In recent years, electronic portfolios have gone from being just a good idea to an essential tool for college students and job seekers. In an effort to introduce our students to the value of presenting their academic accomplishments and professional goals in a simple, but well-organized format, we’re now provide training and support for an ePortfolio program called Epsilen.
Epsilen is a technology company that provides cloud-based services to both K-12 and higher education institutions. Among them are assessment tools and learning management systems (similar to Blackboard). While most of their products are fee-based, they also offer a free ePortfolio tool, available to anyone with a .edu email address.
The free version of the ePortfolio creator is fairly basic, but allows students (as well as faculty and staff) to create a professional-looking profile and upload a resume as well as anything that showcases their work and accomplishments, including documents, images, videos, and presentations. And Epsilen allows its users to decide which individual items are made available to the public and which are viewable only to a certain population.
Epsilen was formally introduced to us this fall, when Professor Jerry van Rossum asked the students in his Introduction to Business course to use Epsilen to create an employment ePortfolio. I conducted a training session for the class, and provided them with copies of a Quick Reference Guide to help them along. At the conclusion of the assignment, students were asked to complete a brief survey about their experience with Epsilen.
While students had few complaints about the process of registering for a free user account, and felt the guide was helpful, opinions were mixed when it came to the heart of building an ePortfolio: adding content (see below).
When asked what they liked best, some students responded:
“What I like best was how if you didn’t have a resume or portfolio they gave you a template to fill out . . .”
“I like the fact that it was very easy to use, the instructions were very precise and clear. . . I also like that I can control who sees what!!!”
Among the things students liked least, however were, “how long it takes to load up” and “how uncreative it was.” One student who found Epsilen “hard to understand” and “not . . . user friendly” thought a “video tutorial” on the product’s website would have proven useful.
Marygrove College does not currently subscribe to any ePortfolio service, so a product like Epsilen is seen as a suitable, no-cost option. Using the feedback from those who have already used Epsilen, ETS will take steps to improve the training process and overall user experience for anyone interested in creating a basic professional electronic portfolio.
