Internet and Higher Education 11 (2008) 194–200

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Internet and Higher Education

Preservice teachers' learning experiences of constructing e-portfolios online

Qiuyun Lin ⁎Department of Childhood Education, Plattsburgh State University, 101 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, United States

⁎ Tel.: +1 518 564 5126; fax: +1 518 564 2149.E-mail address: qlin001@plattsburgh.edu.

1096-7516/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Alldoi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.07.002

a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

This one-year case study re Accepted 21 July 2008

Keywords:Web-based electronic portfoliosLearning experiencesPreservice teachers

ports on the effectiveness and value of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) fromthe preservice teachers' perspectives. Using surveys and selected interviews, the study explored how 38preservice teachers' understanding of the e-portfolios evolved as they completed their elementary teachereducation program. Respondents reported that, after using the e-portfolios, they were stimulated to engagein reflective practices, to develop effective learning strategies, and to gain as well as review technology skills.Respondents also indicated frustrations and challenges involved when creating their first e-portfolios.Implications regarding the findings are discussed.

© 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of examples of learning that

provides evidence of someone's knowledge, skills, and dispositions(Sherry & Bartlett, 2005). The arrangement of the portfolio may varyfrom a dossier to a reflective one. The latter is considered to besupportive of learning because it includes self-evaluation of collectedevidence, reflective commentaries on entries and appraisal ofprospective learning activities (Struyven, Dochy, & Janssens, 2005).With an increase of focus on performance standards and student-centered classrooms (American Association of State Colleges andUniversities, 2007), the portfolio becomes a natural part of theteaching and learning process (Johnson, Mims, & Doyle-Nichols,2006).

In this information age, as the teaching and learning process canbe affected by the technology available, the portfolio has grownand changed to utilize that technology (Penny & Kinslow, 2006).An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) simply means that the portfoliois technology-based. E-portfolios have advantages over hard copyportfolios by being easily accessible, having the capability to storemultiplemedia, being easy to upgrade, and allowing cross-referencingof student work (Johnson et al., 2006).

1. Perspectives

1.1. An e-portfolio as a learning strategy

Today, e-portfolios have been increasingly used as an alternativeassessment tool (Bataineh, Al-Karasneh, Al-Barakat, & Bataineh,2007). Compared with more traditional knowledge reproductiontests (e.g., multiple choices), new mode of assessment such as an e-portfolio enhances the adoption of deep approaches to learning(Bataineh, 2007). These approaches require students to relate, analyze,

rights reserved.

solve and evaluate when the e-portfolio creation is a part of theirongoing learning experiences (Milman & Kilbane, 2005; Struyvenet al., 2005). Throughout this process, the e-portfolio serves as animportant tool with which to engage and motivate students to learn.Learning becomes more student-centered and more interactive asstudents engage in self-reflections, review goals periodically andassume responsibility for their own learning (Abrami & Barret, 2005).According to Wang and Turner (2006), the power of the reflectionis that it helps students and teachers move beyond seeing the e-portfolio as a mere alternative assessment tool to appreciating itsvalue as a learning strategy. van Aalst and Chan (2007) added that e-portfolios assisted student learning by increasing student motivationand allowing the students to publish their work in ways that result ingreater self-confidence and more reflections.

1.2. An e-portfolio as a reflective tool

E-portfolios have two major functions: a product and a processfunction (Zubizaretta, 2004). Student teachers work on a learningportfolio not only to show what they have achieved and learned(assessment of learning), but to reflect on their learning process(assessment for learning) (Barrett, 2007). The process function of thee-portfolio allows student teachers to focus on the process of learningas well as to reflect over their learning as a result of that experience(Zubizaretta, 2004). Research (e.g., van Aalst & Chan, 2007) into the e-portfolio as a tool for reflection has shown that ownership is animportant condition for student teachers to use the process function—the assessment for learning purposes. If student teachers see makingan e-portfolio as a task that is worthwhile for them personally, theywill be more inclined to ask themselves questions about occurrencesin their teaching practice, and to find out who they are and who theywant to be as beginning teachers (Barrett, 2007). They then will notonly focus on carrying out the task, but use the task to reach a betterunderstanding of the learning process they are going through (Beck,

