The Development of E-Portfolio Evaluation Criteria and Application to the Blackboard LMS E-Portfolio

The purpose of this paper is to develop e-portfolio evaluation criteria which will be used to review the Blackboard LMS e-portfolio being used at one Higher Education (HE) institution in the UK as evaluation criteria for reviewing e-portfolio provision does not exist in the literature. The approach taken was to initiate a wide literature search which involved reviewing over 600 articles by their abstract dating from 1995 to 2010. The findings show that little has been written about the development of e-portfolio effective practice frameworks. Therefore e-learning effective practice frameworks were used as a basis from which to design and develop an e-portfolio evaluation framework and then apply it to the university case which uses a Blackboard e-portfolio to support Personal Development Plans. The research provides a starting-point for further research into the development of robust e-portfolio evaluation models and frameworks. DOI: 10.4018/jvple.2012010102 20 International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 3(1), 19-36, January-March 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. ment Plans (PDP) using e-Portfolios as a means to fulfill the 2010/11 aim of every student in the UK having a PDP e-portfolio as part of the criteria for the completion of a certificate, diploma, or higher degree and in preparation to replace the honours classification (Burgess, 2007, p. 9). It is crucial that educators, institutions, and other stakeholders have evidence in relation to the performance of e-portfolios as a learning medium. This paper will review the available literature of e-portfolio success within education to: (1) identify which aspects of e-portfolios have been evaluated as a learning tool; (2) describe the evaluation strategies used; (3) synthesise the findings; (4) present an example of an e-portfolio project conducted in a higher education institution within the UK; and (5) discuss educational implications and future research directions. The research has highlighted the need for an e-portfolio effective practice framework based on the findings evidenced in the evaluation of an e-portfolio project for a higher educational institution within the UK. As well as evaluating the existing Learning Management System (LMS) from which the e-portfolio was situated the evaluation also involved building a Personal Development Planning (PDP) portfolio using the postgraduate templates provided by the institution, as well as linking the institutional PDP e-portfolio to external Web 2.0 social networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace, and Wix (http://wix.codeplex.com/). This evaluation report identifies a need to develop an evaluation LMS e-portfolio framework based on the findings of other studies. This study will be of interest to educational policy and programme developers, teaching staff, e-Learning and e-portfolio developers, faculty heads, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Lifelong Learning partners. The evaluation framework developed for this study was adapted from previous studies of e-learning best practices and virtual campus review frameworks. The adapted model was assembled for the purposes of improving monitoring and development processes to enhance the overall quality assurance of e-portfolios. 2. BACKGROUND TO THE CASE STUDY This review evaluated e-learning system criteria at a higher educational institution in the UK, their initiatives for implementing and facilitating Personal Development Plans (PDP), and the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS). A literature search was conducted to ascertain an evaluation framework that could be used to review the institution’s provision for LMS e-portfolio templates. This was because at the time of conducting the literature review there appeared to be a lack of evaluation criteria for assessing e-portfolios. As a result of this it was decided to review the e-learning literature as a basis for identifying e-portfolio assessment criteria that could be incorporated into the development of an e-portfolio evaluation framework. An e-learning framework was adapted from a previous study carried out by Stansfield and Connolly (2009) which has been recently developed and implemented in a multi HE campus environment and deemed suitable for our purposes. 3. HISTORY OF E-PORTFOLIO EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) were first reported to assist in learner development in further and higher education in the late 1980s (Schwartz & Bridwell-Bowles, 1987). In relation to the benefits of using portfolios Armitage (1988, p. 16) affirmed that digital-portfolios can help students learn more efficiently due to increasing levels of motivation and facilitating the publication of their work, which in turn has led to higher levels of self-confidence. Other supporters of e-Portfolios (Kimball, 2005; Hatzipanagos & Lygo-Baker, 2008) claim that these methods improve on traditional paper-based methods of reflection due to the learner having: (1) more control over content; (2) attained higher levels of reasoning and self16 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/development-portfolio-evaluationcriteria-application/62243?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Library Science, Information Studies, and Education. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=2