Abstract:

Over the last decade, the use of e-portfolios has become an increasingly important component in the delivery of e-learning aims and objectives. For example, Personal Development Planning (PDP) as “a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development” (QAA 2001) has become a required component of a university’s teaching and learning strategy in the UK (Burgess 2007). E-portfolios have become an excellent way of delivering PDP aims and therefore we have extended our Learning Environment to provide e-portfolio tools as part of a departmental response to these requirements.

Most if not all current e-portfolio implementations are web-based applications, either standalone such as PebblePad, developed by Pebble Learning in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton in the UK, or integrated within a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) such as the Blackboard Portfolio System. Often these are referred to as “Web-folios” since their delivery is HTML based. The problem with the Web-folio model is the limited scope for creative design of the portfolio interface itself. For many types of portfolio user this may be unimportant. However, in the production of portfolios for the creative industries e.g. within digital photography, multimedia, fine art, architecture etc, this limitation becomes a severe handicap. We have tried to address this by developing within our VLE support for highly interactive digital portfolios which we call “Flash-folios” that have been created with Adobe Flash.
Our VLE is a Learning Management Portal System (LMPS) based on Microsoft’s SharePoint technology customized with web parts programmed in C# which are the building blocks that allow the user interface to be easily customized and support integration with management databases (a key feature). Because SharePoint supports many of the Web 2.0 features we wanted to include, such as collaborative spaces, discussion tools, publishing tools, RSS feeds, blogs, wikis, document management, workflow and access control, it was an ideal foundation for the development of the LMPS.

A new Flash-Player web-part was programmed in C# to allow seamless integration with users’ Flash applications which are uploaded into the VLE’s content management database. A portfolio blog within the LMPS allows the student to document the development process. The use of Flash-folios gives the student the creative power to develop an innovative interface whilst still integrating their work within the e-Portfolio framework provided by our LMPS. The Flash-folio model gives the student great flexibility when choosing how to present material and allows a great degree of design freedom. With Adobe Flash a core element of a number of our degree programs, most students are well grounded in this product and able to deliver a professional-level portfolio whether for assessment or as part of a showcase of work.

References:
Burgess (2007), Beyond the honours degree classification - The Burgess Group final report, at http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Bookshop/Documents/Burgess_final.pdf
QAA (2001). Guidelines for HE Progress Files, at http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/progressfiles/guidelines/progfile2001.pdf

Keywords:

portal, e-learning, sharepoint, eportfolio, flash.