Electronic portfolio

An electronic portfolio is a collection of information stored in an electronic format that illustrates a person’s experience in a given area over time. Electronic portfolios, also referred to as e-portfolios, are mainly used to relay information about a person’s work and educational experience. They can be developed in many ways by using free or professional online software programs. E-portfolios can also be found on web sites such as YouTube, LinkedIn, or within personal web addresses. An electronic portfolio is similar to s résumé, a summary of a person’s work history normally presented in list form either on paper or via electronic document. The e-portfolio developed out of the concept of the résumé.

E-portfolios are most commonly used by students and teachers to highlight academic achievements via an electronic platform. Students create portfolios for public or private online perusal that include information such as school projects, presentations, research papers and essays, graphics and images, extracurricular activities, leadership examples, and other details mainly used for college admissions purposes. E-portfolios can also be used in other capacities by people looking to showcase varying achievements for different purposes.

Background

The history of the e-portfolio dates back to the introduction of the résumé. Leonardo Da Vinci is credited with creating the first official résumé in 1482. The document was similar to a modern-day cover letter, which explains the experience and qualifications of a person in regards to an attached résumé. Da Vinci sent this résumé-like document to the Duke of Milan and discussed his many achievements in the art of invention and innovation as a means of recommending himself to the duke as a maker of war technologies. The first known use of the term résumé was around 1500 when a traveling English lord passed out copies of handwritten introductions to various acquaintances. The letter detailed his various abilities, and he referred to the document as his résumé.

The résumé was considered an informal yet professional practice up until the early twentieth century. Until the 1940s, résumés were usually drawn up on scratch paper during a job interview. By mid-century, the résumé had become a requirement for job interviews, often including random bits of information such as weight, height, age, marital status, and religious affiliation. By the 1960s, résumés were including unrelated work hobbies to provide a more well-rounded idea of the interviewee. Résumés remained a handwritten enterprise until the 1970s, when word processing machines and digital typesetters were introduced. The arrival of Microsoft Word in the 1980s further impacted the future of résumés, offering templates for one-page formatting to give the document a professional look. Books about optimizing résumés for career advancement were soon released in droves. The 1980s also saw the arrival of fax machines, which made submitting résumés to potential employers even easier. The decade also gave birth to potentially the first type of electronic portfolio, the VHS portfolio. These were videotaped résumés in which people recorded themselves detailing their work/life experience in various stylized ways.

By the 1990s, the dawn of the World Wide Web gave the résumé a whole new impact. Websites such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com allowed people to upload their résumés onto the Internet for perusal by potential employers. This, along with the arrival of email, increased the demand for e-résumés or e-portfolios. The career-oriented social media website LinkedIn.com launched in 2003, eventually making online résumés the standard for job applications. By the mid-2000s, e-portfolios featuring video résumés were being used by job seekers and students as part of the interview process. The video-sharing website YouTube.com made submitting video résumés easier than ever.

The 2010s saw a rise in résumés being packaged as part of a complete e-portfolio, which often featured links to people’s websites or social media platforms to give interviewers a better understanding of their activities beyond work experience. Digital résumés paired with infographics began trending as many employers and college admissions personnel began using search engines to gather information about employees and students.

Overview

The evolution of the résumé led to the development of what became known as an e-portfolio, a digital collection of information managed by users on the Web. Although the e-portfolio was accessible to anyone looking to organize his or her collective education and career experiences into an online space, it became especially important among the younger population to reflect student achievements. Teachers utilized e-portfolios to give students the opportunity to chart their educational milestones and demonstrate their learning progression. The e-portfolio became a space to save essays and research papers, blog entries, multimedia such as image and video files detailing various achievements and presentations, and other graphics related to students’ overall work progress. An e-portfolio also has the capacity to chronicle courses taken, programs of study, extracurricular and leadership information, and individual evaluations and personal references. Students can create a variety of e-portfolio types, including academic learning portfolios, creative presentation portfolios, reflective and practical learning portfolios, personal development portfolios, collaborative project portfolios, and teamwork activity portfolios.

E-portfolios are sometimes divided into three distinct types: professional, learning, and assessment. Professional e-portfolios highlight a student’s overall academic career, showcasing his or her achievements for either public or private viewing. Learning e-portfolios are designed with collaboration in mind. This type of e-portfolio is often shared exclusively among groups of students to share learning processes and elicit feedback. Peer feedback is considered an essential element of learning e-portfolios. Finally, assessment e-portfolios are used to evaluate general education competencies among student groups and gauge the quality of evidence used in student e-portfolios. E-portfolios do not necessarily have to be defined by these three formats. E-portfolios can be created to include a combination of the three types.

Bibliography

Donston-Miller, Debra. “7 Ways to Create E-Portfolios.” Information Week, 9 July 2013, www.informationweek.com/software/7-ways-to-create-e-portfolios/d/d-id/1110673. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.

“The 500-Year Evolution of the Resume.” Business Insider, 12 Feb. 2011, www.businessinsider.com/how-resumes-have-evolved-since-their-first-creation-in-1482-2011-2#the-future-7. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.

“What Is an ePortfolio?” University of Queensland, 2017, elearning.uq.edu.au/guides/eportfolio/what-eportfolio. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.

Wiesen, G. “What Is an Electronic Portfolio?” WiseGeek, 17 May 2024, www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-electronic-portfolio.htm. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.

“Why Portfolios?” Pennsylvania State University,2013, portfolio.psu.edu/about/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.