All respondents concurred with the statements made and the explanatory notes given. Most respondents qualified their agreement with additional commentary to explain their view or to expand on my explanatory notes.
a. An e-portfolio based pedagogy can be used for work-based learners
“I would agree with this statement. My one concern would be over the robustness of the technology supporting this as technical issues can undermine such pedagogy and seriously frustrate/turn off students.” “Work based learning can be a demanding and challenging area for mature students. Having the work structured and allowing students to work formatively to a specific goal, helps the students develop vital skills, while giving them the support they need. I find that any learning which has support and a strong foundation will increasingly benefit the students. The e-portfolio based pedagogy allows this with the constant support of the students’ teacher.”
b. An e-portfolio can support assessment through a patchwork text methodology
“I feel that the patchwork methodology allows students work in variety of different units, but with the advantage of bringing them together to complete a summative assessment. In my experience this has worked very well with students who use an e-portfolio as part of their
assessment. Collecting and creating a variety of different materials, but then ‘stitching’ them together to make a final piece.”
“Agree. Using patchwork text ensures at a basic level that the final assessment address the learning outcomes of the module as a whole. The learner can see a benefit and a value to completing the previous
formative assessments, which in themselves are not credit bearing. Given the multimedia nature of e-portfolio a move to Patchwork
assessment that could be more than text in nature would be good for the future.”
1. The e-portfolio needs to be scaffolded
“I'd agree that scaffolded e-portfolios are beneficial and support and aid students learning. Offering the students a 'blank canvas' with no
structure can be intimidating and result in students dissociation with the learning outcomes as struggle with coming to terms with using the platform of delivery.”
“The pedagogic principles underlying the e-portfolio based approach appear to be based on evidence from research. Providing support materials, content, activities and tutor access all from one location removes one of the major barriers to learning: having to engage with a programme of learning via multiple access points.”
2. Build in opportunities for reflection on workplace learning
“Reflective learning is what differentiates work-based learning from work experience and work placements. There is also a well-researched link (Schön) between being a reflective practitioner and an effective practitioner. It would have been disappointing if this was not embedded in the e-portfolio pedagogy.”
“e-portfolios are ideally suited mediums to allow students to reflect on theoretical, classroom based study and work based practice experience. By their nature they provide flexible access (online and mobile) and can be shared online to allow reflection within peer groups. This would not be possible or as easy with traditional paper based submissions.”
3. Design the e-portfolio to meet the context in which it is to be used
“Any supporting materials which aids users understanding and adoption of e-portfolio systems are valuable. However the very best aid to student learning and understanding of e-portfolios is practice. Initial training and supporting instructional media are necessary to support the learner's continued student use of the platform.”
“Important that learners always know there is someone there, even after online support is available. Walk through videos are a great additional support mechanism catering for visual learners and also to provide a more real life experience of tasks.”
4. Design the e-portfolio to be easy to use / intuitive
“I use the same approach across a number of differing courses and find it a hugely successful model of adoption. The gentle introduction to the 'front-end' of the e-portfolio system builds user confidence before the possible use of more challenging aspects of the system's user interface.” “I feel that new initiatives like this must take ‘baby steps’ and it is very much apparent that this project is using this technique to build a strong foundation for its students. A new course, being back in education and using a new piece of software to complete your studies is a very daunting prospect for new students. Having the webfolio in a simple view mode to complete the work is very effective. It means the students can concentrate on the content rather than then the delivery.”
5. Make use of the e-portfolio to record formal and informal learning experiences
“I feel that this statement outlines what potential the webfolio offers. It means that the students are supported in their development and the software will enable students to be lifelong learners, as they can update their ‘experience repository’.”
“Agree and can add that the ability to record all aspects of learning proved to be a very useful tool in terms of development and reflection.”
6. An e-portfolio can be used to support learning in ‘bite-sized chunks’
“Students that work part or full-time and have the responsibilities of supporting a family need flexible learning models. e-portfolios can facilitate this and allow for '24/7' asynchronous engagement with their course material.”
“I think this is a transferable and easily adaptable model to use across contexts. The ability to export episodes of learning supports the stitching together of bite sized learning.”
7. An e-portfolio can be used to structure learning into larger awards
“Flexible modes of study, delivery and assessment are vital to 21st Century education in HE. The opportunity to build towards larger awards by studying smaller manageable units will enable more people to access HE.”
“Again agree but would point out that the incorporation into larger awards has the potential to be tricky due to the inflexibility of the target institution's systems.”
8. An e-portfolio can be used for lifelong learning (it needs to be transferable and portable)
“With the commodification of HE continuing at great pace, the customer needs must be considered. There is the potential for students to 'cherry pick' institutional modules, changing to suit educational need. The e- portfolio platforms capabilities to export learning materials from HEI to HEI, in support of this, is paramount.”
“Being able to transfer the information in an e-portfolio is important only if you believe that the e-portfolio belongs to the learner and not the institution. I don't disagree that an e-portfolio should more with the learner, but I'm uncertain whether learners themselves have shown any real interest in having a 'lifetime' record of their experiences.”
The responses received from the report-and-respond enquiry provide a form of validation for my propositions and pedagogic principles and show that others can relate their own experiences to my interpretation of my data. I discuss the validity and trustworthiness of my findings further in Chapter 7.
The propositions and the pedagogic principles were reported to JISC through the Final Project Report (Felce, 2011; Appendix 1) and to the wider academic
community through a journal paper (Felce and Purnell, 2011) and they represent the project findings at the completion of the JISC funded project. However, in writing up my thesis I have had time to reflect on my research, my data analysis and the “interpretive products” I had previously reported. I realised that an overarching concept had emerged from my research; I have called this concept “holistic scaffolding” and I explain this in the following section.