Educational Potential of e-Portfolios

Lorraine Stefani is the Director of the Centre for Professional Development at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Prior to taking up her post she was a Reader at the Centre for Academic Practice at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland where she worked for nine years. She was actively involved with the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education firstly as an accreditor of professional development programmes and later as a member of the ILTHE Council. She had strong links with the Quality assurance Agency through her role as Chair of the Personal Development Planning in Higher Education (Scotland) Network. In her current role she is: promoting departmental development initiatives many of which involve the use of ICT; involved in a major project to develop accessible on-line resources to support staff in becoming more creative in their use of ICT in learning and teaching and promoting the development of e-teaching portfolios.Professor Mason is a specialist in the research and practice of online teaching and learning in the Insititute for Educational TEchnology, at the Open University. She was one of the early pioneers in developing the medium of computer conferencing for distance education, and completed her PhD - one of the very first on the subject - in 1989. Since then she has published prolifically on the web, in journal articles and in five books.  She has worked with many course teams across the Open University in the design, tutoring and evaluation of online courses. She has worked extensively on the Open University's Masters Programme in Open and Distance Education, as course developer, tutor and as Director of the Programme. In 2000, she conceived of the idea of a Virtual Graduation for the first cohort of Masters students and developed the concept with the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute.Currently she is Chair of a new course, called Learning in the Connected Economy. The course is innovative in a number of ways: it is being developed in partnership with Cambridge University; it is being hosted through the UK eUniversity and run on their newly designed learning platform; it is being written entirely in 'learning object' format.

'The book is a really good place to start researching the potential of embarking on eportfolio adventures. It successfully provides practical and theoretical information to potential new users so they can make an informed decision as to whether eportfolios could enhance the learning experience for their students' -Escalate, July 16, 2008"The book’s content, organization, and accessibility make it a must-read for any instructor, manager, or individual interested in using e-portfolios as a tool for personal development and reflective learning." – Technical Communication, Volume 55, Number 3, August 2008

• 1. What is an e-Portfolio? 2. Getting Started with e-Portfolios 3. Designing Courses Round e-Learning and e-Portfolios 4. Using the e-Portfolio as a Means of Providing Formative Feedback on Student Learning Processes 5. e-Portfolios and Inclusive Learning and Teaching Practice 6. e-Portfolios to Support Staff Professional Development 7. On-Line Resources for Creative Use of Technology