electronic Portfolios and Student Success: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Learning Washington DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities

Trent Batson provides a critique of existing testing practices, with their emphasis on memorization, and suggests that e-portfolios provide a more authentic form of assessment. David Fusch interviews Tracey Penny Light, of the University of Waterloo, who offers several steps for integrating e-portfolios into an instructor’s assessment strategy.

Helen Chen and Tracey Light have just published a short handbook (44 pp) that ‘presents an overview of electronic portfolios and ways individuals and campuses can implement e-portfolios to enhance and assess student learning, recognizing that learning occurs in many places, takes many forms, and is exhibited through many modes of representation. It is organized around eight issues central to implementing an e-portfolio approach: defining learning outcomes; understanding your learners; identifying stakeholders; designing learning activities; including multiple forms of evidence; using rubrics to evaluate e-portfolios; anticipating external uses of evidence; and evaluating the impact of e-portfolios. This work is illustrated through multiple campus case study examples.’