Developing an Information System for E-Portfolio Based Knowledge Generation and Sharing in Teacher Education Mariamma Mathew, Thomas Uzhuvath, Tony Cherian and Aswathy G. Peet Memorial Training College, Mavelikara, Kerala State, India Abstract This project, which aims to develop a professional portfolio for teacher educators and student teachers, is in its budding stage. The focus is to develop a Learning Management System with many of the social networking features.Student teachers can upload products including My Teaching Philosophy, Reflective Journal, Lesson Plans, Teaching Video and Photos in addition to detailed personal and academic profiles,.Every product is uploaded with a reflective note and there is a provision for comments and feedback. A major feature is to make performance assessment strategies as an integral part of the portfolio system. The self,peer, and mentor assessmentsare carried out using rubrics. Login to the system is also allowed for educational institutions, employers and guests and the public. It is expected that the system works as an effective tool for engaging student teachers and teacher educators to create and share a pool of pedagogical knowledge.

1. Developing an Information System for
E-Portfolio Based Knowledge Generation and
Sharing in Teacher Education
Dr. Mariamma Mathew
Associate Professor
Peet Memorial Training College,
Mavelikara, Kerala
India

2. Problem scenario
India is the largest producer of teachers at all levels, but we lack competency in the
field of technology and hence lag behind all developed countries.
Need of the hour in education sector of India is more professionally developed
teachers in all fields.
Eportfolio is widely used as a tool to track the professional development of a
person by himself.
An effort is taken to put together the professional e portfolios and knowledge
contained in it, thus creating a knowledge database or something even bigger.

3. Proposed system
 This eportfolio system has been developed by Peet Memorial Training College,
Mavelikara, Kerala
 It is a major research project funded by the University Grants Commission(UGC)
 Our project visualizes a wide platform for professional eportfolios of individuals
in a collective form.
 It is an online database of e-portfolios for sharing of knowledge and self
evaluation.

4. System components
 Student teacher portfolio- Student teachers and teacher educators have to upload artifacts
including project/ practicum, philosophy of teaching, lesson plans, teaching videos,
reflective journals and so on.
 Evaluation and assessment- These showcased artifacts will be assessed under the
guidance of teacher educators using evaluation rubrics.
 Professional development and employment- Employers can recruit teachers by viewing
their authentic and genuine works included in their portfolio.
 Information system- Thus a knowledge base is created and retrieval of information can be
done effectively.

5. Stages of development
Stage 1- background study, fixing of stake holders, identifying portfolio contents, nature
of assessment, software platform study(4 months).
Stage 2- An experimental portfolio system is developed for 150 student teachers of
Peet Memorial college and teacher educators from all the participating colleges (12
months).
Stage 3- System feedback and rectification(8 months).
Stage 4- Ten participating colleges will be included in the portfolio system and together it
becomes an integrated knowledge system(12 months).

6. Pilot workshop
• A one day workshop was conducted in which teacher educators from various colleges
participated and assessment rubrics were developed.
• Decisions were also made on the portfolio contents and stakeholders.

7. Student teacher portfolio
Portfolio contents
Personal details including resume
2. Professional works : Project/practicum
 Teaching philosophy.
 Reflective journal
 Lesson plans
 Teaching video/ audio files
 Creative works
Note: Those works in blue ink are to be evaluated.
1.

8. Reflective practice in the portfolio
• Reflection is a major factor in the entire portfolio system.
• Student teachers are requested to add a reflection on every work uploaded on the
portfolio
• Apart from this there will be a separate reflective journal during practice teaching.
• Commenting is allowed for the reflective journal entry.

9. Reflection is practiced in the following components
• My teaching philosophy
• Project/ practicum
• Lesson plan
• Creative works
• Reflective journal

10. Professional development through interaction
 Professional interaction is a major aspect of this portfolio.
 Major types of interactions are :-
• Student teacher- Teacher educator
• Teacher educator - Teacher educator
• Student teacher- peer
• Student teacher- content
• Student teacher-community
Interactions are made possible through comments, feedback, messages

11. 3 levels of assessment
• Self assessment
• Peer assessment
• Teacher educator assessment
All assessment practices are rubrics based

12. Assessment by teacher educators
 Teacher educators from various participating colleges are assigned to evaluate the
works of student teachers.
 Student teachers can re submit their works after receiving feed back from the experts.
 Re submission is allowed only once.
 Again the teacher experts will evaluate the re submitted works.
 Grading will be done on the basis of the three levels of assessment

13. Professional development and employment
• Evaluated works of the student teachers will be open to employers.
• Accounts will be provided for recruiting institutions to view the portfolios of student
teachers and they can select suitable candidates.
• The opportunities of professional development of the student teachers will be
enhanced.

14. Information system
 The collective portfolio system thus acts as an information system.
 Retrieval of information can be done through advanced search techniques.
 A knowledge base for effective retrieval is thus created.
 Keyword searching is possible for all fields.

15. Overall purpose
 To showcase the works and reflections of student teachers.
 To evaluate the works by teacher educators based on the evaluation rubrics.
 To give proper feedback to the student teachers.
 To act as an online resume.
 To act as a recruiting platform.
 To enable social networking with other users.
 Thus to improve the technological skills of the education professionals.

16. System features
Combines..
Social networking site (interactivity)
+
Job site
+
Professional development site (knowledge sharing)

17. Privacy policy
• Personal details of the students will be viewed by teacher educators and administrator.
• Employers can view personal details of the student teacher on request to the
administrator (only with the permission of student teachers).

18. Copyright policy
• We encourage open content licensing.
• Made sure that the works uploaded are not pirated or copied from any other source.
• All the works uploaded, including video can be used for teaching and learning.
• Proper references must be given for the use.

19. Software options
We have different options in choosing the software
• Using Mahara
• By combining Mahara and Moodle.
• By developing a software based on our needs
• By opting a proprietary software.

20. Concluding..
 The eportfolio is an extremely powerful programmatic assessment instrument because it
contains student-created artifacts for examination.
 Self-reflection is an important component of electronic portfolio development.
 If you do not require participants to self-reflect on the artifacts they add to the portfolio, they
will not gain from the rich learning experience that e-portfolio development can provide.