EPORTFOLIO TECHNOLOGY IN EVALUATION OF STUDENTS’ FORMAL, NON-FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING, ACCREDITATION OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND DEVELOPMENT OF E-LEARNING IN A FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Universal technologies of authentic assessment of formal, informal and non-formal learning are becoming increasingly important in the modern system of education in Russia. The assessment technologies provide continuity during the student’s transition at the levels of higher education and allow students to store and showcase their learning outcomes and achievements to various audiences.
Equally important for federal universities is the use of adequate tools for public professional accreditation and external expert evaluation of educational programs, e-learning technologies for their further adjustment in line with the international European standards and guidelines (ESG) and enhancement of the quality of educational standards for bachelors, masters and postgraduate students that are in demand in the current open labour market.

Moreover, modern educational technologies and tools of evaluation of students’ learning outcomes and programmes of their graduation studies have been seamlessly integrated in the system of e-learning of a higher education institution and are also included in the development program of a federal university. Such technologies and tools are considered, on the one hand, as a requirement of modern society, in which the generation, storage, processing and market focused realization of knowledge are of uppermost importance, and on the other hand, are employed as a tool for updating the content and increasing the efficiency of educational programs of a university.
The electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is one of such interactive technologies to assess students’ educational achievements in the settings of formal, non-formal and informal learning; to be used for accreditation of the programmes of students’ graduation studies; and form a seamlessly integrated part of the e-learning development of the information-educational environment of a university.

The key advantage of application of information interactive technologies, including the e-portfolio, for the e-learning environment at a university, in the context of implementation of professional education programmes, is transition to the modern principles of the organization of educational activities and provision of continuity of the lifelong learning strategies.

In September 2015, the Siberian Federal University (SFU) successfully passed the accreditation and evaluation of the e-learning system by the experts of the Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Career Development, which is an independent body to monitor the quality of education and career development (AKKORK) in accordance with the requirements and criteria established by the European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning (EFQUEL).

All postgraduate students are required to complete their portfolios at the "My SFU" site during the preparation for accreditation of the basic educational programs at the SFU postgraduate center.

The integration of Russia’s federal universities into international educational space suggests compliance of their educational programs for all levels of higher education with the established international standards and quality criteria. The e-portfolio offers the possibility to authentically assess students’ learning outcomes at the study levels of the Bachelor’s degree programme, Master’s degree programme, postgraduate training programme.