Why should I consider using portfolios?

Portfolios aren’t a ‘cure all’, but they can

• provide evidence of a wider range of personal and intellectual abilities and skills than most conventional forms of assessment
• support the integration of learning from different parts of a programme
• achieve a close integration of learning and assessment, particularly if you are using work-based, clinical or problem-based learning
• prove harder to plagiarise than more conventional coursework assessments (see Is plagiarism a problem?)
• provide evidence of ‘employability’ by showing employers what students can do, as well as what they know
• be an effective way of proving that a programme meets the Quality Assurance Agency’s requirements on benchmarking. This may be achieved either through:
  • specific skills modules (see the examples from Westminster) or
  • by way of an integrated key skills programme, where student portfolios draw together the evidence from skills-based activities delivered across the curriculum

This does not mean there are no disadvantages; see How easy are portfolios to assess? and Is there any things portfolios can assess that other tools can’t?.

Last Modified: 22 July 2010