This last summer, students’ enrolled in general education classes at SLCC began working on their ePortfolio, an online portfolio that some professors have been using for over three years.
Many students are comparing the ePortfolio to a “senior project” and don’t see the importance in creating an online portfolio for their work.
“I don’t think we should be forced to create a web page that we all know we will never come back to after SLCC,” said SLCC student Carrie Framton.
The ePortfolio is not a new concept. Colleges and universities all over the country have been implementing the portfolio in the major curriculum or as a general education assignment. LaGuardia Community College in New York is one school that has been doing the portfolio for nine years.
Every college in the state is experimenting with the portfolio but SLCC is ahead of the curve. The hope is that the portfolio will be continued when the student transfers to a four-year college, such as the University of Utah. SLCC has begun working closer with the U of U because of the higher transfer rate to that university than any other in the state.
Professors plan to have student’s start the portfolio when they first begin classes at SLCC and build it each semester.
When creating the portfolio, students will be asked to upload certain assignments to the site they created, on either WordPress.com, Weebly.com, or Yola.com, and write a reflection piece on the assignment.
“[This is designed] to help engage students in the work they are doing and think about general education in a constructive way,” said David Hubert, a general education professor at SLCC.
Students are not required to complete the ePortfolio to graduate and general education professors are allowed to use their discretion when putting weight on the assignments linked to ePortfolio.
Sites such as Blogger.com and Blogdrive.com cannot be used to create the ePortfolio because they don’t allow the student to organize the pages the way they want. WordPress, Weebly, and Yola are three sites that have been approved and are being encouraged but students may also use Google Sites and iWeb pages.
There are many ways to get help setting up the ePortfolio. Workshops were held during the first three weeks of summer term in the Learning Center as well as the different campus libraries and will be held again once fall semester starts. Students may go into the Learning Centers and libraries any time to ask for additional, one-on-one help. Sites have also been set up on each of the three hosting sites, explaining step-by-step how to set up the ePortfolio. There has even been a one-credit class, LE 1000, created specifically for setting up the ePortfolio and also focuses on reflective writing.
More information on the ePortfolio, as well as a link to download the ePortfolio brochure, visit http://www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio/Students.asp.