Have you ever developed an e-portfolio for various gains? Wentworth Institute of Technology has taken its learning process to another level. As a mandatory, students undertaking Bachelor of Science and Management students are required to develop an e-portfolio at the freshman year throughout to the final year in the institution. An e- portfolio constitutes a student's resume, profile pictures, and much more personal details and can be used for social as well as professional purposes. The Journal of Human Development thus gives a deep insight on the importance of e-portfolios and goes further to identify the net worth of a student's portfolio. The article thus takes readers through e-portfolios while emphasizing their importance through a case study of Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Although academic professionals have identified the importance of e-portfolios in the students’ career development, students have different perspectives concerning the development and use of e-portfolios. Various perspectives have been held concerning the creation of e-portfolio. First, organizational and technical skills are required for the formation of the portfolio. The various advantages of creating and using an e-portfolio have thus been identified in the article. First, as Stainback states, the student’s worth is raised due to e-portfolio because of increased knowledge, skills as well as their productivity. Secondly, though the socio-cultural theories, it has been identified that the cognitive ability of the students increases thus increased skills because of increased participation and motivation (Steven, 2012). When the skills of the students increase, their learning process also increases thus creating a greater advantage to them. Thirdly, apart from increased cognitive ability, the students’ development, publishing, networking, and marketing skills also increase as a result of e-portfolio. Due to its importance, the institution has advanced to the use of WordPress.com, which is considered more professional. Without considering its advantages, it has been a great challenge inducing the students the value for e-portfolio (Steven, 2012).
The research was thus conducted in the institution to identify the students’ perspectives on the e-portfolio. Thirty-one students participated in the survey and were to give their opinions about e-portfolio and how it had benefited them. The students were also required to rank the skills that they had achieved through the e-portfolio. Other questions included whether the students would continue updating the system and using the portfolio for employment. The results showed varying opinions from the students. First, many students agreed that their e-portfolios represented their management profession. When asked if the e-portfolio represented their college career and personal self-achievement or not, many students responded positively. Several students also agreed that they would use the e-portfolio for employment purposes.
In the question that required the students to rank the skills that they had gained from the e-portfolio, the students rated technical skills to be the first skill acquired through the development of an e-portfolio. Organizational skills were rated second with self-knowledge skills taking the last position. The research thus created a further discussion on the net value of the e-portfolio. Assumptions are thus, made that the net worth of e-portfolio is a summation of social and human capital. Technological, critical thinking, organizational, self-knowledge are the human capital while the social capital is the social interaction of the individual. Future research is thus recommended on the net worth of the e-portfolio (Steven, 2012).
In conclusion, the article relates to my portfolio since I have developed various skills upon its development. From increasing my cognition to increasing my technical skills, the latter has been a great achievement to me, and I intend to continue using the e-portfolio upon completion of my studies.
References
Stevens, C. (2012, December). Social Capital: Determining a Student’s ePortfolio Net Worth. In Proceedings of ePIC 2012, the 10th International ePortfolio and Identity Conference, London, 9-10-11 July 2012. (p. 101).
