High-Impact Practice: ePortfolios

Digital portfolios, or ePortfolios, are listed by AAC&U as a high-impact practice. Students can use ePortfolios to gather work they have completed throughout their college career, reflect on their learning and growth, and share artifacts with professors and potential employers--and faculty can utilize them to assess student learning. Research suggests that effective utilization of ePortfolios can impact student learning and improve retention and graduation rates.

Resources

• AAC&U's ePortfolios: Describes the value of ePortfolios and provides links to additional resources, including the peer-reviewed International Journal of ePortfolio.
• ePortfolios Explained: Theory and Practice: A University of Waterloo site that explains the learning theory behind ePortfolios, describes the various types of ePortfolios, and walks through best practices for using ePortfolios in the classroom.
• Publications on ePortfolios: Archives of the Research Landscape (PEARL): An AAC&U database of peer-reviewed journal articles that focus on ePortfolios.
• The Complete Guide to Student Digital Portfolios: Outlines the benefits of digital portfolios and provides steps for designing portfolios, choosing artifacts to be included, using portfolios to assess student learning, and providing feedback to students.
• Personal Archives for Learning (ePortfolios) Insights for Curriculum Development and Assessment: A site developed by David Stoloff for a spring 2024 Teaching & Learning Conversation. Includes links to research on using digital portfolios for assessment, other COPLAC institutions that utilize ePortfolios for assessment, 
• High-Impact ePortfolio Practice: A Catalyst for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning: Written by Bret Eynon and Laura M. Gambino (2017), this book describes how to incorporate digital portfolios as a high-impact practice to improve student learning and includes data, case studies, and implementation strategies. The book is available to borrow from the CTLA Lending Library (ask for book #24).