Connecting and transforming: Using ePortfolios to support employability and professional purpose Linda Corrin

Editor's Notes

• #3: Swinburne University of Technology is involved in a process of transforming learning and the curriculum to ensure that graduates are future-ready learners who have the potential to make a positive impact in the workplace and community. A key part of this strategy is to encourage students to reflect on the skills and graduate attributes they develop as part of their studies and through employment and extra-curricular activities.
• #4: Not surprisingly, considering the theme of this conference, we decided to use an ePortfolio to do this. Throughout 2019 we have been piloting an ePortfolio platform to explore how an ePortfolio can act as an intersection for a range of strategic educational initiatives both within and alongside the curriculum.
• #5: Our platform of choice is Portfolium, which we chose for several reasons including the fact that it provides students with ePortfolios that are free for life, able to store a lifetime’s worth of artefacts and information, integrates nicely with our current learning management system (which is Canvas), and provides a network for students to connect with each other as well as potential employers.
• #6: As you can see, Portfolium offers students an interface that is familiar and easy to use. They can craft their ePortfolio to reflect themselves as a professional in their chosen field and populate their profile with information and artefacts that highlight their key knowledge and skills. Portfolium also links with and can expand on information students profile on other platforms like LinkedIn.
• #7: Students can set up projects in Portfolium that allow them to add up to 99 artefacts to demonstrate their work. They can add descriptions and/or reflections to each project and nominate the skills they have used to create this work. A summary of these skills is then compiled and displayed on their main profile page and when clicked on will show all projects that demonstrate that particular skill.
• #8: Portfolium also provides students with the choice of what they make public and what they keep private. Privacy settings can be set so that profiles and/or projects are completely private, only assessible through a private link, only available to people who the student is connected to, or open to the public. This is increasing important as our students work with industry and community as part of our commitment to authentic assessment.
• #9: We began preparing for the pilot of Portfolium in February and launched it to staff in April. In the first semester we involved 2000 final year students. At the beginning of the second semester we made some updates to our resources and communications and launched to another 1000 students. Throughout the whole process we have been conducting evaluation and gathering feedback.
• #10: Feedback and consultation has been key to understanding how well this ePortfolio platform can facilitate and support the various educational initiatives Swinburne is implementing as part of it’s transforming learning strategy. We rolled out the pilot with continuous input from key stakeholder groups in the institution and have engaged with students throughout to understand how they see value in the use of Portfolium.
• #11: Many students have engaged substantially with the platform and built profiles that they can use as they graduate to help in their search for employment. During the pilot there has been limited integration of the platform in the curriculum, but we have rolled out a series of communications to encourage student engagement and tips for building effective profiles in Portfolium.
• #12: For the pilot we established a support structure for staff and students which combined the support available through Portfolium themselves, online self-paced resources, and email support through a central email address. So far we have found that students don’t need much in the way of technical support due to the usability of the platform, but do need guidance for how to build effective profiles.
• #13: We developed a number of resources to inform staff and students about the ePortfolio pilot and promote the functionality of Portfolium. Key to this was a Canvas site which includes getting started guides, information about career planning and reflection, as well as advice on how to navigate issues around intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality and the incorporation of material from work-integrated learning experiences.
• #14: One strategy we used to boost engagement with Portfolium was by running a Swinburne Employability Profile competition where students could submit their ePortfolios to receive feedback from a panel of academic and industry professionals. Unfortunately I can’t show you the winning profile, as the student doesn’t know they’ve won yet, but they will by the end of the week.
• #15: For the pilot our focus has been on promoting the platform to staff and students, developing necessary support materials and working out how to provide scaffolding within the different curricular and co-curricular programs. Going forward we want to focus more on understanding how employers may interact with the platform, how to better integrate Portfolium in the curriculum, and assessment.
• #16: However, in our evaluation and planning we keep coming back to how engagement with the ePortfolio can be increased and support by its presence and integration across many initiatives in the university. We want students to start to engage with their portfolio when they walk in the door and to build it into something that becomes part of their professional life on an ongoing basis.
• #17: One key learning from the pilot is the fact that Portfolium is designed very much as an ePortfolio that supports employability. As an institution with a work-integrated learning focus this is very important and can help us to improve the readiness of our graduates for their transition into the workplace or to support their continuing professional progression if they are already in employment.
• #18: As the Portfolium platform develops and new functionality emerges we will continue to look at how we can increase the amount of integration of ePortfolios in the curriculum and assessment. There is still work to be done to educate our staff about the possibilities ePortfolios can offer and how, as Tristain said this morning, we can support the process of developing ePortfolios as well as the curation of artefacts.
• #19: We are also incorporating Portfolium into a new co-curricular program called Professional Purpose that will launch in 2020. This program aims to support students to form, refine, and achieve their professional goals and identity. It is the intersection between an individual’s personal and professional interests and goals in the context of the Swinburne Graduate Attributes.
• #20: Moving forward towards the full institutional rollout in 2020, we are in the process of bringing together a new implementation group incorporating representatives from various student and staff support services and faculties. To support this we are drawing on what we’ve learnt this year to inform a new communications and support plan, events and training, and ongoing evaluation.