1. Portfolios and
ePortfolios
A new employability tool
Career Portfolio Manitoba
Don Presant
2. Recognition of Prior Learning
The language of skills & knowledge
• RPL = a way to determine what a person knows
and can do
• RPL can be used for:
– access to education (advanced standing)
– career planning & professional development
– access to employment
• a Portfolio is a product of RPL
• an ePortfolio is a digital portfolio
4. Portfolio - Working Definition
• “a collection of authentic and diverse evidence,
drawn from a larger archive...
• ...representing what a person or organization
has learned over time on which the person or
organization has reflected,
• ...and designed for presentation to one or more
audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose”
(NLII, 2003)
5. Portfolio: key elements
• Links individual’s skills/accomplishments to
skills frameworks
• A record of formal AND experiential learning
• Claims backed by evidence
• Learner ownership
• More than a showcase; a lifelong learning tool
7. Credentials vs. Portfolio
Credentials ePortfolio
• Reflect time spent in class • Reflects time spent learning
• Questionable proficiency • Evidence-based proficiency
• Proxy for skills and • Statement of actual skills and
knowledge knowledge
• Dated • “Living”
• Variable quality • Systematic
• Formal learning only • All learning valued
(Courtesy FuturEd)
8. Portfolio: product and process
• Archive of evidence
• Showcase: celebration & assessment of learning
– Education
• Acceptance/advanced standing, course requirement,
graduation requirement
– Workplace
• Hiring, HR development, professional development, project
team selection
FuturEd 2004
9. Portfolio: product and process
• Assessment for learning
• Reflection, self-assessment
• Transferring skills, making transitions
• Coaching, collaborative learning
• Learning plans
• Knowledge Management
FuturEd 2004
10. Benefits of “e”
• Information Management capabilities
– Collecting, archiving, making different versions
– “One to many” digital shareability, links to specific pages
• Integration with Internet presence
– Online research: documents, networks
– Internet literacy, personal network, digital identity
• Collaboration
– Easy to add comments, edit, mentor, coach
• Measurement
– Link to frameworks, rubrics, track learning over time
• Integration with other ICT systems
– eRecruitment, HRIS
– Mobile access
• Multimedia enhancement
11. ePortfolio examples
• Theo Ramsey – Technical sergeant > manager
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT1XYjZcmck
• Michael Woolley – Industrial mechanic
– http://michaelwoolley.efoliomn.com/presentation
• Michal Kopera – Engineering PhD
– http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/pg/students/esrgae
• Kevin Fisher – Accountant
– https://www.innovatecv.com/cv/share/24/do-not-reply@innovatecv.com
• Sarah Stewart – Nurse/educator
– http://sarahstewart-eportfolio.wikispaces.com/Competencies
• Ted Johnson - Senior VP/Chief Marketing Officer
– http://tedjohnson.efoliomn.com/Home
• Mark Farand – Executive Director
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ox9FR2iFk
13. Flickr Example
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xinwen_zhang/sets/72057594115462151/
14. ePortfolio benefits for employability
• “Digital evidence bank”
• Flexible, findable showcase
• Self-assessment, self-confidence
• Develop communication skills
• Networking environment
• Personal space for learning and building
knowledge
15. ePortfolios and Essential Skills
• Reading Text
• Document Use
• Numeracy
• Writing
• Oral Communication
• Working with Others
• Continuous Learning
• Thinking Skills
– Problem Solving, Decision Making, Job Task Planning and
Organizing, Significant Use of Memory, Finding Information
• Computer Use
Hello my name is Don and I’m here to talk to you about why we’re doing this eportfoliothing...it’s really all about helping you feel more comfortable and able to talk about the skills that you already have that employers need.
I’d like to start with an example of how informal learning can lead to formal recognition, from a book by Bill Bryson about the history of science.In the 1860s, journals and other learned publications in Britain began to receive papers on hydrostatics, electricity and other scientific subjects from a James Croll of Anderson's University in Glasgow. One of the papers, on how variations in the Earth's orbit might have triggered the ice ages, was published in the Philosophical Magazine in 1864 and was recognized at once as a work of the highest standard. So there was some surprise, and perhaps just a touch of embarrassment, when it turned out that Croll was not an academic at the university, but a janitor. Born in 1821, Croll grew up poor and his formal education lasted only to the age of thirteen. He worked at a variety of jobs – as a carpenter, insurance salesman, keeper of a temperance hotel – before taking a position as a janitor at Anderson's (now the University of Strathclyde) in Glasgow. By somehow getting his brother to do much of his work, he was able to pass many quiet evenings in the university library teaching himself physics, mechanics, astronomy, hydrostatics and the other fashionable sciences of the day, and gradually began to produce a string of papers, with a particular emphasis on the motions of the Earth and their effect on climate.Croll was the first to suggest that cyclical changes in the shape of the Earth's orbitmight explain the onset and retreat of ice ages. When his ingenuity and aptitude were recognized, Croll was given a job at the Geological Survey of Scotland and widely honoured: he was made a fellow of the Royal Society in London and of the New York Academy of Science, and given an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews, among much else.So, his formal education was poor, but he taught himself to become very knowledgeable, and he was judged on his work, not his formal education, which they finally awarded him. Pretty good, I think.
These are some ePortfolio examples for you, but I encourage you to have a look at many more linked from the Navigation block on the left. Including the ePortfolio of RommuelParagas, our fictional exemplar. We had a lot of fun putting his story together to help inspire you to think about creative and effective ways to put your best foot forward.
One of the things you’ll find as you go through those eportfolios is that there’s a lot of content that’s not even really in the portfolio. It’s often hosted somewhere else and is then embedded in your portfolio, giving you a chance to not only show but tell how it all fits the story of your skills.You’ve probably heard about most of these services and may even already subscribe to some of them. You’ll be learning more about them and how they can help you develop your career in this course.
Here’s a quick example This was a Chinese engineer I met in Toronto, who eventually got a job in his field in Vancouver.These pictures are from projects he worked on in China. They helped him show potential employers that he worked in some pretty sophisticated environments.
ePortfolio can be a Personal Learning Environment for Essential Skills, ACROSS THE BOARD, but especially for these highlighted skillsAnd obviously, it can be a showcase for the other essential skills, and RommuelParagas’seportfolio provides evidence of that.Thinking Skills:How do I get a job, Cdn work experience?Should I change occupations?How do I organize my job-hunting activities?What have I done in my life and what does it mean?What is the labour market information, who are the employers, where are the jobs?
I really like this summary of the power of portfolios., but you could also think of it as a circle of continuous learning for different purposes. I’ll just let you read it for a few seconds….
Career Portfolio Manitoba is for you, to own and take forward as you develop professional and personally in your life.