e-Portfolios in action: Students monitoring and managing their own learning

This keynote examines how e-portfolios may be used as a tool to support students to monitor and manage their own learning trajectories in the higher education context. The session will draw upon the development and implementation of the e-portfolio initiative in the Hong Kong Institute of Education that aims to empower students to “learn how to learn” as they progress through four or five years of undergraduate studies. It highlights the promising practices of supporting students to reflect upon their learning, identify learning gaps based on their self-assessment of 21st century competencies, and plan for their own learning needs. It also explains how students may use the e-portfolio as a showcase of their learning journey in the Institute and articulate the competencies that they have developed in the journey. Based on the lessons learned from the first two years of e-portfolio implementation that include establishing buy-in from staff and students, developing support resources and system, and re-thinking and re-designing assessment tasks, this session shares with participants the key components that support the scaling up and sustainability of the e-portfolio initiative in the Institute. The components include: professional learning sessions and walk-in clinics for students and staff, partnerships with staff to co-develop the assessment tasks and learning activities, senior management buy-in of the initiative for the core courses, support resources for self-learning, and ongoing evaluation of the implementation to refine the process.