ePortfolio to facilitate reflection on a regular basis over an academic year Exemplar 3

Institution: Massey University, College of Business, School of Management

e-Portfolio context:

The third year internship course is for Business students who are on a 180 hour work placement. They use the e-portfolio for reflective learning blogs, identifying their skill set and areas for development. The lecturers give feedback each week on the reflections to assist in developing ‘reflective practitioners’.

Dates of provision:  2009 to present.

Reason for implementation: the notion of having one place to collate all their learning whilst on the internship

Purpose/s: support for reflection and feedback

Learning processes involved: Reflection, Online presentation and communication

Practice:  fully developed

Key staff involved: Professor Sarah Leberman

Overview of ePortfolio use:

The students are introduced to e-portfolios and reflection in lectures and a computer practical. The computer practical is important to ensure the e-portfolio is set up and the students have the skills to reflect on their experience without the technology restraining their thinking. The students use a framework to support their reflections so they tie in theory with practice and gain real value from their reflections. The following structure is available to get students started with reflecting on their experience. Some students move away from this structure as they develop their reflective skills over the course.

Reflective questions

1. List activities for past week
2. Select one from list above and describe in more detail
3. List what you have learned about yourself, the environment and/or business over the past week
4. Describe any difficulties or disappointments, if any, and strategies which might be implemented to  improve or enrich the experience
5. Discuss how business theory was applied or observed in action
6. What are your main analyses, reflections or observations of your experience?

Some of the things students valued were the easy way they could share reflections with the lecturer and others who were interested. They also used it as a way to keep in contact with classmates in other placements. It also helped them keep a record on their reflections over the internship. Students’ views of the reflection appeared to change over the course. Initially some students viewed them as a burden but later recognised the value. At a superficial level students liked having a record of what happened.  Some students could see the way they had changed over the internship and the contribution of writing reflections and the impact of feedback. Some students experienced difficulties using the e-portfolio software. This included the frustration of losing work that they had spent hours typing in because the connection had timed out to the difficulties of using new software. Many students did gain value from the experience and they recognise that the difficulties were worth the ultimately rich learning that they gained.