Abstract:

Portfolios have traditionally been expected by landscape architecture students for future employment. The traditional portfolio comes with a set of limitations including its static nature and the inability to showcase digital media, specifically 3-D digital models, animation, and videos. In contrast, digital portfolios increase flexibility and file types that students can include to better convey their projects and ideas, as well as increases creative opportunity. In addition, digital portfolios can benefit beginning design students by fostering reflective writing and showcasing technical skills, while older students can display work for future professional opportunities (McDermott-Dalton 2022). ePortfolios have been described as a “process, product, and tool” (Bryant 2013). The aim of the paper is to understand the experience of students in a first-year landscape architecture course working with an ePortfolio as the final packaging tool at the end of the semester. For most students, this is their first time working with a digital portfolio. The course was made up of landscape architecture (LA), landscape contracting (LC), and dual majors (LA/LC). Data used in this study were taken from written responses to reflective prompts asking about ePortfolios and Likert-scale item responses relating to ePortfolios. Students were asked to answer a 10-point Likert-type scale (0 = Extremely Unconfident; 10 = Extremely Confident) asking about their confidence level in uploading work to an e-portfolio. They were asked the question twice, once on the first day of class and then again on the last day. This question offers insight into a student's beginning confidence level working with ePortfolios at the beginning of the semester and then after completing an ePortfolio project. The data were taken from a primary research project as a secondary study. Data were analyzed through the view of self-efficacy and self-regulation. Results suggest that students experienced an increase in confidence working with ePortfolio by the end of the semester. Furthermore, this provides students with a base knowledge to later produce a departmental digital portfolio, which will serve as a mid-performance review. ePortfolios have the capacity to evolve with the students as their skills and knowledge increase. Students gain confidence in creating, publishing, and sharing e-portfolios, which in the future could be the standard format for collecting and sharing design work not only for self-reflection or faculty course assessment but also for examining overall curriculum performance.

References:
[1] Bryant , Lauren H, and Jessica R Chittum . “Eportfolio Effectiveness: A(n Ill-Fated) Search for Empirical Support ...” International Journal of EPortfolio, 2013, http://www.theijep.com.
[2] McDermott-Dalton, G. Putting the ‘e’ in portfolio design: an intervention research project investigating how design students and faculty might jointly reimagine the design portfolio activity. Int J Technol Des Educ 32, 1207–1225 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-020-09640-8.

Keywords:

ePortfolio, Pedagogy, Self-efficacy.