Developing a Taxonomy for Electronic Portfolios

Ongoing educational discussions on e-portfolios assume that the appropriate use of this relatively new so ware tool can improve the e ciency and e ectiveness of learning. A large and growing body of literature examines the various features of the so ware and the di erent kinds of application scenarios that exist for instruction and education. Given this explosion of interest, it should be helpful to not only discuss the di erent cases of application and so ware features, but to also lay some kind of foundation: What exactly are the di erent characteristics of this type of so ware, how do they relate to each other and how can they be incorporated into a holistic view of educational scenarios? † e following article suggests and de‡ nes a set of speci‡ ed features. † ese properties are grouped together according to di erent prototypes of e-portfolios. † e main objective of this article is not only to present these kinds of substantiated characteristics as results, and therefore to account for a more accurate language use and a hopefully better understanding of how to successfully integrate this so ware tool into (higher) education. It also wants to show the analytic process of this developing enterprise. A better understanding of the di erent so ware functionalities and their relation to each other will help all of us, so ware developers as well as educationalists, to design tools and scenarios that are didactically more appropriate. From a speci‡ ed pedagogical point of view not every technical property or set of characteristics makes sense, or is useful in every didactical setting; some can even impair the quality of learning. And vice versa: A tidy and consistent classi‡ cation should be useful in choosing the so ware which ‡ ts best the intended didactical purpose.