One small step for man

The e-portfolio technology:Information gathered from these students demonstrated that their experience had been influenced disproportionately by the technology used. Many students had problems with the e-portfolio software. Issues ranged from “lack of functionality” to “being too complicated”. One of the biggest complaints was the amount of time it took to (a) learn how to use the system and (b) the amount of time they spent trying to customise the e-portfolio due to its limited functionality.

For instance, many students who created e-portfolios either believed the systems did not have the functionality to make items public or private, or indeed the system actually was not able to do this. Therefore, for most students everything was public to the rest of the course and the instructor leading to concern over the visual appearance of their e-portfolio. This focused the students’ attention onto improving appearance over content. As one student noted, “If this is my e-portfolio that everyone can see then I want it to look good and to represent me”. The consequence of this challenge was that many students spent more time battling with the technology trying to customise their e-portfolios than actually using it for its intended purpose. As some students astutely observed,

I wonder that although the web site does start to look better the more time we spend on them, what about the content? Sometimes it seems like people spend more time making it look pretty rather than working on the reflection behind it .
Once you get into the e-portfolio, the more you use it and the more you come back to it, you grow more and more dissatisfied with it – you want to find ways to make it better.
Confidentiality is a concern – is there a way to publish it and control access?
Only having one view is really frustrating and stressful as we need to create our best one as everyone can see it .
Have good access control would increase my motivation to work on it.

Figure 5 : Barriers found when using the e-portfolio

These comments reflect the need to provide clear guidelines about how the e-portfolios will be assessed, that it is content and not “look and feel” that matters. This also reinforces that technology is being used for a purpose (to enhance learning), rather than just for technology’s sake (McNeely, 2005).

When the students were asked what barriers they faced when using the e-portfolio they clearly highlighted the e-portfolio system itself as being the most significant (Figure 5). The biggest technology-related problems reported included: lack of control; lack of features, and the previously mentioned lack of access or permission controls.