Abstract:

Electronic portfolio as an alternative assessment method is becoming more and more important as online teaching and learning activities are disseminated in training processes. Pre-service teachers must possess a sufficient level of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, regarding the stages of e-portfolio creation, including its preparation, development and evaluation. There is a growing interest from higher education institutions in developing in students the learning to learn key competence, thus making them more competitive and more likely to succeed in a complex, challenging, unpredictable and technology-based world. With a pre-post-test design and a mixed-methods approach this study aims to identify students' satisfaction with the e-portfolio in learning psycho-pedagogical subjects and the level of development of the learning to learn competence before and after the use of the e-portfolio, as well as to determine the benefits and drawbacks of using this (self) assessment method. A total of 155 students from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca enrolled in the psycho-pedagogical module in the initial teacher training (from first to third year of bachelor's degree) answered two online questionnaires. The results indicated that the level of development of the learning to learn competence increased and the satisfaction with using the e-portfolio was positive. The results showed that there were positive correlations between satisfaction with using the e-portfolio and learning motivation, setting goals and planning activities, organizing and managing activities, reflecting on activities and learning outcomes. Participants recognized some important benefits of using the e-portfolio, such as flexibility, easy navigation, accessibility, immediate, fast and personalized feedback. The lack/ insufficient access to technology was included among the drawbacks. It can be concluded that the integration of the e-portfolio at the university level would increase students’ satisfaction with the use of this method in learning psycho-pedagogical subjects and would contribute to the development of learning to learn competence, releasing the students' potential towards learning.

Keywords:

E-portfolio, student satisfaction, learning to learn competence, e-assessment, pre-service engineering teachers.