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Livne, & Bear, 2005). Other factors that may influence the processfunction of the e-portfolio are related to the learning orientation ofstudent teachers, their experiences in producing an e-portfolio, andthe instruction and supervision they've had (Beck et al., 2005). Gatlinand Jacob (2002) commented that if students did not understandwhatan e-portfolio was, the e-portfolio would be reduced to a staticcollection of material, and dynamic reflections on teaching andlearning would not be possible. Britten, Mullen and Stuve (2003)found that, through working on the e-portfolios, students graduallychanged their concept of what reflection in the e-portfolio entailed,the purposes of reflection, and their own important roles throughoutthe process. The students increasingly realized that by using the e-portfolio to critically examine their teaching practice, they were be-coming aware of their philosophy of teaching and learning and theycould express their knowledge about learning and teaching in explicitterms.

An important aspect of a reflective e-portfolio is its open character(Zubizaretta, 2004). Student teachers often have no experience ofproducing an e-portfolio before they start their student teaching(Meeus, Questier, & Derks, 2006). They find the “open” character of thee-portfolio especially difficult at first (Meeus et al., 2006). Butgradually when they are free to explore their concerns, when theyhave room tomake personal choices, they could understand better theopen characteristics as well as their own responsibility for taking careof their learning, and thusmaking self-reflection a part of their naturallearning habit (Meeus et al., 2006; Zubizaretta, 2004). In Batainehet al.'s (2007) teacher preparation classroom utilizing e-portfolios, forinstance, teacher candidates beginwith getting to know themselves aslearners. They complete online learning mode and multiple intelli-gences tests. Next they write a reflective paper on how they learn andstudy best as well as a description of the best ways in which theydemonstrate and show their knowledge. Also, in Robbins' (2004)preservice teacher licensure program, teacher candidates focused on areflection cycle (select, describe, analyze, appraise, and transform) andused this cycle to guide their teacher licensure e-portfolios. The re-searchers commented that by the time the prospective teachersgraduate, reflecting seems to be a natural process.

To better understand the nature of e-portfolio as a reflectivelearning tool, many researchers have also looked into its benefits onstudent learning (e.g., Adams, Swicegood, & Lynch, 2004; Evans,Daniel, Mikovch, Metze, & Norman, 2006; Goodson, 2007; Hallman,2007; Wall, Higgins, Miller, & Packard, 2006). In a research project,preservice and in-service teachers examined the use of digital studentportfolios as an instructional and learning tool. The project illustratedthe processes by which preservice and in-service teachers were ableto work with primary-age pupils to create their own digital portfolios.Evaluation of these portfolios showed a significant improvement instudent achievement, and teachers reported these portfolios to be avaluable tool in monitoring student behavior and communicatingfuture educational goals to parents, administrators and other teachers(Jun, Anthony, Achrazoglou, & Coghill-Behrends, 2007). Also, based ona comparative analysis of case studies of seven prospective secondarymathematics teachers, Hartmann and Calandra (2007) studied howdeveloping e-portfolios supported the development of habits of mindemphasized in the curriculum of their teacher preparation program.The researchers observed positive changes in the content and reflec-tions of the participants' e-portfolios across three semesters.

1.3. An e-portfolio as a technology tool

An e-portfolio can be Web-based or formatted using other digitalmedia such as a CD. The e-portfolio broadens the typical paper–pencilformat of portfolios by including artifacts that may potentially blendaudio, video, graphics, and text, which can be used to connect specificstandards to the various artifacts (Hewett, 2004). There are manybenefits associated with the electronic format.

First, the e-portfolio presents the learners withmanymore optionsfor recording and presenting artifacts that demonstrate their achieve-ments and growth (Sherry & Bartlett, 2005).With an electronic format,the portfolio becomesmorewidely accessible and easy to duplicate forlearning purposes. Benefits include reduced storage demands, ease ofback-up, portability, ability to create links (Hewett, 2004; Johnsonet al., 2006), and the exploration and increased knowledge oftechnology applications (Wall et al., 2006). Milman and Kilbane(2005) confirmed that, compared to their paper-based analogs, an e-portfolio could be shared across multiple parties simultaneouslyand could contain multiple media, with added advantages of beingeasy to upgrade and allowing cross-referencing of student work.

