Allen Glenn
College of Education
University of Washington, Seattle Campus

Creating a Buzz with Electronic Portfolios

This spring, the South Campus Center hosted the graduation presentations of UW Teacher Education Program (TEP) students. Faculty, peers, family, friends, and mentors came to watch TEP students demonstrate their teaching skills and complete their degree. But outside the rooms where presentations took place, a table full of laptop computers drew the attention of many attendees. These computers featured electronic portfolios created by the TEP students to showcase their teaching philosophy and experience. Education graduate student Amy Ava Wood noted, "[Electronic] Portfolios have created quite a buzz, not only among students, but also faculty and school administrators who attended the graduation presentations."

TEP students in the UW College of Education have developed paper portfolios as the capstone project of their degree for many years. TEP adopted paper-based portfolios as part of a program-wide curriculum revision during the 1990s. During 2003, TEP began requiring students to create and publish an electronic portfolio, built with the Catalyst Portfolio tool.

Though the pilot group of about 60 TEP students had to overcome some initial stumbling blocks, according to Dean Emeritus Prof. Allen Glenn, "we survived [the first quarter], we had student products, and some of them were astounding!" TEP students also reported a positive experience with the electronic portfolios. One TEP student said, "Creating the portfolio helped me to re-focus my goals and see what I needed to work on in the future." Another reported, "going through the thought process and getting them down on 'paper' solidified ideas for me." Now, a cohort of students creates electronic portfolios each Winter and Spring quarter.

Here are a few examples of portfolios developed by TEP students:

John Munchak | Rebecca Peterson | Benjamin Poch | Kathy Williams

Why Should Students Create Electronic Portfolios?

The Teacher Education Program (TEP) had several motivations for switching to electronic portfolios. Prof. Glenn says, "we want a medium that allows students to say 'Let me show you' –- and that's the online medium."

Glenn describes electronic portfolios as more flexible than their paper-based counterparts, and thinks they allow students to document their growth and their impact on student learning. Electronic portfolios provide TEP students with a media-rich environment in which to display what they're doing in their courses and their classrooms. Glenn says, "A[n electronic] portfolio allows some things to happen that can't happen on the written page."

Electronic portfolios are also easier to share with employers, unlike the often thick and unwieldy paper portfolios. TEP students can simply include a URL with their application, download their portfolio to a CD, or open the portfolio on a Web browser.

Electronic portfolios also met the program's objective of providing TEP students with good technology skills. As one TEP student said, "I'm also trying to demonstrate to my employers that I am knowledgeable with computer programs, html, etc., so this was a great way to have a good product to show them."

Prof. Glenn also noted that the attention and support of a federal grant was critical for sparking the national movement toward electronic portfolios that was the background for their own program. The three-year federal grant program called "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology," or PT3, created a national focus on electronic portfolios with grants to teacher education programs around the country to develop portfolio tools and integrate electronic portfolios into the curriculum.

Though UW's TEP didn't receive a PT3 grant, when the Catalyst group released the Portfolio tool they seized the moment and made the switch to electronic portfolios. Prof. Glenn indicated the choice to use the Catalyst portfolio tool, rather than purchase a commercial product or build their own, was simple. The UW's commitment to the tool, the availability of onsite support and consultation, and student familiarity with the tool easily persuaded Glenn and others to choose Catalyst's tool.

Advice for Implementing Electronic Portfolios

Wood, who served as a TA supporting TEP students creating portfolios, says "for those thinking about using electronic portfolios but scared by the technology, like me when I started, it's easier than you think to pick up, both for you and your students. Go for it!" Fellow TA Gabriel Reedy encourages instructors not to "underestimate the comfort of students with technology…students really are capable of creating Web pages and using HTML."

Are portfolios right for your discipline or program? Prof. Glenn recommends considering the question "what student work or products would demonstrate that the student understands the discipline?" The more non-traditional the answer, for example if you didn't think of a seminar or research paper, the more Glenn encourages faculty to think about using portfolios to assess student achievement.

A Model for Success

TEP students receive considerable support while creating their electronic portfolios. TEP students create their electronic portfolio during the final (fifth) quarter of the program. During this quarter, TEP students participate in workshops with TAs each week to draft and revise the content of their portfolio. Both TAs and peers provide feedback for students on the content, and assistance with the technology skills necessary to present the content in electronic form. For the TEP students, learning to scan pictures and other examples of their students' work from their teaching practicum was the main technology challenge. In addition, many students learned to format digital pictures for the Web and use basic HTML tags to control the appearance of their portfolio. Students found the Catalyst HTML guides helpful.

Though acquiring the technology skills was a hurdle for many TEP students, most found the Catalyst portfolio tool easy to use. As one TEP student remarked, "The Catalyst tool was very simple and the portfolio process very helpful." Another noted, "The template was incredibly easy to use – not at all frustrating."

Ripples on the Pond

Glenn notes that the success of the electronic portfolios has been like "a camel's nose into the tent." Until now, TEP student portfolios have been a capstone project. But the buzz created by the electronic portfolios raises the issue of how to make the portfolio a cumulative work, and TEP is now considering how to integrate portfolios throughout the five-quarter program.

by Karin Roberts, 2004