Abstract
The ePortfolio has been used extensively in education in various countries and for diverse career paths. It is a dynamic platform that students can use to compile and formulate a digital presentation using different types of media which can be updated and adapted for distinct purposes and audiences. Because the ePortfolio is, by nature, flexible and adaptable, it can be developed over the course of a student’s studies and be easily incorporated into professional networking platforms as a job search tool. The objective of this study was to assess and compare the willingness of school principals from Poland and Spain to use the ePortfolio as a hiring tool. The authors also sought to ascertain whether the number of employees in the participants’ schools or previous contact with ePortfolio affected their opinion of it as a hiring tool. Participants took a survey after reviewing examples of career ePortfolios, and their answers were tabulated and analyzed. The results show that principals from both countries would be inclined to use the ePortfolio as a hiring tool, and that neither previous contact nor number of employees significantly affected their opinion. These results are significant as they demonstrate a broad willingness to implement the ePortfolio as a hiring tool, that was not significantly affected by country or size of school. It is also relevant that this broad support was shared by principals who were unfamiliar with the ePortfolio before participating in this study.
Highlights
The participants of this study acknowledged that the ePortfolio “provided lenses through which to reflect on their own professional development and accomplishments in new ways” (Ref. [16], p. 69)
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether school principals in Poland and Spain would use an ePortfolio for recruitment purposes
Once having viewed these career ePortfolios, the participants responded to a seven-item survey that gathered information about the number of employees at their school, whether they had had previous contact with ePortfolio, their willingness to use an ePortfolio as part of their recruitment process for new hires and their opinion about the usefulness of the ePortfolio as a hiring tool
Summary
The ePortfolio has been used extensively in higher education in diverse countries [1][2] and is widespread in many disciplines, such as pre-service teacher education [36], musical education [7], fine arts [8], vocational higher education training [9], occupational therapy [10], nursing [11], social work [12], accounting [13] and business studies [2][14].As stated in Ref. [2], the ePortfolio is defined as “an electronic collection of meaningful artefacts which provides evidence of learning, competencies and employability” (p. 16). Graduate students who used ePortfolio in their capstone courses developed critical thinking, self-directed learning and leadership skills [16]. The participants of this study acknowledged that the ePortfolio “provided lenses through which to reflect on their own professional development and accomplishments in new ways” Several researchers identified skills and competences that can be developed through ePortfolios such as goal setting, collaborative learning, autonomous learning, self-assessment skills, reflective skills, digital literacy, digital identity, work readiness, professional identity, selfmanagement, and lifelong learning [18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. Other potential benefits of the ePortfolios for students are: “enhanced learning experiences and outcomes; enhanced employability; enhanced career development; enhanced professional identity and judgement making” Other potential benefits of the ePortfolios for students are: “enhanced learning experiences and outcomes; enhanced employability; enhanced career development; enhanced professional identity and judgement making” (Ref. [2], p. 24)
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