Second, using the technology provides the learners with opportu-nities to enhance their understanding of the technology itself whilelearning the content knowledge (Hartley, Urish, & Johnston, 2006;Herner, Karayan, McKean, & Love, 2003). Evans et al. (2006) examinedone college's efforts in developing and implementing a mandatorytechnology skills assessment for beginning teacher education stu-dents, and found that most participants said they improved theirtechnology skills by creating their e-portfolios. Technology skills thatstudents mentioned most often in the interviews were: HyperStudioauthoring, HTML skills, web page design, scanning, video/audiocapture, transfer of files and change of file formats. After studentsdesigned and implemented their e-portfolios, Wright, Stallworth, andRay (2002) surveyed them and found that 88% thought the additionaltechnology elements integrated into the methods block to create theirportfolios were worthwhile. This format provides teacher candidatesopportunities to market their skills in a professional manner. Whenreviewing this type of portfolio, the audience experiences a multi-media presentation rather than simply reading about a candidate'spast accomplishments (Driessen, Muijtjens, van Tartwijk, & van derVleuten, 2007).

Third, teachers who demonstrate their competence in technologythrough the development of an e-portfolio are more likely to in-corporate technology into their own classrooms (Sherry & Bartlett,2005; Wang & Turner, 2006). That is to say, if teacher candidatesrecognize the advantages of developing e-portfolios, experience theproblems encountered in the process, and understand their implica-tions and possible solutions, it is expected that they will be moreconfident in using e-portfolio in their future classrooms. Overall, an e-portfolio can not only be used as an assessment tool, but a learningtool—both for engaging in deep reflective learning process and forenhancing and acquiring technology skills.

2. Need for this study

Although extensive research has documented the uses of e-portfolios on teacher education, research has not provided substantialevidence regarding the benefits of them on preservice teachers'learning. Previous research suggested that understanding studentvoices can lead to program efficiency and improved practices (Wetzel& Strudler, 2006). Yet, only limited research (e.g., Wang & Turner,2006) has examined the benefits and uses of an e-portfolio as alearning tool from student perspectives; most of them (e.g., Penny &Kinslow, 2006) are from the perspectives of administrators andfaculty. As Fullan (2007) reminds us that in educational change,meaning must be accomplished at every level of the system, but if it isnot done at the level of the students—all is lost. In the case of the e-portfolios, for instance, the students are the implementers and theirperspectives are vital to understanding e-portfolios. Further, researchis mixed in investigating whether creating a portfolio in digital formatalso helps teacher candidates gaining additional technology skills.Gatlin and Jacob (2002) found that preservice teachers learned tech-nical skills as a result of their e-portfolio experiences. Ma and Rada(2006), however, found that students reported no gain in theirtechnology skills. The authors speculated this may have been due to

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theuse of pre-built templates and the fact that thee-portfolio technologylab staff members reported they often did much of the task for thestudents who faced technology obstacles. In a study of 14 educationaltechnology graduates and 23 preservice students, Sherry and Bartlett's(2005) survey revealed that both groups of students believed theymoderately improved their e-portfolio authoring skills, and that thisexperience could contribute to their ability to develop multimedia skillsamong their K-12 pupils. These gaps in research on e-portfolios suggestthat we need to further examine the role of the e-portfolio as a learningtool for preservice teachers, and ideally, from preservice teachers'perspectives. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate andunderstand the teacher candidates' perception of learning experiencesand processes that occurred in the development of the e-portfolios in anelementary teacher education program. The meanings that teachercandidates gave to these experiences were examined in order tounderstand how students learn in a technology-enriched learningenvironment. The research questions are: What are the learningexperiences of the teacher candidateswhen they adopt the e-portfolios?Do they learn any additional technology skills as well? Do they ex-perience any frustrations or challenges in the process of e-portfolioconstruction? What meanings do they attach to these experiences?

3. Methods

3.1. Setting

The research was conducted at an elementary teacher educationprogramat aNortheastern college inUSA. 38undergraduate elementarypreservice teacher candidates who were either juniors or seniors wereintroduced to the concept of e-portfolio in a 3-credit course.

3.2. Technology in education

All the students enrolled in the course were either at the stage ofpre-student teaching (juniors) or student teaching (seniors), and allneed to complete a paper portfolio at the end of the student teachingfor meeting program exit requirements. The motivation for thestudents who took part in the e-portfolio project was that they wereable to develop their technology skills further while at the same timedrafting their required exit portfolios. It gave them an opportunity forredirection and an expansion of skills and knowledge.

