Abigail Lewis

1. ePortfolios to assess and
develop professional
competency in speech
pathology
Abigail Lewis
Edith Cowan University

2. Outline
• ePortfolio: what?
• Speech Pathology at ECU
• ePortfolio: Why:
• ePortfolio: How?
• ePortfolio: What?
• Supporting students
• Assessment
• Evaluation

3. ePortfolios
• Portfolios been used in HE for some time
(Klenowski, Askew, & Carnell, 2006)
• Web 2.0 technologies led to interest in
ePortfolios (Hallam & Creagh, 2010)
• ePortfolios are being used in HE and in
business (Brandes & Boskic, 2008)

4. What is an ePortfolio?
„an electronically stored collection (or
archive) of a student‟s
experiences, achievements and
artefacts, together with their reflections on
learning.‟
Australian ePortfolio Project (AeP) (2009). ePortfolio
concepts for academic staff [brochure].
Retrieved from:
www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au

5. Speech Pathology
• Allied health course accredited by Speech
Pathology Australia
• Competency Based Occupational
Standards used to accredit course &
practicum
• Usually students produce portfolio of
evidence of clinical competencies in 4th
year
• None using ePortfolio as yet

6. Speech Pathology at ECU
• Commenced 2009
• 4 year undergraduate course
• Clinical coordinator – organise practicum
• Focus on reflective practice
• Professional standards and competencies
unit in first year – introduction to CBOS
with essay assignment → ePortfolio

7. Why? AeP 2009:
• “Develop an holistic overview of their
learning/experiences/development beyond
individual subjects/classes.
• Understand their learning and experience in terms
of graduate attributes and employability skills.
• Extract evidence to represent their learning and
achievements, for example to develop selection
criteria responses
• Identify skills gaps through review of and reflection
on their ePortfolio content.
• Plan and set personal development targets.” (p.2)

8. Why?
• ePortfolio can increase depth of reflection
(emerging evidence) (Butler, 2006)
• Hyperlinks make linking of evidence easier
• Can adapt for different purposes/audiences
• Can share with peers for feedback/peer
marking
• Can use for addressing selection criteria for
jobs on graduation
• Promote lifelong learning (Hallam &
Creagh, 2010)

9. Purpose at ECU
• Evidence of development towards clinical
competence as formative assessment
• Evidence of development of reflective
practice
• Record experiences gained so future
placements can fill in any gaps
• Demonstrate „Entry Level‟ competence by
the end of the course as a summative
assessment.

10. ePortfolio: How?
• Read - AeP project & UK eP project useful
• Talk to other eP users
• Engage teaching team
• Establish purpose of eP
• How assess and give feedback?
• What platform to use?
• Develop template/structure
• Embed across course
• Launch!!
• Review and evaluation

11. ePortfolio: What?
• Template developed for students, all
information embedded, currently in
BlackBoard (MyExpo), launch July 2010
• Section A: Reflections on my learning
• Section B: My development of
competency
• Section C: My records

13. Learning Outcomes
• construct a repository for the ongoing
selection of evidence towards gaining
competency in CBOS & COMPASS®.
• analyse the competencies for graduate
entry level
• evaluate the evidence collected
• generate specific short-term personal
learning outcomes
• exemplify increasing depth of reflection

14. STAR-L framework for
evidence
• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result
• Lessons Learnt
AeP, 2009

15. Embedding across
curriculum
• Introduced S2 First Year – summarise
information across each section and
submit for marking
• Submit S1 and S2 Second Year – a few
pieces added to each section
• Submit S1 and S2 Third and Fourth years
– substantial material added, attached to
clinical units

16. Supporting students
• Template and teaching given in computer
lab
• All information is embedded in ePortfolio
and also in a separate document
• All submission forms and marking guides
are embedded in the ePortfolio and on a
separate site
• FAQ document with additional information

17. Assessment
• Submission forms and marking guides
completed for each semester
• % score in 1st and 2nd years
• Pass/Fail in 3rd and 4th years
• Marking in 4th year will be carried out
across academic staff – looking at entry
level quality of evidence

20. Evaluation
• Mixed responses from students – platform
is clunky and hard to use
• Template is too complex
• 3rd years becoming more positive as they
see the point of it

21. Quotes
• „One place to keep • „Understanding the
things which will assist ePortfolio is hard for
me on my journey to me & I just find it
becoming a qualified really difficult to
speech pathologist.‟ 2nd work.‟ 2nd year
year • „Links not working in
• „Having a place to collate the ePortfolio, not
and store competency being able to
evidence. Good to work structure it in the way
out what you still need I want because it's
to achieve.‟ 3rd year playing up or is just
plain faulty.‟ 3rd year

22. Next steps
• New template with new CBOS in
2011, simplified
• Make teaching more specific it and hands
on – in computer labs
• New platform with Curriculum 2012?
• See if students‟ evaluation increases as
they progress through the course

23. Resources
• Australian ePortfolio project:
http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/in
formation/
• UK ePortfolio project:
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios
• Further ePortfolio resources:
http://www.altcexchange.edu.au/eportfolio
-resources

24. •
References From description
Brandes, G. & Boskic. N. (2008). Eportfolios:
to analysis. The International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, 9(2). ISSN: 1492-3831
• Butler, P. (2008). A Review of the literature on Portfolios and
Electronic Portfolios. Retrieved from
http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-996/n2620-
eportfolio-research-report.pdf
• Hallam, G. & Creagh, T. (2010). ePortfolio use by university
students in Australia: a review of the Australian ePortfolio
Project. Higher Education Research & Development, 29(2), 179-
193.
• Klenowski, V., Askew, S., & Carnell, E. (2006) Portfolios for
learning, assessment and professional development in
higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 31(3), 267-286.