E-Portfolios for Integrated Reflection

Abstract

Introduction Recently more and more students and teachers are using e-portfolio systems. There will be massive pieces of electronic portfolio artifacts stored in those systems. E-portfolios are supposed to serve three purposes: assessment, showcase, and learning (Greenberg, 2004). For assessment purposes, e-portfolios include rubrics-based documentations and feedback from teachers. For showcase purposes, e-portfolios present artifacts of accomplishments and lifelong career development. For learning purposes, e-portfolios can be useful for on-going reflection. The current commercial or open source e-portfolio systems have been successfully used for assessment and showcase, but have not been effectively applied to enhancing students' learning (Zhang, Olfman, & Rectham, 2007). This is mainly because generic e-portfolio systems are more or less learning domain (or subject) independent. On the other hand, useful learning portfolios must be learning domain specific. This challenge raises a significant research question: how e-portfolios can be used as a learning tool for students thinking. To make generic e-portfolio systems more useful for enhancing students' thinking, a layer of e-portfolio system must be developed to facilitate students' integrated reflection. In this study, reflection is higher-order thinking for a purpose such as learning what one has learned. Integrated reflection is active higher-order thinking process cross the boundaries between topics, courses, or even disciplines. This paper proposes an ontological model that specifies a generic organizational structure of e-portfolios in the integrated reflection context. The ultimate objective of this study is to make contribution to information systems design science (Gregor 2006; Gregor & Jones 2007; Hevner, March, Park, & Ram, 2004; Walls, Widmeyer, & El Sawy, 1992) through the demonstration of an information system artifact for e-portfolio systems. Related Work E-Portfolios A portfolio is a systematic and purposeful collection of work and achievement documentations (Drier, 1997). E-portfolios are highly personalized, customizable, Web-based files which document learning portfolios and demonstrate individual and collaborative learning process (McCowan, Harper, & Hauville, 2005). An e-portfolio system is a Web-based repository management system that stores students' learning documents (known under the name of artifacts) such as academic records, essays, project reports, assignments, assessments, and personal and professional development related contents. Students use e-portfolio systems to present artifacts, receive feedback from instructors and advisors, and communicate with each other. There are many commercial, non-profit organizational, and open-source e-portfolio systems, such as Chalk & Wire (CW, 2009), KEEP toolkit (KEEP, 2009), foliotek (2009), TaskStream (2009), and Open-Source Portfolio (OSP) (OSP, 2005). While there are high variations of user interface design among these e-portfolio systems, the functionalities of current competitive e-portfolio systems are about the same and include artifacts editing and uploading, commenting and assessing on student work, communicating and sharing within groups, showcase generating, and administrative reporting. E-portfolios are stored online and have great accessibility for the portfolio owners themselves, teachers, colleagues, and employers (Bruder 1993; Bushweller 1995; McCowan et al. 2005). E-portfolios are a mechanism for students and education institutions to improve and demonstrate their teaching/learning skills and to display competencies to the society (Lumsden, Garis, Reardon, Unger, & Arkin, 2001). E-portfolio systems enable administrations at all levels to survey and to conduct comprehensive assessment of teaching and learning accomplishments (Barrett 1994). E-Portfolio Artifacts are Learning Objects An e-portfolio artifact is a unit of digital resource that can be used to support learning, and thus is a learning object (Wiley & Edwards, 2002). …