The researcher, also the instructor of the course Technology inEducation, provided guidelines for the e-portfolio: The students had toinclude the following elements in their portfolio: (a) five to eightstandards from Interstate New Teacher Assessment and SupportConsortium (INTASC); (b) at least one artifact that would fit and meeteachof the selected INTASC standards; and (c) rationale for including theartifact and reflections over the learning experiences. The studentswereencouraged to reflectover thesequestions: howdid the artifactmeet theINTASC standards? What did I learn from making this artifact? Thereflections that the students wrote made up the core of the e-portfolio.In addition, students were expected to document that they hadmastered the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers(NETS-T), which are performance-based standards developed by theInternational Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for improvingtechnology competencies in teacher education. These students hadaccess to productivity software, educational software, scanners, andother technology-related equipment. The main skills needed for the e-portfolio were similar to web page design: Students used Word orFrontPage as editors, created hyperlinks to documents, and posted thefinal products online as web pages in the college's intranet.

3.3. Participants

In total, 38 elementary education students (response rate 76%)participated in the study: 22 were seniors (response rate 84%) and 16

juniors (response rate 66%). There were 23 females and 9 males. Theaverage age was 23.75. Majority of the students had never taken anyeducation technology courses before. Their comfort level withtechnology ranged between 1.75 and 4.50 with a mean of 3.37 on afive-point Likert scale.

3.4. Instruments

Tomeasure students' perspectives of the e-portfolio, an e-portfoliosurveywas given at the end of the course and selected interviewswereconductedwhenparticipantswere doing student teaching at local areaschools. The survey included 18 items that asked students' experienceand attitudes about the e-portfolio. Students were asked to respond toa 5-point Likert scale with 5 as “strongly agree” and 1 “stronglydisagree” (see Appendix A). Item reliability ranged from .68 to .88. Themain interview questions were: What do you value about electronicportfolios? What do you learn from crafting the e-portfolios? Did youlearn any additional technology skills as a result of constructing e-portfolios? What issues confronted you during the process?

4. Findings

From the survey conducted at the end of the course and selectedinterviews about students' views on the e-portfolio, the studyrevealed several important aspects of students' learning experienceson the e-portfolios as well as the meanings they attached to theexperiences, both positive and negative. Students who created the e-portfolios online considered themselves as hands-on learners. Theparticipants in this study stated that they liked learning by doingbecause this process not only gave them a chance to refresh theirmemory about the skills they had learned, but also provided themwith opportunities to learn new skills. They learned more in thisprocess than in class because they had to apply what they learned inclass to a new situation. Through this process, candidates learned thatthe e-portfolio construction process was also a learning process, andthat they played an active role in it. Table 1 showed the results of thesurvey with descriptive statistics. The percentages were based on thenumber of the students responding “strongly agree” and “agree”.

4.1. Positive views on the e-portfolios

4.1.1. Reviewing and rediscoveringA majority of the students (87%) felt that the process of reflecting

on their work over time, as well as seeing their experiences in the finale-portfolio helped them revisit their learning experiences in morespecific and complex ways. For example, Christine talked abouthow the pace and amount of work required in specific semesterswas almost too much to absorb. As she reviewed coursework andpracticum assignments for inclusion in her e-portfolio, shewas able torelive instructional experiences and get greater understanding of theknowledge she had gained during that semester. She said:

I think the portfolio helps a lot. The content method semester youare overwhelmed with projects. You are basically just trying to dowhat needs to be done. And so I think doing the portfolio is oneway to be able to just sit down and think about your past work, torediscover what you have learned.

Through these experiences, students often realized that theyviewed the artifact in a very different light than originally and thatthey learned through the reflections.

4.1.2. Developing self-assessment skillsThe e-portfolio process requires students to think about their

knowledge, skills, and dispositions in thoughtful ways and how those

Table 1Descriptive statistics of e-portfolio survey

Alphaa Survey items %b Mc(SD)

.88 Positive experiences (overall)After the process of constructing my e-portfolio, I…thought about the connections between what I learnedand what I'm going to teach

