Electronic Portfolios and Education: A Different Way to Assess Academic Success

Abstract

The use of electronic portfolios for students as an assessment tool is explored in this chapter. Portfolios have expanded from use in the arts and humanities to the field of education. Teachers, administrators, and students understand the benefits of portfolio assessment. The age of technology has improved the use of portfolio assessment by allowing the portfolio information to be transmitted and shared worldwide. No longer are portfolios limited to the single assessment of one person. Based on the current literature on electronic portfolios, the simplicity of creating electronic portfolios, the efficiency of collecting and organizing massive amounts of work, the ease of worldwide transmission of portfolio material, and the promotion of candidate-centered (student-, teacher-, professor-centered) assessment through the use of e-portfolios, the author hopes to promote the electronic portfolio as a beneficial way for the student, teacher, and professor to highlight their achievements for assessment.