E-Portfolios as a Technology-Enabled Assessment: Surviving or Accommodating Covid-19

During the pandemic, e-learning has become a new normal. Despite extensive research into e-learning, not much has been done to understand how e-assessment influences second language teaching and learning. Hence, we aim to explore the extent to which electronic portfolios, also known as e-Portfolios, may become an up-and-coming model of e-assessment in Hong Kong schools. In this chapter, e-Portfolios refer to a digital dossier used by students to compile learning evidence reflectively and by teachers as a pedagogical approach for instruction and evaluation. We first present a tripartite framework comprising socio-constructivism, assessment for learning, and assessment as learning. We then discuss the attributes, systems, types, benefits, and limitations of e-Portfolio assessment. Afterwards, we depict two classroom vignettes regarding how two secondary-level teachers tried out e-Portfolio assessment, and evaluate whether their applications have survived or accommodated incessant class suspension. Lastly, we reflect on the post-pandemic lessons learnt from the vignettes.