.78 4.04(.89)

understood better my strengths and weaknesses as afuture teacher

.73 4.11(.81)

revisited my prior learning experiences in more specificand complex ways

.87 4.21(.83)

could see my growth and achievement throughoutthe years

.78 4.01(.80)

became more organized and understood its importance .50 3.95(.87)

could showcase my work to future employers .32 4.03(.88)

learned from synthesizing the final product .57 3.85(.89)

learned a lot from communicating, interacting andcollaborating with peers

.53 4.18(.75)

learned from reviewing my peers' e-portfolios online .48 4.23(.74)

.75 Positive experiences (technology)After the process of constructing my e-portfolio, I…gained greater confidence in learning new technology .64 3.95applications such as working with hypermedia software (.69)gained greater confidence in integrating technology infuture classrooms

.79 3.84(.81)

was able to review my existing technology skills whilegaining additional ones

.78 3.57(.79)

.72 Negative experiences (overall)After the process of constructing my e-portfolio, I…didn't see any value of reflection .12 2.21

(.78)didn't learn anything from this experience .16 2.17

(.83)was confused at the whole experience .32 2.14

(.89).68 Negative experiences (technology)

After the process of constructing my e-portfolio, I…became less confident in using technology in my futureclassrooms

.14 1.89(.90)

did not learn any additional technology skills .12 1.95(.76)

felt challenged and overwhelmed with technology .45 3.97(.78)

Note.a Alpha = Cronbach's alpha.b The results represented thepercentage of studentswho rated 4or 5 (i.e., thosewho agree

or strongly agree) in a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree).c Mean and standard deviation.

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characteristics can be framed within the context of an e-portfolio. Amajority of the students (73%) mentioned how the reflection helpedthem self-assess their learning acquisition. Self-assessment for themmeant analyzing the strong and weak points of what they had done,and looking at the good and the bad parts of a particular learningactivity. Approximately 78% of the participants mentioned thatreflection was a very important tool because it gave them a chanceto seewhere they had started andwhere they had ended. “You are justmaking your way along the continuum and you can see where youwere and where you've progressed. It's all right there,” Jim com-mented. Through reflection, Jim and other students understood whatthey knew and what they needed to know to perform better. This self-assessment helped them set future learning goals.

4.1.3. Developing a sense of purpose and focusStudents mentioned that reflection involved looking at the

standards and the artifacts again so that they would understandwhat their artifacts were about, and how and why their artifacts metthe standards. These prompted a heightened sense of purpose andfocus. During her exit interview, Stephanie commented that “when I

was planning lessons, I was thinking, ‘how can I translate this into myportfolio?’ And so, having the portfolio in mind mademe think harderabout whether or not what I was doingwas relevant.” Another studentteacher Mary spoke about the power of the e-portfolio process andhow it influenced her preparation and implementation of instruc-tional practice: “As I worked with my students, I was thinking aboutmy strategies and activities and how they would be included in myportfolio. I was thinking of what I was doing in the classroom in adifferent way.” Other comments such as “it was interesting for meto pick certain things to put in my portfolio to meet the INTASCstandards” and “I had to really think hard about why I wanted to putsomething into my e-portfolio and what it showed about me as a newteacher” were representative of the benefit of reflection in helpingpreservice teachers meeting the standards with a sense of purposeand focus.

4.1.4. Developing synthesis skillHalf of the students reported that one thing they learned in

creating e-portfolios was to be organized. Participants mentioned thatthey needed to start organizing files from the very beginning of theprogram, otherwise, it could be really messy and frustrating becausethey had a lot of files from each course they took. About 57% ofstudents reported that the process of synthesis was one of the mostimportant learning experiences. One student commented: “Theplanning and synthesizing are two stages that required the mostthinking andmademe learn most.” This remark reflected the majorityof other participants' opinions that they had learned from synthesiz-ing their final products. Students interviewed mentioned that duringthe synthesis process, they had to review their artifacts again andagain to decide how to put them together in a meaningful way so thattheir final products would show what they had learned throughoutthis program and how they could use this knowledge in their teachingcareers.

4.1.5. Learning from communications and interactionsNearly 53% of the students mentioned that the learning strategies

they used most were communication, interaction, and collaborationwith peers. For example, students discussed design ideas and solutionsto technical problems with peers, and viewed former students'products. In the latter instance, students learned by interactingwith the products rather than with a person. Students indicated thatmost of the time it was peer critiques that helped them improvetheir projects. Among peers, participants discussedwhat artifacts theycould use to demonstrate the standards and how to solve the technicalproblems they encountered. Since all the e-portfolios were publishedat the college's intranet, a viewer can easily access the e-portfolioonline. Students (48%) appreciated that they were able to learn toreflect on their peers' work—sharing ideas, building on the ideas, andusing the feedback to leverage further learning. The e-portfolio processencouraged them to generate and focus on ideas that were personallycompelling.

