Learning Experiences in Developing Electronic Portfolios

The use of electronic portfolios (EPs) as a means of authentic assessment is increasingly popular in teacher education programs. Portfolio assessment allows teacher candidates to select and reflect on artifacts that demonstrate teaching competencies. When students add multimedia artifacts and reflections to portfolios, they present a much richer picture of their abilities than possible in traditional assessments. This study investigates the students learning experiences in developing and designing their EPs. The findings show that creating EPs helps students develop technology-related knowledge and skills as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The findings also indicate that creating EPs is a meaningful task providing opportunities for synthesis in the masters program. The process of developing EPs involves metacognition and self-evaluation because students reflect on their strengths and weaknesses to set their future learning goals. In addition, the findings demonstrate that students become active, independent, and motivated learners in developing EPs. Students reported that they learned valuable insights from creating EPs.