Attending school, achieving excellent grades, and obtaining a degree has long been seen as the traditional route to securing a successful career. This well-established pathway used to be the golden ticket for every student. However, while it may serve as a motivation to pursue education, the traditional classroom setting often falls short in terms of engagement and support.
Regrettably, this has resulted in numerous students skipping classes and becoming disconnected from the learning process. Even experienced professors can only ensure student success by implementing strategies and utilizing tools that foster a meaningful and impactful classroom experience.
Why ePortfolio Pedagogy and Tools Are Important for Student Engagement
The pandemic recently confronted the world, shutting down many aspects of our lives. The unusual circumstances of this dreaded time redefined our realities in many ways. Schools quickly shifted to remote learning, and in-person activities abruptly stopped.
The isolation meant instructors had to seek the learning experiences they previously offered students. While various platforms like Zoom and Google Classroom made online classes possible, there was a lingering cause for concern among instructors.
Alexandra Della Fera, Associate Professor of English at Passaic Community College, suggested ePortfolios as the coup de grace for keeping students engaged during online classes.
In her quest to get the best ePortfolio platform, she found Digication’s ePortfolio to be the most suitable.
Not only did she have to prove the efficacy of this tool for student engagement, but she also had to convince other faculty members of its value in various disciplines.
Although she worried about the outcome of this new ePortfolio expedition, her passion and positivity led the way. Once she rolled out her strategy for using ePortfolio in her online classes, the outcome convinced her she wasn’t wrong about the choice. The students loved it; other school staff and faculty members tapped into her success.
Faithful to Alex’s testimony in this episode of Digication Scholar Conversations, the benefits of ePortfolio are not limited to listing out your academic credentials. It helps students to learn more about themselves beyond the classroom.
The instructor gets to know their students while students see their instructor beyond the curriculum, establishing stronger relationships that foster deeper learning and increased motivation. Peers can also share their ePortfolios and learn from one another’s experiences and goals.
Permission to submit works to assignments grants the student a chance to give feedback to the instructor about the learning process. The instructors get to know each student’s unique academic needs and where/how to help. No wonder ePortfolios are now considered a high-impact practice.
Different Platforms Have Different Purposes
While the ePortfolio tool utilization focuses on student engagement and motivation, Alex quickly shares with her students that it wouldn’t fit in the space of the typical social media platforms.
While some students might want to elevate their social lives above all else, Alex found it helpful to educate students on best practices in creating digital personas while considering the context of the ePortfolios and its intended audience.
The ePortfolio is the student’s chance to promote their learning and achievements and get feedback.
Through ePortfolio, students can view, make comments, and connect. They can discover more about their peers and find common ground by sharing experiences in and outside the classroom.
They can even add links to blogs or YouTube Channels. Students have fun and get creative when personalizing their digital portfolios while keeping the content more thoughtful and impactful than typical social media posts.
Want to know more? Listen to Alex’s first-hand account of how Digication’s ePortfolio helped turn a potentially unconnected online class into a highly engaging learning opportunity on this episode of Digication Scholar Conversations.