Position Paper on ePortfolio

EIfEL has released a postion paper on ePortfolio to trigger a discussion on future ePortfolio development and standards. In his final conclusion, Serge Ravet, the author, of this paper states that the ePortfolio community needs to revise its position regarding standards:

"We have to face the uncomfortable truth that the standards most relevant to ePortfolios are being currently developed outside the mainstream ePortfolio community. This had to be changed, and this is what EIfEL is aiming at."

He also suggests to revise the definition currently given to the different parts constituting an ePortfolio enabled environment:

ePortfolio: "a collection of authentic and diverse evidence, drawn from a larger archive, that represents what a person or organization has learned over time, on which the person or organization has reflected, designed for presentation to one or more audiences for a particular rhetorical purpose."  (the 2003 NLII definition)

ePortfolio System: "a system used by a person to collect, organise, aggregate, connect and publish authentic and diverse learning outcomes to support reflective learning and practice for development and growth." A more appropriate name might be Personal Assets & Identity Management System (AIMS).

ePortfolio Management System: "a system used to aggregate and connect authentic and diverse evidence of reflective learning to enrich or create ePortfolios against the requirements of a specific process."

For the author "The most common misconception about the relation between ePortfolios (ePs) and ePortfolio Management Systems (ePMS) is that the function of an ePMS is to host ePortfolios. The main function of an ePMS is not to host ePortfolios but to manage a process during which an ePortfolio can be consumed or produced."

The position paper can be accessed and discussed at: www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio/documentation/positionpaper.