The document summarizes research conducted on the implementation of ePortfolios in the Bachelor of Nursing program at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. The research found that both staff and students found ePortfolios to be an efficient tool, but that more support, dedicated staff resources, and feedback were needed. It recommends extending the use of ePortfolios to other programs, promoting their use within and beyond the institution, and further research on graduates' ongoing use of ePortfolios after graduation to evidence their practice.
5. 2017
• Staff are proficient
• Staff find it quick and
efficient to use
• High level of acceptability
• ‘No going back’
6.
7. Research Recommendation
• More support to staff and
students
– Created a moodle book with
portfolio resources, a Q and
A forum, and other relevant
information
16. Ongoing use research
• Sharing with an employer
• ePortfolios on the national
nursing agenda
• Better connect ePortfolios
with national RN
competencies
17. 2018
• Peer support – Pathbrite
Student Champions
• Further research
• Working with our clinical
partners
• Explore extended transcripts
ePortfolios were implemented into the Bachelor of Nursing programme at Otago Polytechnic in 2015. The School of Nursing was the first school in the institution to fully integrate an eportfolio into their learning programme.
Pathbrite was the chosen platform
The Bachelor of Nursing programme is a competency based programme. The learning outcomes are based around the competencies for Registered Nurses as outlined by The New Zealand Nursing Council.
Compiling a portfolio to evidence competency based practice has been in nursing and therefore in nursing education for decades
During the implementation of the programme, a research project was conducted using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design.
I presented on the results of this research at this forum last year.
If we hadn’t conducted this research, we wouldn’t be in a position where we can plan for the future use of the platform using robust evidence.
We are now in the third year of using an ePortfolio.
What is happening now is that staff have become more proficient, staff (now that they are used to it) find it quick and efficient to use, there is a very high level of acceptability, staff constantly report that there is ‘no going back to paper portfolios’. In fact, paper portfolios aren’t entering staff minds anymore.
So here we are, towards the end of the third year of using ePortfolios, everyone using it happily. But the question I have been asking myself this year is, where to next? How do we continue on this ePortfolio journey ?
Initially, myself and a small team got together to look at where we were at, and where we could take our use of the platform.
We initially looked at the recommendations from the research project.
One recommendation was to give more support to staff and students. One way of addressing this was that we created a moodle book with portfolio resources, a Q and A forum, and other relevant information
One of the key findings of the research was that having someone in the dept to troubleshoot any issues was invaluable. Discussions with management to secure this resource is ongoing…..
One of the major research findings was that students wanted more feedback on their work in the portfolios. This finding was fed back to staff, and demonstrations were given on the use of the many feedback tools within the platform
Extending the capability of staff and students to make the most of the platform has been the most challenging recommendation to implement, and one that we are continuing to work on.
We especially see this as important in our institution as we believe that if more staff and students are using it, then we are in a better position to become more proficient and therefore more capable of ensuring students learning is maximised.
Within the School of Nursing we have recently extended the use of ePortfolios to our enrolled nursing programme and we are also planning on using ePortfolios for our competency assessment programme students (international students and return to nursing students)
Other schools within Otago Polytechnic are also now taking the lead from the School of Nursing and implementing ePortfolios into their programmes
It is an ongoing hope for us that students will continue to use an ePortfolio platform to evidence their practice when they graduate.
We conducted a small research project into this in late 2016
Only 30% of respondents had utilised the function in Pathbrite that we had set up for them to use over their entire programme. The point of this was that as well as having the individual course portfolios, they would also have one, very individualised, Bachelor of Nursing portfolio that would reflect their 3 years.
From this finding, we knew we needed to develop something better for students to work on over the three years of their degree
We developed the personal portfolios and the responsibility and ownership is on the students to develop these.
Initial feedback is positive and a number of students in year 1 have commenced these.
Other results of this very small piece of research was that none of the respondents had shared a portfolio with a potential employer, but most of the respondents want to in the future.
Other comments included ensuring ePortfolios are on the national nursing agenda and to connect them better with the RN competencies for RNs
Planning has commenced already for 2018 where we look to continue to extend ourselves, and the use of the platform, while being student centred
Some of the extensions we are look at in 2018 are to provide peer support through introducing Pathbrite student champions
Commence further research on whether or not students will continue to use an ePortfolio (currently RN practice doesn’t allow for an ePortfolio to evidence practice and paper portfolios are still used. But that is a whole other story). So this involves working with our clinical partners
Investigate imbedding extended transcripts
Pathbrite has a number of features that we aren’t using yet, that we aim to explore in 2018
These include better utilising their reflection function, showcasing function, and badging
So overall, when looking at where to next for ePortfolios, we are progressing with some things, and we are just starting with others.
I feel that we are just the tip of the iceberg in our ePortfolio journey, and that we have a long way to go to maximise the platforms potential, staffs potential and therefore the students potential.
We also are facing a curriculum review, and this is also an opportunity to fully utilise ePortfolios in their potential to maximise learning opportunities for the students.