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 Student ePortfolio is an online tool that you can use to document and present your academic, professional and personal development in the format of a personal ePortfolio.
Bernadette's Story provides a student's perspective on using Student ePortfolio.
What is an ePortfolio?
An ePortfolio is a Web-based repository of information, examples and evidence related to your skills, interests, personal attributes, and achievements.
How does Student ePortfolio work?
Student ePortfolio is designed to help you identify, reflect on and record the many diverse experiences that have contributed to your learning and development. These experiences can be drawn from various areas of your life, including your education, past or present employment, community-based activities, or other aspects of your personal life (such as recreational activities, artistic pursuits or family responsibilities). Student ePortfolio also enables you to publish examples of work and other relevant documents (called artefacts) that demonstrate your skills and provide evidence of your achievements. If you want to make all or part of your ePortfolio content available to someone else, you can do so by creating and releasing an ePortfolio View.
Why use Student ePortfolio?
Building a personal ePortfolio can help you to develop a deeper awareness of yourself and your abilities. Reflecting on and recording your experiences will help you to recognise and review the knowledge and skills that you've developed as a result of those experiences. You'll also be better able to identify any skill areas in need of improvement.
When prospective employers ask you for evidence of the skills and attributes they're looking for, you'll be able to draw on the examples documented in your ePortfolio to answer interview questions and respond to selection criteria. Having this information ready and organised will make the job application process easier and less daunting. The wide variety of information in your ePortfolio will convey a far clearer and more complete impression of you than your resumé or academic history could alone.
QUT's commitment to preparing you for the 'real world' involves helping you to acquire specific skills in a range of areas including communication, teamwork, leadership, etc. These skills are defined in a set of graduate capabilities that have been established by QUT with reference to the skills and attributes typically sought by employers. Regularly reflecting on your course-related academic experiences in relation to the graduate capabilities will help you to understand the relevance of your coursework, recognise your achievements, and refine your educational goals. You'll be better able to assess your overall progress, which will help you to gain confidence in yourself as an emerging professional.
The Student ePortfolio website provides lots of resources to help you get started. You can view sample ePortfolios, guides and tutorials, FAQs, and a glossary. For a detailed introduction to using Student ePortfolio, go to Getting Started.
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Bernadette's Story
"I first heard about Student Portfolio through the teaching staff. It was offered to us as one possible tool we could use to compile our Professional Portfolios and I thought it wouldn't hurt to try it out. Initially, I simply used it as a 'database' for recording my skills.
It was only when I came to write about my experiences that the really great value of the Portfolio became apparent to me. Thinking through the skills I had developed in all areas of my life over a number of years, and all the experiences that I had learned from, I was more than a little surprised. My confidence in myself as a valuable future employee increased dramatically. I really had not seen all the different parts of my life contributing to who I was or what I could offer as a graduate. It actually was amazing.
I think its impact on me was enhanced by the fact that the whole process was grounded in reality. It wasn't made up. We were encouraged to think in terms of specific instances and tangible outcomes at all times. We were also encouraged to use the 'artefacts' function of the application for all the bigger things we had done. I did actually begin to upload examples of what I had achieved or produced or contributed to... and it became easier to think, 'What can I show from this time?'.
Interestingly, we were also asked to consider our failures, or almost-failures, as well as our achievements and to think about the lessons we learned when things did not go so well. At first this was challenging because you want to paint a perfect picture. You don't want to delve too deep into times when things went wrong. But then you just see that it's normal to have both kinds of experiences and these ones taught you a lot, too. They've made you wiser and stronger. And it's far better to face what actually happened, not be in denial.
And when it came to applying for jobs, I found that a lot of the ground work had already been done. I could readily draw together evidence from a wide variety of areas to demonstrate my competence. Most importantly, I had a realistic understanding of my own skills and abilities. I believe that this confidence and maturity was evident in both my written applications and interviews, and helped me to secure a job as a Librarian prior to graduation."
(Bernadette, post-graduate Library Science student, QUT, 2004)
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