4.1.6. Learning and reviewing technology skillsBoth junior and senior student groups commented on learning

skills such as uploading documents, scanning, changing file formats(e.g., Word to Acrobat PDF), and dealing with cropping and sizingpictures. In addition, students also discussed learning to use an editorsuch as Word or Front Page to modify Web pages, add hyperlinks, etc.As one student said, “I like having all my work in the e-portfolio. Thehard copies were so big and bulky to carry around and having to flipthrough and try to find things. I think e-portfolio is just easier accessfor us.” About 42% of the students mentioned that their technologyskills were reinforced by designing the final product. Kathleen, a non-traditional student who had been a substitute teacher for severalyears, mentioned that it helped to keep up with the computerskills because she lost a lot after high school. “I wasn't working on the

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computer much before I was in this class and it got back my skills.”Nearly 64% of the participants stated that it would be less difficult forthem to learn a new function of software or learn an entirely newprogram after finishing their e-portfolios because they were moreconfident about technology. As Henry said, “I taught myself newprograms in order to create a visually appealing layout.” Similarly,Cathy mentioned: “A lot of the ideas are the same as any other Webpage program.” Some students recognized the value of using computertoday with their future teaching. “Creating web-based e-portfolioshelped keeping my computer skills up-to-date. As an educator, you'regoing to be using a computer for a long time”. Although it was a greatchallenge for many students at the beginning to design an e-portfoliowithout using any commercial e-portfolio management systems or ane-portfolio template, in the end many of them felt proud to see theirself-designed products online. “It may look humble but it is my first‘home’ in the Internet.”When the instructor asked howmany of themhad shared their web-based e-portfolios with their families or friends,nearly everyone said they did.

4.1.7. Enhancing a candidate's marketabilityPutting an e-portfolio online also enhanced a candidate's market-

ability. The World Wide Web offered the teacher candidates, inparticular, candidates who were seniors and in the process of jobhunting, a chance to expand his/her job search to the internationallevel. The candidates added personal touches such as their pictures,short videos of their teaching andwave files of themselves stating theirideas and values concerning education. Some candidates chose to statetheir philosophies of education orally, allowing them to emphasizewords and use intonation to highlight their intended message. As thecandidates displayed their favorite works over the Internet, parents,students and future employers have a chance to get to see what wasimportant to the candidates. The viewers also got to look at thecandidates' process of learning as the candidates reflected onhow theirdecisions for including a particular artifact were made. About 32% ofthe candidates expressed the intention of using the e-portfolio foremployment purposes. One candidate got a job interview after in-forming the principal of the website that contained her e-portfolio.

4.2. Negative views on the e-portfolios

However, while the potential benefits of using the e-portfolios inrelation to teacher learning and development are many, the overallprocess is not without challenges and concerns. Increased time com-mitment, uncertainty regarding purpose and audience, and limitedknowledge about the content and organizational strategies are someof the salient issues mentioned by teacher candidates. Obviously notall participants in this study felt that the portfolio and/or e-portfolioprocesses offered new insight into their learning or had a positiveimpact on their student teaching. Sandy, the most verbal memberof the class community, was consistently critical of the portfolio re-quirement and found little benefit in the e-portfolio process:

I feel like it took a huge amount away from my student teachingsemester and I don't feel like itmademe a better teacher in anyway,shape, or form. I would have rather spent my time on somethingthat would have made me a better teacher.

Another student also claimed that theportfolio developmentprocesshad little impact on her development as a future teacher:

I think thatmost of us think that it is a lot of timeput into somethingthat doesn't seem to havemuchmerit. Somepeople feel like they'rejust throwing things in here and they don't know if they're doing itcorrectly, and whether or not it will ever mean something to themin the future.

Frustrations were more widespread in regard to technology.Although constructing the e-portfolios helped preservice teachersreview as well as gain additional technology skills, 45% of participantsfelt that it was challenging to construct an e-portfolio online whilepaying attention to all the technical issues related to web design. Mostparticipants interviewed realized that “anytime you bring a non-human factor into a process, such as computers, you are going to havetrouble.” Heidi mentioned the frustrating experience of having todelete all her online files all because of the computer's “stupid errors.”She said:

While trying to upload files online, I was warned that my webspace was full. So I started to delete some of them, and then somemore, until at the end there was nothing there, yet it was stilltelling me I was running out of space. Such things drive you crazy.

