Four Salt Lake Community College students proved that an outstanding ePortfolio can pay dividends earlier this week at the 6th Annual ePortfolio Showcase.
The showcase celebrated SLCC students who went above and beyond in their learning. Each student received a framed certificate of recognition and a full tuition waiver for spring semester.
Creating a strong ePortfolio also allowed these award-winning students to reflect on their hard work in a more meaningful way.
“Without this, our grades and everything we are just ends as a transcript,” says award winner Jesus Gomez. “With an ePortfolio we get to see what we actually went through.”
While student sentiments range from ambivalence to outright disdain for this general education requirement, ePortfolios act as an archive of academic achievement and a way to measure one’s progress.
Professors will often look at a student’s ePortfolio when considering a letter of recommendation, and in some cases, a detailed ePortfolio can set a resume apart for potential employers.
It’s a work of self-reflection that becomes more robust with each new experience.
“The interesting thing about an ePortfolio is that it spends it’s entire life under construction,” says David Hubert, Interim Provost of Learning Advancement. “Each portfolio evolves as its owner has new experiences.”
Managing an ePortfolio is an intensely reflective process which helps develop self-awareness.
Students can also share what they do outside the classroom, as some of those activities are not fully realized until filtered through the prism of academia.
“I love baking and cooking! I had no idea until I started my Introduction to Writing class that I would enjoy doing it so much,” says showcase winner Luciana Salmi. “I think my husband enjoys it a lot too — he’s always asking for more.”
Because of the ePortfolio, these students walk away with free tuition for a semester and a tangible representation of how far they have come.
