Choosing an ePortfolio

A guide for choosing technology tools at USask

Sharing collections of student work in an ePortfolio has three key purposes:

  • Helping students reflect on what they have learned through a body of work.
  • Allowing peers, instructors, or preceptors to provide feedback on and/or a body of work.
  • Helping a student showcase the competencies they have for an audience, including prospective employers, community groups, or a wider audience.

Why you should give students choice in which platform they use:

  • There may be one that students are already familiar with, reducing the learning curve.
  • They may already be using one for another class.
  • Students will have a greater opportunity to create and maintain a portfolio that best showcases their individual growth.

Possible options at USask

USask has no single tool designed to do all the key functions of an ePortfolio; although Mahara is the most fully-featured tool and is the recommendation in many use cases. 

Educators and students can pick the best tool based on its functionality. There are four options to consider. Watch the short video on each to get details on what each tool is designed to do well, or doesn't focus on. 

 

Tool
Key Uses
Resource

Mahara
  • Showcasing evidence of learning and growth, particularly across a program or several courses. 
  • Creating a template portfolio to share with learners to support their use of Mahara. 
  • Sharing a variety of artifact types, including text, images, files, embedded videos, etc.  
  • Adding narrative elements alongside artifacts. 
  • Sharing portfolios with peers, instructors, and external partners.  
  • Connecting pages and artifacts to learning outcomes and/or competencies. 
  • Designed as a portfolio tool.
image/video link for Mahara
Video Overview

OneNote
  • Organizing a variety of file types
  • Inline annotation within pages
  • Sharing of notebooks within USask and outside (e.g. with an internship supervisor)
  • Designed for note taking and resource curation
image/video link for OneNote
Video Overview

Portfolium
(Folio in Canvas)

 
  • Can be accessed directly through Canvas (Folio) or on the Portfolium site
  • Create a professional looking portfolio
  • Organizing a variety of file types
  • Sharing of private pages within USask and outside (e.g. with an internship supervisor)
  • Create a portfolio that students may retain access to beyond their time at USask (including the ability to export it for use on another WordPress site)
  • Can be used for group projects (shared across individual student portfolios)
  • Designed to be used as a Portfolio tool

image/video link for Portfolium

Video Overview

WordPress
  • Create a professional looking portfolio
  • Organizing a variety of file types
  • Sharing of public and private sites within USask and outside (e.g. with an internship supervisor)
  • Create a portfolio that students may retain access to beyond their time at USask (including the ability to export it for use on another WordPress site)
  • Designed to be used for blogging and website creation so provides an ideal space for detailed student reflections

image/video link for WordPress

Video Overview