Many students realized that sometimes “the tiny things couldbring a lot of trouble.” Cindy gave an example: “It took me a wholeweek to figure out what went wrong with one of my links that workedwell while I was at the college but not after I was at home. Finally Ifound that the previous links were linked to the files in my I-drive[student drive] only, but not the world wide web.”

Although all students had been given instruction on how to con-struct theweb-based e-portfolio in the course Technology in Education,some students felt that it would be better if this skill were reinforcedin other education courses as well. One student mentioned the needfor consistent instruction with the e-portfolio in each course:

I felt that we should have had to do a little bit of this in each class.More people should have used it in their instruction—made us putcertain things in our e-portfolios or something to keep us going.I just don't feel like the other instructors did what was needed…We had no reinforcement.

Overall, themajority of studentsmentioned that they learnedwhatworked and what did not in converting different projects into a com-patible format. They regarded these experiences as one of the benefitsof creating electronic portfolios because they synthesized theirskills through solving various problems. But not all students viewedthis process in the positive light and sometimes challenges relatedto technology and other issues also made learning of the e-portfolio afrustrating experience.

5. Discussions

As educational multimedia, hypermedia, and telecommunicationsbecome more and more accessible, and as the use of an e-portfolio asa means of authentic assessment becomes increasingly popular inteacher education, it's necessary to investigate the role of e-portfolioon student learning from student perspectives. With survey and in-depth interviews, this research described the use of the e-portfoliosin an elementary teacher education program. The findings suggestedthat the e-portfolio enhanced students' participation and knowledgegained about the content. While problems and issues existed, themajority of participants had something positive to say about their e-portfolios and the processes.

On the positive side, creating an e-portfolio was meaningful andbeneficial for most students because it provided an opportunity forthem to synthesize what they had learned in the program, to reflectover their learning experiences, and to show their growth over time.It also offered students the opportunities to learn web page design, toincorporate variousmedia into the assessment process, and to becometechnology literate educator in their future classrooms. Through thecreation of their personal e-portfolios, teacher candidates improvedtheir knowledge of the use of technology and its integration into

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instruction and assessment. As the candidates created their portfolios,they discovered technology needs and learned purposes of technologyand the necessary technology skills.

However, not all participants felt that they experienced profes-sional growth as a result of creating an e-portfolio. Such less positiveeffects of the e-portfolios can also be found in the literature (e.g., Rijdt,Tiquet, Dochy, & Devolder, 2006). The fact that there can be conflictingopinions on the e-portfolio process where some preservice teachersfind value yet some others do not feel that way speaks to the variety oflearning styles represented within the group. This suggests that thedevelopmental paths that preservice teachers take while engagingin meaningful dialog and experiences are uniquely individual. Aswas pointed out by Wright et al. (2002), designing an e-portfolio thatdocuments students' four-year learning experience takes time, andmay often lack a clear purpose resulting in student uncertainty andfrustration. The issues that were mentioned by some of the par-ticipants in the study—increased time commitment, uncertaintyregarding purpose and audience, and limited knowledge about thetechnology—however, could probably be addressed by paying moreattention to the following learning strategies.

5.1. Building an e-portfolio learning community

This study showed that communicating, interacting, and collabor-ating with peers was vital in dealing with technical problems withweb page design, consistent with previous research (Fahey, Lawrence,& Paratore, 2007). The findings demonstrated that the preserviceteachers benefited from peer support in a learning community toaddress issues around essential elements specific to e-portfoliodevelopment. And students who were technology savvy also liked toshare their technical skills with their peers. One recommendation forbuilding a learning community, therefore, is to set up an online forumon the topic of the e-portfolios. An online forum would be especiallyhelpful for teachers and students who live out of town and cannotcome to the campus frequently (Hadley, 2006–2007). Students couldpost their problems online and get answers from different perspec-tives. Another recommendation is to involve the IT personnel andother education faculty. In this study, students learned to make webportfolio in one education technology course only, and at junior orsenior years. It would be helpful that they consistently get knowledgeand skills about the e-portfolio not just from one course but fromsources such as IT department and other education courses as well.These people could be involved in the e-portfolio learning communityto offer technical supports aswell as curricular guides in the e-portfolioprocesses.

