Undergraduate Student ePortfolios

Brief description of engagement: 

An ePortfolio is a digital collection of student ideas, values, experiences, and scholarly work. Through an ePortfolio, students can tell their own stories, including their world-view, personal interests and self-assessments of their professional strengths.  ePortfolios can be useful in communicating this information informally to future employers, graduate schools or peers.  ePortfolios also provide students a valuable opportunity to reflect upon what they have learned up to this point, and to organize this into a cohesive body of knowledge that they can more easily build upon.  ePortfolios are considered a “High Impact Practice” by The American Association of Colleges and Universities.  They are evidence-based, and are supported by a substantial literature base, including publications, websites, manuals and other resources.

Engagement developers at UNM:

ePortfolios are utilized by numerous campuses, colleges, schools and departments across UNM.  The Undergraduate Research, Arts & Design Network can help you integrate ePortolios into your project.

Type of engagement: Student Scholarship

Length of engagement: Typically one semester, though it could be implemented in shorter or longer timeframes.

Primary participants: Undergraduate students at UNM.

Participant pre-requisites: None

Full description of engagement:

ePortfolios provide students a valuable opportunity to reflect upon what you have learned on your research project, and to organize this into a cohesive body of knowledge that they can more easily build upon.  ePortfolios can be general in nature (focused on illustrating their entire undergraduate experience) or more specific (for instance, focused in highlighting their research experiences).

For students, the first step in this process is to begin writing and collecting. This guide walks students through this process.  ePortfolios typically include a welcome statement, a description of student values and strengths, and artifacts that represent their academic and professional experiences.  ePortfolios differ from resumes in that they tell a fuller story of a student’s experience, including in-depth reflections on the student’s world views and/or future goals. 

The second step is to solicit feedback, learn about the various ePortfolio platforms, and begin creating.  To help in this respect, URAD will meet individually and collectively with students to help them craft their messages. 

During these meetings, students share their thoughts and writings with peers and advisors, who will provide them with guidance and feedback on what to create next.

The third step is for students to share their ePortfolios with others.  Students can do this through your own professional and personal networks, and/or we can post your ePortfolio on the UNM URAD Expo website.

Goals of engagement:

  • Teach students how to integrate learning experiences and projects, including across disciplines
  • Engage students in reflection regarding what they are learning, what they have learned, and what they hope to learn in the future
  • Help students learn to communicate academic or technical concepts for the public
  • Help students frame their experiences and work to future employers
  • Help students conceptualize and document their journeys, so that other students can find similar pathways
  • Help students learn technologies that help them communicate in visual online format

Number of students engaged: As few as one; as many as needed.

Key partners and roles:

  • Undergraduate Research, Arts & Design Network (faculty development, student training, working with students on building and editing their ePortfolios, posting ePortfolios online).

Selected academic literature:

Panke, S. (2014). E-Portfolios in Higher Education Settings: A Literature Review. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning (pp. 1530-1539). New Orleans, LA, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Donnelly, R., & O’Keeffe, M. (2013). Exploration of eportfolios for adding value and deepening student learning in contemporary higher education. International Journal of ePortfolio, 3(1), 1-11.

Ciesielkiewicz, M. (2019). The use of e-portfolios in higher education: From the students’ perspective. Issues in Educational Research, 29(3), 649–667.

Lu, H. (2021). Electronic Portfolios in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature. European Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 2(3), 96–101. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejedu.2021.2.3.119

Cordie, J. Sailors, B. Barlow, and J. S. Kush. “Constructing a professional identity: Connecting college and career through ePortfolios,” International Journal of ePortfolio, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 17-27. 2019.

D. Kuh, K. O'Donnell, and C. G. Schneider, “HIPs at ten,” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 8-16, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2017.1366805.

M. Fallowfield, M. Urtel, R. Swinford, L. Angermeier, and A. S. Plopper, “A case study in ePortfolio implementation: A department-wide perspective,” International Journal of ePortfolio, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 111-118, 2019.

Bowman, B. J. Lowe, and K. Sabourin, “The use of ePorfolios to support metacognitive practice in a first-year writing program,” International Journal of ePortfolio, vol. 6, no.1, pp. 1-22, 2016.

Hoven, D., Walsh, P., Al-Tawil, R., & Zuba Prokopetz, R. (2021). Exploring Professional Development Needs and Strategies for Instructors/Faculty Facilitating ePortfolios Online. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 6(1), 154–176. https://doi.org/10.22554/ijtel.v6i1.102

Andriotis, N. (2017, February). The 6 benefits of ePortfolios and how to create them [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2017/02/requirements-benefits-eportfolios-training.html

Support resources:

How can other UNM faculty engage with this model?

Perhaps the easiest way to utilize ePortfolios is to require or strongly recommend your undergraduate students to develop an ePortfolio as a captstone to your work with them.  For instance, if you hire three undergraduate students on your project for multiple years, you may want to build-in ePortfolio creation during their last semester with you.  In this instance, you could work with URAD to determine which sections, artifacts or elements you most want them to include, and then turn it over to URAD to help your students create their first drafts.  Once the ePortfolios are built and posted online, you could then share these links with your grant funders to illustrate the quality of the learning experience students gain through your project.