This essay discusses my use of an electronic portfolio for educational and professional purposes.

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Using Electronic Portfolios Personally & Professionally
Craig Geffre
Western Oregon University
November 5, 2017

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As work continues to become increasingly digitized and much of what people create
professionally, electronic portfolios have emerged as an excellent way of tracking education,
highlighting work samples, and showing capabilities to employers or clients. These portfolios
have a lot of potential in both educational and professional settings and, in my work, I intend to
make use of an e-Portfolio to help me achieve my personal goals.
An e-Portfolio is a collection of artifacts and can be composed of all different forms of
media, including text, images, and videos, and may be compiled on a website or other digital
format to serve individuals or institutions (Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005). The versatility of
electronic portfolios makes them useful for a broad range of purposes, such as documenting
skills and abilities, personal reflection, professional development, finding a job, and evaluating
progress (Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005). The creator of an e-Portfolio should carefully consider their
own reasons and goals for having a portfolio, as well as who their audience is, which will help
them determine what artifacts to include and how they should be reflected upon and
contextualized (Stuart, 2013).
An important component of electronic portfolios is that they are living documents; they
can be continuously updated and represent both an ongoing process and a product (Barrett,
2010). This lends well to the reflective nature of electronic portfolios. Creators have an
opportunity to critique their own work as well as solicit feedback from others through an e-
Portfolio, much like other forms of social networking (Barrett, 2010). As such, people creating
an electronic portfolio should consider what they also want to communicate about themselves,
including some personal information that informs viewers of who they are and what they want to
accomplish. Barrett (2010) also describes e-Portfolios as a form of storytelling, and creators

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should consider what story they want to tell and how they want to tell it, which will help shape
the artifacts that are chosen for inclusion.
Barrett (2010) describes there being both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for e-
Portfolios, and I certainly see both in my own work. Extrinsically, I need to complete an
electronic portfolio as a graduation requirement for my degree, so that is a strong initial
motivator. Also, as Fowler (2014) notes, simply knowing that I have a degree degree may not be
useful for employers, but being able to see the work that I have done gives a true demonstration
of my performance and skillset that they can use in their evaluations of me as a candidate.
Whatever direction I decide to go in professionally, I hope to be able to use my e-Portfolio
extensively in showing what I can create. By implementing screencasts, videos, and other digital
media, I will be able to demonstrate what I have accomplished through my graduate program and
work, including large projects that exist on course management systems and are not otherwise
shareable.
However, I do not want my use of an electronic portfolio to end with what I have
completed to date, and I have several intrinsic motivators to drive my e-Portfolio forward past
the conclusion of my graduate program. I want the website that I create to be an ongoing project
that I can use to continue to learn and develop, and to be something that I can look to at times
when I need to refocus my attention on the issues that I care about. I also think that how we
present ourselves tends to have a psychological impact on how we see ourselves, and I do not
want my electronic portfolio to slowly fall into being a product of the past. Hopefully this means
that what I create in the coming months will look very different in a few years as I continue to
build, create, reflect, and learn. I want to be the best educator that I can, and that means changing

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and improving as we learn more about what works in the field of educational technology and
what may not be as effective.
Electronic portfolios can be as different as the people who create them, and as I create my
own, I hope to tailor it to my own passions and goals. With the right intentions, I hope to create a
website that I can use to help me graduate, market myself to potential employers, and to write
and reflect on my ongoing story of learning. This means that I while I may be completing a
portfolio for graduation, it will not in fact be complete when my program is over, but will
continue to live and change in the months and years after.

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References
Barrett, H. (2010). Social networks and interactive portfolios: Blurring the boundaries [Video].
TEDxASB. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ckcSegrwjkA
Fowler, M. (2014). The impact of eportfolios in the hiring process [Video]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/szUIAg0Ivxw
Lorenzo, G. & Ittelson, J. (2005). An overview of e-portfolios. Educause Learning Initiative, 1-
27.
Stuart, H. (2013). What is an eportfolio? [Video]. Auburn Writes. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/xvqBORISA5k