(De)Constructing Student E-Portfolios in Five Questions: Experiences from a Community of Practice

The primary purpose of this lead article in the present volume is to provide the backdrop to the chapters included in the volume and to re-construct the framework, which formed the basis of the work of a Community of Practice (CoP) at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). The CoP looked into the question of how to develop a model for teachers from different disciplines to introduce e-portfolios as an assessment tool into their courses. It finally came up with a criterion-based model (Appendix A) and a suggestion for an assessment rubric (Appendix B) using an inductive method, where members first designed and implemented e-portfolios for their individual courses and brought back these experiences to the discussion table. The paper will discuss the development of this criterion-based model, which is meant to act as a starting point for practitioners and help them to provide their students with a clear set of outcomes for their respective portfolios. At the same time the criteria laid down in the model and the accompanying assessment rubric provide a scaffolding to the practitioners’ existing ideas on the e-portfolios that they would like to have their students create. The criteria are based on a set of key questions that teachers should ask and answer before embarking on the e-portfolio experiment.