Collins, Andrea

Howe, Alan

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This is a peer-reviewed, final published version of the following document:
Howe, Alan and Collins, Andrea (2010) Unlocking the Potential of the 
ePortfolio for Work-based Learning: Case Study. Learning and Teaching 
in Higher Education (4-1). pp. 96-99. ISSN 1742-240X 
EPrint URI: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3890
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96
Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 4-1, 2010
Unlocking the Potential of the ePortfolio for  
Work-based Learning
AlAn Howe & AndreA Collins
University of Gloucestershire, UK
Background
Trevithick (2005, p.3) describes 
social work as an ‘interrelated 
system of values, theory and 
practice’.  Students are assessed for 
their academic abilities in university, 
but the integration of this learning 
– together with their practice-based 
skills – mainly takes place whilst 
on placement.  Students work with 
a practice educator and gather 
evidence so that their competence 
can be judged against National 
Occupational Standards (NOS).  The 
evidence is traditionally presented 
in a paper-based portfolio, which is 
assessed at a Practice Assessment 
Panel (PAP) composed of practice 
educators and academic tutors.
The authors identiied problems with 
these portfolios:
• Students usually waited to 
the end of the placement to 
complete them, thereby giving 
little opportunity for formative 
feedback.
• All portfolios followed the 
same format and there was no 
opportunity for personalisation.  
There was little sense that 
students owned the portfolio; 
rather they saw it as just another 
‘hoop to jump through’.
• Students were encouraged to 
keep a log of their experiences 
and to relect on their learning 
whilst on placement, though 
they were not required to submit 
this in the portfolio.  Thus, the 
account was not monitored in any 
systematic way.  Many students 
did not keep a log, lessening their 
opportunities to learn by relecting 
on their practice.
• Students were supposed to 
share their portfolios from 
their irst placement with their 
practice educators in their second 
placement and to build on their 
previous learning.  In practice this 
rarely happened.
• Extensive administrative effort 
was spent collecting portfolios, 
checking contents, storing then 
distributing them to assessors.
Case study
In response to these problems the 
authors developed a PebblePad 
practice ePortfolio, referred to as a 
‘webfolio’, based on the traditional 
paper-based portfolio.  A pilot 
97
Case Studies
group of students and practice 
educators was recruited to trial the 
development.  It was considered 
important to mirror as closely as 
possible the traditional portfolio so as 
not to disadvantage the pilot group 
of students and also to ensure the 
practice educators and PAP were 
not presented with too different an 
assessment format.  A ‘blog tool’, to 
enable students to record and relect 
upon their placement experiences, 
was introduced into the webfolio.  
Practice educators and tutors were 
given access to their student’s 
webfolio.  From their earlier studies, 
students were already familiar with 
recording information electronically in 
PebblePad.
The pilot project, using nine students 
and four practice educators, was 
designed to identify possible 
problems with the webfolio and 
the organisational systems prior 
to implementing the webfolio for 
the whole student group.  Practice 
educators were recruited and all 
their allocated students were asked 
to participate.  Only one student 
refused.  The authors ran training 
sessions for the students and 
practice educators, monitored the 
use of the webfolio, and ‘problem 
solved’ as the placement evolved.
Evaluation
Students’ and practice educators’ 
views were monitored throughout 
the placement and a student 
focus group was held at the end 
of placement.  At PAP, practice 
educators were asked for their 
overall evaluation, and the views of 
external assessors who had read the 
webfolios were also elicited.
Students:
• welcomed the opportunity to 
personalise their webfolios;
• generally found the ‘blog tool’ 
useful in recording and relecting 
on their practice experiences;
• liked the multimedia capability 
and ability to hyperlink their blog 
to the NOS;
• found their material easier to 
organise compared with paper-
based portfolios;
• found that building their webfolio 
became a continuous process 
rather than a inal product; 
• were better able to share 
their experiences with practice 
educators and felt better 
supported overall;
• with additional learning needs 
(e.g. dyslexia) indicated that they 
found it easier to organise and to 
write;
• reported that the use of the 
webfolio facilitated their learning 
and professional development.
Practice educators:
• found webfolios less arduous 
to complete than paper-based 
portfolios;
• felt better informed about the 
students’ daily activities and 
better able to monitor student 
performance;
98
Case Studies
• felt that the students took more 
responsibility for their personal 
learning on placement;
• found it easier to locate the 
evidence needed to meet the 
assessment requirements.
PAP members:
• found the quality of webfolio 
superior to paper-based formats;
• indicated that they found it easier 
to demonstrate the process of 
learning and development and 
to identify the extent to which 
students had met the NOS 
practice requirements;
• indicated that they felt students 
had put much more effort into 
developing their webfolios than 
the paper-based examples 
scrutinised at PAP;
• suggested that in future all 
students should be offered this 
option.
The future
It is clear from the feedback provided 
by students, practice educators and 
a number of Practice Assessment 
Panel assessors that the use of 
the webfolio has considerable 
advantages over the current format 
involving paper-based submissions.  
The task of assessing students’ 
performance on placement is a 
complex one – not least because it 
is dificult for students and practice 
educators to identify, monitor and 
assess their learning and professional 
development in ways that can be 
demonstrated in an accessible 
format that is easy to navigate.  The 
indings of this pilot project indicate 
that it was possible for students to 
record better quality evidence and 
to focus their attention on learning 
rather than the time-consuming task 
of gathering paper-based evidence.  
These beneits have profound 
implications not only for student 
learning but also for their ongoing 
Continuing Professional Development 
(CPD).
References
TreviThick, P. (2005) Social Work Skills: 
a practice handbook, 2nd edition, 
Maidenhead: Open University Press.
About the authors
Alan Howe has a irst degree in 
psychology and a masters degree 
in community care.  He started 
his social work career in children’s 
homes then moved into generic 
social work.  It was whilst working 
as a qualiied social worker that Alan 
developed his interest in practice 
teaching, which eventually led to him 
into social work education.  
Alan has been eager to embrace 
technology to facilitate student 
learning and was an early adopter 
of Virtual Learning Environments 
(VLEs).  He has pioneered the 
use of PebblePad e-portfolios in 
the University of Gloucestershire 
Social Work degree programme. 
He has spoken at several national 
and international conferences and 
workshops on the use of e-portfolios.
99
Case Studies
Andrea Collins is a qualiied and 
registered social worker with irst 
degree in sociology and a masters 
qualiication in social work.  She 
started her career working with 
adults with learning dificulties, 
then moved into children’s services 
with the National Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Children 
(NSPCC).  In 2001, she became 
a child care manager in a busy 
London borough.  She has extensive 
practical and managerial experience 
of working in child protection.  Prior 
to joining the university in 2007, she 
was working as a child protection 
trainer and consultant.
Having completed an e-portfolio 
herself as part of her teaching 
qualiication,  she recognises their 
value in enabling learners to relect 
upon and record their learning 
journeys.


Unlocking the Potential of the ePortfolio for\ud
Work-based Learning: Case Study

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