Promoting Social Learning in Higher Education: A Case Study of Ph.D. E-Portfolios

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter of the book, e-Learning Engagement in a Transformative Social Learning Environment is to provide educators with a case study of the evolution of student portfolios from fifty years ago to present time in higher education settings. The chapter focuses on the experiences and changes adapted by educators over time to accommodate the interests and needs of students as well as to incorporate contemporary technology formats to pedagogically sound constructivist approaches that promote authentic individual student reflections and sustained social interactions in ever-changing educational settings. The theoretical framework of this chapter consists of a synthesis of key components of social learning advanced by Vygotsky, constructivist principles promulgated by Dewey, and reflective practices advocated by Bandura.

This chapter includes a personal narrative by an experienced educator who has used various forms of student-centered portfolios in numerous courses at higher education institutions since the 1970s. At that early stage of portfolio development, educators began discussing and demonstrating the use of specific student course portfolios at conferences and workshops throughout the United States. They advocated that employing such student-centered activities results in improvement in both interpersonal and intrapersonal communications because when students and teachers express background information about themselves and their personal values as they begin to create an authentic community of learners who understand and genuinely care for each other (Polka, 2002).

This chapter also explores the impact of improvements in technology which resulted in the second-generation of more sophisticated digital portfolios that extended the capability of this student-centered approach to better capture and document student and group learning. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, student portfolios began to include various digital images and artifacts as technology became more ubiquitous and more user-friendly as documented in a 2011 research study at the case study institution (Polka, Latorre, & Rossi, 2013). Digital portfolios became more popular in education as the processing and storage power of computers increased and so did the digital mindset of higher education students. Educators recognized the expanded opportunities and short-term as well as long-term value that digitized portfolios provided to the learning process for individual and group evaluations as well as supports for increased structured social learning in classrooms and for program assessments.

The current applications in the evolution of the student-centered portfolio are also presented in this chapter as reflected in a recent research conducted about the existing digital portfolio requirements at the case study site. The changes in experiences and applications of portfolios highlight the comprehensive capacity of e-portfolios to provide extensive documentation, retrieval, and presentation assistance to advanced higher education students in order to demonstrate their evidence of competencies to embark on their own research agendas and analyze information. This e-portfolio stage is marked by an increase in both the personal recognition of the intrinsic learning value of the portfolio product as well as the extrinsic social learning benefits associated with the process of developing, displaying, and sustaining e-portfolios by both students and professors.

The research conducted at the end of April, 2021 at the case study site elicited the perceptions and experiences of Ph.D. students who completed their program of studies or are currently progressing in their program of studies. The results of this study are used by the researchers to highlight the current social learning and self-reflective advantages of e-portfolios and to recommend future projections for their use of e-portfolios as key individual and social learning tools in the continued transformation of teaching and learning in our global village.