Emmayayaaa’s Blog

After plenty of research I have been able to come up with a personal definition of what a learning portfolio is. This blog will include my own definition of a learning portfolio, its functions, the benefits of using a learning portfolio and examples from online journal articles which in turn demonstrate the changes and benefits of using a learning portfolio.

Learning Portfolio Personal Definition:

A learning portfolio is a collection of a persons/students work (whether that work includes assignments or activities completed in class) which can be used to demonstrate the students progress throughout the semester and help the students teacher to evaluate their work. A learning portfolio acts as a personal resume.

Learning Portfolio Functions and Benefits:

“The management of portfolios is a means of accumulating student assignments in an organised manner. Such assignments can demonstrate and elucidate the learning processes of a particular student” (Liu, Lin & Yuan, 2001).

For example if I, a university student, want to create a portfolio – the portfolio allows me to collect, upload and arrange my accomplishments I have achieved throughout the years that I have attended at Edith Cowan University.

-Learning portfolios can also be published on the internet for me to share with me friends and family.

- Can highlight my progress and work in a particular class, unit or course.

- The learning portfolio can be used to display my work, results and achievements to possible future employees or universities.

- Can display images in a slide show of my work eg. Art students

The function of a learning portfolio is to record the progress of a students learning, thus which helps the student to go through their work to acknowledge, self analyse and understand their progress. A student learning portfolio also functions as an aid for teachers, to follow the progress and quality of work from their students and give feedback accordingly.

Listed below are some of the 11 functions and benefits provided for the use of teachers and students are briefly described by Eric Zhi-Feng Liu:

“Group compositions. There is a friendly interface that allows the teacher to automatically assign students into different heterogeneous groups based on grades or other characteristics. The teacher can also adjust the group members based on his or her experiences.”

This concept is great and will be rewarding for all students and teachers, as it will increase better teamwork skills and will therefore result in higher grades and a higher average score in the class.

“From the perspective of cooperative learning, the use of an efficient grouping technique may guarantee a good start to cooperation among students, but it does not guarantee superior group outcomes. In order to promote a positive independence among group members, it is still essential for teachers to focus on social-skill training, group task selection, and classroom management” (Johnson & Johnson, 1994).

Although the Learning Portfolio functions are beneficial, it is not the answer for everything. Teachers must still acknowledge the concept of teaching to the entire class as a whole to encourage social skills and behaviour involved in team work.

“Uploading assignments. Students are required to upload their personal or group based assignments on time; the system closes the upload function at the preset time determined by the teacher.”

An efficient concept, one that is used at Edith Cowan University, which encourages efficiency and time management among students which in turn will provide beneficial life skills for students in the future.

“Student assessment. Students can be asked to review, provide suggestions for and grade the anonymous assignments dispatched by the system before a given deadline”.

This concept is useful as students themselves can edit and help each other which – if all students are having difficulty then they can all work together to create a better outcome and result for themselves.

Eric Zhi-Feng Liu study included 58 sophomores using a learning portfolio, out of the 58 who participated, the results were that over 80% of students agreed that the functions of the learning portfolio and system was efficient and helped them with their studies and learning outcomes. The teacher of the 58 students agreed that the learning portfolio function enabled him to browse student assignments in an organized manner and to effortlessly write a private feedback to students.

References:

Liu, E. Z. F., Lin, S. S. J. & Yuan, S. M. (2001). Design of a networked portfolio system. British Journal of Educational Technology, 32, 4, 492–494.

Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1994). Learning together and alone: cooperative, competitive and individualistic learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Zhi-Feng Liu, E (2007). Developing a personal and group-based learning portfolio system. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38, 6, 1117-1121.