An overview of the work and activities of Eportfolio Ireland (a professional learning community for eportfolio practitioners) over the COVID-19 crisis. We will highlight activities with institutions and organisations, the focus of our webinars, and key features from the The Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning special issue, edited by Eportfolio Ireland.

1. Eportfolio Insights from
Ireland
A brief round up of our eportfolio activities across
Ireland
Eportfolio Ireland professional learning network
https://eportfolioireland.wordpress.com/

2. Eportfolio Ireland

3. February 21 Webinar
Beyond traditional assessment: A Covid createAthon of eportfolio based assessment
Featured an overview of eportfolio, the student experience of eportfolio and two eportfolio
practitioners exploring the design of eportfolio based assessment from the UK (Teresa
McKinnon & Aurelie Soulier)
As part of a collaborative createAthon, participants were invited to design an eportfolio
assessment based on the below considerations:
What is the focus?
Who are your students?
Who will be the audience? Size?
Expected content?
Academic conduct?

5. https://journal.ilta.ie/index.
php/telji/issue/view/12

6. IJTEL Journal – Eportfolio Special Issue
Exploring the potential of digital teaching portfolios to support in/non-formal professional
development for those who teach in Higher Education - Laura Costelloe – Mary Immaculate
College, Limerick
“enormous potential of eportfolios as a tool to support professional learning to enhance
academic practice”“
Portfolio development had stalled following their engagement in either an accredited
programme or awards process indicating the importance of support and scaffolding.
Participants recognised the potential of eportfolios to facilitate the gathering of evidence,
artefacts and reflections over an extended period time
Portfolios offer considerable flexibility in relation to capturing and sharing professional
learning through various mode
Challenge: creation of portfolios is a time consuming task for which support would be
required.

7. IJTEL Journal – Eportfolio Special Issue
Eportfolios as Reflective Assessment of Social Justice – James Gallen - DCU
“explores the potential for eportfolios to contribute to the development of student
critical awareness of social justice“
Reflective eportfolio approach disrupted traditional legal education paradigms
This enabled students to combine their first year of legal education with their own
expression and experience of social justice issues
Encouraged students to see links between course content and contemporary and
unfolding issues of social justice
“The process of assessing these portfolios was radically different and refreshing from
assessing traditional legal assignments. It brought me great joy to see students
meaningfully engage with personal reflection, questions of social justice, and their
preferred use of multimedia technologies as forms of self expression.”
Challenge: Providing more instruction and examplars

8. IJTEL Journal – Eportfolio Special Issue
Lessons from reflective journaling in undergraduate eportfolios – Ruth McManus - DCU
“critically reflects on the use of the ePortfolio as a space for student reflection,
demonstrating its utility as a Teaching and Learning (T&L) tool for both learners and
educators“
Reflective journalling approach across a range of Geography modules.
In some cases, these reflections help to show the ways in which less-academically-able
students have benefitted from their experiencesEncouraged students to see links between
course content and contemporary and unfolding issues of social justice
During lockdown, their journals served an additional purpose, offering a ‘safe space’ for
students to work through their experiences of the pandemic and its impacts on their lives.
“Reflective journaling in an ePortfolio format can offer meaningful benefits to both learners
and educators”
Challenge: Guidelines are suggested to better scaffold reflective journalling

9. Short Report: Hazel Farrell, Waterford
Institute of Technology
Report on the use of e-portfolio as a multifunctional tool for the music degree
programme at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). While the primary purpose
was the use of e-portfolio to create a collaborative yearbook for final year students,
ultimately this expanded into the areas of marketing, recruitment, and staff
professional development as a direct result of dissemination pathways

10. Practice Report – Christine Ziegelbauer,
University of Konstanz
Eportfolio in Teacher Education and Academic Further Education: a new learning
journey experience at the University of Konstanz, Germany
“Working with an eportfolio is an investment in people’s potential. When well
supported and thoughtfully structured, it enables the display of learners’ potential
along side their own personal and professional curriculum”

11. Looking Ahead
Next release of Special Issue articles – August 2021
New steering committee member: Laura Costelloe
New ebook on Eportfolio Assessment in DCU in December
Collaboration with AAEEBL in October
“Unconference for Creating Shared ePortfolio Resources: You shared a lot of great ideas with us
at the AAEEBL Annual meeting and we heard over and over how much you wish we had an
open educational resource repository of resources. So, we are planning unconference
sessions to create just that! This will be an opportunity for you to contribute one of your own
resources or to help develop one (a learning activity, assessment activity, or faculty
development activity). Our plan is to make this a publication opportunity for you as we
develop an ebook! We hope you will join us for our first event in October, co-hosted with
ePortfolio Ireland)!”

12. Many Thanks
https://eportfolioireland.wordpress.com/
@EportfolioIRL