Structural Measures of Undergraduate ePortfolios in Three Educational Contexts

Abstract

Undergraduate-constructed eportfolios from three programs were used to promote learning goals and aid assessment. We developed objective structural measures of these eportfolios to quantify their descriptions as a function of their context as well as their connections to learning outcomes. ePortfolio objective measures included number of pages, internal links, external links, crosslinks, and document links at hierarchical levels within the website. Results showed strong and significant hierarchical organization, high variability, and high productivity in two educational contexts (a summer research program and a “capstone course”), compared to a third context (a general education eportfolio). These results indicate promise for objective measures of eportfolios as accurate and comprehensive descriptions that may differentiate program learning and assessment goals.

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