This document provides guidance on developing an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) to showcase teaching performance. It discusses that a teaching portfolio is a collection of materials that document teaching performance, serving the same purpose for teaching as publications and honors do for research. An ePortfolio acts as a repository for multimedia artifacts to demonstrate skills, education, professional development, and benefits to selected audiences. It can be used for both developmental reflection and evaluation. The document recommends including statements of teaching philosophy, performance and effectiveness, planning and preparation, student assessment and learning, and professional development. It also provides questions to consider regarding purpose, audience, and types of evidence to include.

1. Developing an
ePortfolio
Dr Nicola Pallitt

2. Teaching portfolio
“It is a collection of materials that document teaching
performance. The portfolio is to teaching what lists of
publications, grants and honours are to research and
scholarship” (Seldin, 2004: 3).
 Portfolio should be inward-looking (reflective) as well as forward-
looking (progressive)
 Aim is to record professional development and engage in reflective
practice
 2 purposes according to Mues & Sorcinelli (2000):
 A developmental process for reflecting on and improving one’s
teaching;
 An evaluative product for personnel decisions such as tenure,
promotion, or a teaching award.
 … so it is formative + summative

3. Preparing a teaching portfolio:
What gets included?
 1. Statement of Teaching Philosophy
 2. Teaching Performance and Effectiveness
 3. Planning and Preparation
 4. Assessment and Examination of Student
Learning
 5. Professional Development: Past, Present and
Future
 Source (good questions & discussion that
scaffolds writing about these aspects):
http://www3.ul.ie/ctl/sites/default/files/Preparing%20your%
20Teaching%20Portfolio%202012.pdf

4. ePortfolio
 A cohesive, powerful, and well-designed collection of
electronic documents that demonstrate skills,
education, professional development, and the
benefits to a selected audience.
 Acts as a repository of multimedia artefacts/not only
for personal record but also as a showcase for other
teachers/potential future employers.

11. eflection
 Reflecting using affordances of digital media
 Artefacts for supported reflection – documents,
videos, photos (ethics?)
 Artefacts differ between teaching portfolio &
ePortfolio: some evidence you can’t use online?
Student work, etc. Permission enough?
 Reflection: “deliberate and mindful thinking about
one’s experiences and the self-evaluation of feelings,
decisions, understandings and actions, which may
lead to development of professional learning for
professional practice” (Hegarty 2011)

16. Some questions to consider
when planning your ePortolio:
1) What is your primary purpose in creating the
portfolio?
2) Who are your primary readers?
3) What evidence will they expect to find?
4) What types of evidence will be most convincing to
those readers?
5) Who will you ask for what information?

17. 4 Guiding principles

18. Audience
 Teaching portfolio:
 Hardcopy document for self, internal & external
review, etc.
 Inward-facing
 ePortfolio:
 Public-facing, online and anyone can see it
 Particular audiences: students, fellow colleagues
at the same or other institutions, faculty
 ‘Stumble-upons’ – people who found your site by
accident, share your research interests
 … but your main audience is usually yourself in the
beginning. This is OKAY.

19. Exercise: Reflecting on
purpose and audience
 What is your main purpose in creating this portfolio?
 What basic argument about your teaching (and
research) will you make, and why?
 Who are the primary readers? What do you know about
their beliefs about good teaching and/research?
 Are their beliefs consistent with your own?
 What types of evidence of teaching effectiveness will be
most convincing to these readers?
 What evidence will they expect to find?

22. Enter Social Media…
 More options available – linking,
embedding, etc.
 Link to your academic-related Social
Media profiles and vice-versa eg. link
to Twitter, Academia.edu and LinkedIn
on your WordPress blog (ePortfolio) and
to your ePortfolio on your LinkedIn
page
 Maintain these channels and consider
consistency of information