E-portfolios -- To Be or Not To Be?

It seems like within the last five years or so digital or e-portfolios have come to stay in the world of education. There are many for-profit companies vying for a spot in the market. Many of these are to ensure quality and access for program or university accrediting bodies. However, there are also many free products that can be used by students to create an online portfolio of their accomplishments, philosophies, projects, and more. I'll consider e-portfolios used by students in this post.

I think an e-portfolio could be beneficial for students seeking jobs. In addition to a c.v., a digital portfolio offers actual examples of what a student reports he or she can do or create. Also, an e-portfolio in the online environment allows the instructor easy access to student work to help him or her connect with students. I imagine they would also be handy when an online student asks a professor for a letter of reference or recommendation -- in this case the instructor can job jog his or her memory by visiting the student's e-portfolio. Additionally, being forced to construct an e-portfolio for a class, assures that student has some grasp of digital technologies.

A challenge I've hear posed against the use of e-portfolios is their ability to be changed by the student. Since the student has control over the content, he or she can add or subtract from the document at will. So let's say they get a less than stellar evaluation on a performance review, they can erase this content or choose not to include it for potential employers to see. This begs the question, who else besides the student should have access to his or her portfolio?

I'm creating an e-portfolio as part of this program, but other than the purposes of degree completion, I'm not convinced it will be helpful to me. There are many free tools that could be effectively used to build an e-portfolio. Personally, I would choose Weebly or Google Sites over other choices such as VoiceThread or Wikispaces. The first two sites seem to be more streamlined, look more professional, and are easy to navigate even if you haven't used them before. For example, I've watched someone try to view a project made with VoiceThread and though they were reasonably tech-saavy, they had trouble grasping the navigation. I wouldn't want to have an e-portfolio that was skipped over because the reviewer couldn't easily figure out how to access my content.

A Sense of Community in the Online Classroom

Ensuring a sense of community in online classes directly affects how students rate their satisfaction with online learning (Liu, Magjuka, Bonk, & Lee, 2007; Ouzts, 2006; Rovai, 2002a, as cited in Shackelford & Maxwell, 2012). This article looked at what instructors could do to make their students feel part of a community specifically with regards to learner-instructor interaction. This can include the instructor attempting to stimulate student interest in the course content, motivating the student, and facilitating the learning process (Swan, 2003 as cited in Shackelford & Maxwell, 2012). Two types of learner-instructor interaction mentioned in the Shackelford and Maxwell study that I value the most are providing timely feedback and participating in and guiding discussions. The study itself identified as the top two learner-instruction interactions, instructor modeling and support and encouragement.

Scholarly research agrees that instructors should establish a community of learners for their students (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006, Barr & Miller, 2013). They can do this by modeling good communication skills (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006). Classroom culture is influenced by small groups (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006). This classroom culture is also developed through employing learner-focused course design (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006, Taylor & McQuiggan, 2008). Learner-focused course design involves a variety of teaching methods which challenge the instructor to facilitate student learning rather than impart information. This takes into consideration the flow of an online course, instructor feedback, matching student learning styles to instructional design, and student to instructor interaction (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006).

When considering instructor immediacy in the online classroom, studies have been done that focus on social presence. A study by Schutt, Allen, and Laumakis, 2009, set out to test several hypotheses. Their findings suggest that communication of immediacy behaviors is made possible through video-enable computer conferencing, but is not ensured by it (Schutt, Allen, & Laumakis, 2009). Therefore, the use of video on the side of the instructor positively impacted how the participants perceived the instructor, only when the instructor is adept at the use of immediacy behaviors.

Most of the experiences I've had from the student side concerning instructor-student interaction have been positive. In most of my experiences feedback has been timely and relevant, instructors have made themselves available for any follow-up questions, they have been supportive and competent in organizing the class and content. In my own online classroom I would be sure to take this research into my planning and to create an environment that fostered a sense of community. This could occur through synchronous discussions, video conferencing, ice breakers, timely and useful feedback to students, clear guidelines, and a sense for the students that there is indeed a real person running the course.

Barr, B. A., & Miller, S. F. (2013). Higher education: The online teaching and learning experience. Online Submission. Retrieved from: ERIC, EBSCOhost (accessed September 01, 2014).

Shackelford, J. L., & Maxwell, M. (2012). Contribution of learner-instructor interaction to sense of community in graduate online education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(4), 248-260.

Schutt, M., Allen, B. S., & Laumakis, M. A. (2009). The effects of instructor immediacy behaviors in online learning environments. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 10(2), 135-148.

Tallent-Runnels, M. K., Thomas, J. A., Lan, W. Y., Cooper, S., Ahern, T. C., Shaw, S. M., & Liu, X. (2006). Teaching courses online: A review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), 93-135.

Taylor, A. & McQuiggan, C. (2008). Faculty development programming: If we build it, will they come? Educause Quarterly, 3, 29-37.