5.2. Engaging learners in reflections

Consistent with prior research (e.g., Bataineh et al., 2007; Becket al., 2005; Hartmann & Calandra, 2007; Jun et al., 2007; Meeus et al.,2006; Wang & Turner, 2006; Zubizaretta, 2004), a majority of teachercandidates benefited from reflections. As was pointed out by Hadley(2006–2007, reflection was a process that needs to be nurtured instudents and developed. That is to say, for students who did not seethemerit of it, they need to be taught about the reflective process suchas Reflection Cycle (Robbins, 2004), a process that involves studentsto select, describe, analyze, appraise, and transform. According toRobbins, Reflection Cycle supported preservice teachers by means ofhelping them to focus on their emergent personal theories ofeducation and their future plans. Without reflection, the e-portfolioremains merely a “folder of all my papers,” as one of my studentsnoted. However, by encouraging students to engage in reflection andto document their thoughts, the e-portfolio not only provides moreinformation and insight on the learner's performance, but also helpslearners to make connections with prior learning, and to transformprevious learning into active and authentic knowledge.

5.3. Teaching technology skills

Technology is a real world requirement in today's world. Not onlydo teachers need technology skills for their own professionalcompetency, but they have the responsibility of preparing futureworker force to be competent with the current technology. Thestudy found that the e-portfolio offered students the opportunitiesto review as well as to learn additional technology skills. Courseevaluations indicated that students believed that they gained moretechnology knowledge and skills after creating an e-portfolio.However, technology is also one major area that students feltchallenged and frustrated when designing their e-portfolios. Mostof the problems students experienced were related to digitizingartifacts and troubleshooting hardware and software. In this study,the teacher education students were only required to take one 3-credit introductory technology course. This is inadequate to meet theNational Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Britten et al.(2003) suggested that teacher education programs should notabandon required technology courses to jump start NETS-basedcompetence, and that advanced courses in educational technologyfor teacher education majors were necessary. Thus, more advancedtechnology courses, more attention to integrating technology skills ineducation courses, should be encouraged.

5.4. Adopting open-ended project with rubrics

This study confirmed the benefits mentioned by Meeus et al.(2006) about giving students an open-ended project that allows themto express their creativity and individuality rather than a softwaretemplate in which all e-portfolios would have a similar look. Theopen-ended project motivated students to make their project uniqueand this motivation pushed most (if not all) students to spend extratime on it and even learn new skills. But this may also pose somechallenges. On one hand, student selection of artifacts may lead todeeper learning experience as they wrestled with understanding ofthe connections betweenwhat they did and the standards (van Aalst &Chan, 2007). In addition, they might have a deeper belief that theelectronic portfolios belonged to them rather than just the college(Zubizaretta, 2004). On the other hand, the freedom inherent in anopen-ended project became an excuse for those students who didnot want to putmuch effort into the development of their e-portfolios.Therefore, a rubric for evaluation of the e-portfolios is needed(van Aalst & Chan, 2007). The rubric should have detailed criteriacombined with rating scales and a detailed guideline for the e-port-folio design. It could include, for instance, the four parts in developingelectronic portfolios: (a) design, (b) artifacts, (c) reflection, and (d)presentation (Johnson et al., 2006).

6. Conclusion/future research

The present study can attest to the value in seeking the studentperspectives on issues regarding the role of the e-portfolio onpreservice teacher education. Although these is no single correctway to develop an effective e-portfolio, the use of online e-portfolioswithout giving students predesigned templates (as found in manycommercial e-portfolio systems) provides a model for teacher edu-cation programs to create learner-centered educational environments.Benefits cited by students in this study point to the promise of e-portfolios to positively affect teacher education. It seems that under-standing student perceptions of their experiences can lead toimproved practices and policies with regard to e-portfolios. Never-theless, this is only a small-scale study documenting an individualfaculty's effort in technology integration at one college. Given thedynamic nature of individual classes, the generalizability of thesefindings is limited. Future research may replicate this study with alarger sample to validate the findings of this study.

200 Q. Lin / Internet and Higher Education 11 (2008) 194–200

Appendix A. E-portfolio survey

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