What is an ePortfolio?

An ePortfolio is a systematic and organized collection of student work that documents a student’s efforts, progress or achievement of an intended outcome. Like a written test, ePortfolios are a form of assessment that seeks to measure a student’s skills or knowledge in a subject area.

As part of their studies at Cascadia, students will plan and develop an electronic, web-based ePortfolio from selected coursework to demonstrate and showcase their learning.

The student ePortfolio will be used as an assessment tool and will provide an opportunity to showcase academic work, technical expertise, employment history and personal interests to prospective employers and educational institutions. The ePortfolio will allow students to document personal educational development, and learn and practice technical skills.

Students are first introduced to the ePortfolio in the COLL101 (College Strategies), COLL100 (Study Strategies), or BIT105 (Careers in Information Technology) classes during their first year at Cascadia. During this quarter students begin to create their ePortfolio and are expected to keep adding projects to their ePortfolio throughout their time at Cascadia.

What is included in an ePortfolio?

The profile section includes background information (bio), educational goals, career goals, committees, affiliations, personal interests, an interview, and resume. The learning section includes a list of the courses the student has taken at Cascadia, links to projects, accomplishments, and skills for each class and includes reflections on these projects and how they relate to Cascadia's Learning Outcomes. Faculty will add affirmations (mini references) to the student's ePortfolio.

Options for creating an ePortfolio

Students will be given three options for creating their ePortfolio:

1. Automated ePortfolio: use the new form-based Web application (introduced Fall 2001) which will save their ePortfolio information into a database and dynamically create their ePortfolio for them;
2. Custom ePortfolio - Personalized Templates: use the original ePortfolio templates and edit them using FrontPage or a similar Web page editing program;
3. Custom ePortfolio - Unique Design: start from scratch and design an HTML ePortfolio which includes all aspects of the ePortfolio templates.

These three options will allow students with a wide range of technical skills to successfully create an ePortfolio.

Output Views

Students who use the Automated ePortfolio will have three options to display their work:

1. Comprehensive View: is a student record of ALL student work;
2. Developmental View: for faculty review and assessment;
3. Showcase View: will show "best work" for visitors (potential employers and higher educational institutions).

Is Completing an ePortfolio a Graduation
Requirement?

Cascadia intends that all students will use the ePortfolio as a tool to document their learning. However, completing the ePortfolio is not currently a graduation requirement.