Using e-portfolios in legal education: key themes

UKCLE’s Using e-portfolios in legal education project piloted the use of e-portfolios in three institutions (Glasgow Graduate School of Law, Oxford Institute of Legal Practice and the University of Westminster) over a two period. This page presents the key themes which emerged from the pilot projects.

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The key themes are:

• employability
• IT issues
• reflection
• regular entries
• structure
• training
• workload

Employability

The students thought the structure of an e-portfolio, in particular the ability to store elements in one place, was one of its most useful attributes for future employment and career development. The fact that most legal firms call for online applications was also noted – it would be easy to include parts of the e-portfolio in an application or to share aspects with potential employers.

The e-portfolio was seen as having potential as a useful tool both for seeking employment and for improving performance once in employment. The work-based learning e-portfolio module (undertaken in one institution) had assisted in making choices about future careers, showing one student the benefit of lifelong learning, which she aptly summarised as “professional training is always a work in progress”. Another realised the impact factor of successfully completed tasks, and how this had a bearing on her future career development.

The potential of issues with confidentiality and security of information, especially in an employment situation, were noted. It was thought that this might become significant in a legal working environment, and that there may be procedural requirements to anonymise documents kept in an e-portfolio either as styles or evidence of good practice. It was also felt that trainees in a law firm, who are effectively competing against one another to remain in the firm following their traineeship, may be less than honest about their development needs or concerned to store or share anything less than perfect.

The feedback function of an e-portfolio was seen as particularly useful in an employment situation. The ability to reflect through an e-portfolio, either personally or through feedback from an employer, was seen as beneficial in allowing employees to seek to improve their performance. It was also felt to be useful as a prompt to remember the ideals, aims and goals students had once set themselves – it is very easy to become all consumed with the working day and to forget these aspirations. Even a student who was sceptical about the vocational course as a whole acknowledged that the e-portfolio had required her to assess her own performance for improvement – and that of itself was significant.

The problem of time to complete an e-portfolio during the working day was identified – if time was not made available by employers it may become a source of resentment.

Students particularly saw the value in e-portfolios in demonstrating their skills to a potential employer. Many students leave university with clear academic records, and it is not always apparent what additional skills they may have acquired. The e-portfolio was seen as a mechanism to showcase these skills, as well as short and long term goals.

IT issues

The students welcomed the different ways of presenting material in an e-portfolio. Some made use of the more advanced functionality on offer, perhaps using blogs to publish their work. They did have initial difficulties in becoming accustomed to the software, but most managed to operate the main functions within a fairly short period. Most of the ‘teething problems’ were of the type commonly associated with the introduction of a new application in a curriculum.

While in the main there were no long term problems, there were some students who suffered a lack in confidence when using the e-portfolio, as they were unsure if they were proceeding correctly. Some requested additional introductory workshops, while others suggested that e-portfolio training should be part of formal IT induction. Future students were advised to ‘mess about’ with the application and to recognise that this was a different format for feedback.

There were also concerns about how portable the information was, especially in relation to future employment, and how easy it would be to integrate the data into different systems.

Reflection

Even if they were not always able to do it well, the students understood the benefits of reflection, on the substantive parts of their course, their skills acquisition and in their forward career planning. In particular, they realised the importance of providing evidence to support their entries, and commented that they would now be more inclined to include examples of their work when applying for employment. The availability of examples together with the skills associated with them was seen as a real benefit.

Reflection is improved with feedback – some students were concerned that they did not get enough. In particular, there were concerns where there were a number of submission points and feedback was not given for one piece of work before the next one was due.

Regular entries

In a module where students are required to keep a learning log or journal, or where they are to write a reflective report at the end of an experience or aspect of study, it is very easy for the student to ‘put off’ writing regular entries – there is always some other piece of work that needs to be prioritised or actioned. The most consistent piece of advice the students in the pilots offered to future students was to keep the e-portfolio up to date. It is easier to reflect immediately after an event rather than just before a submission date, and regular entries also mean a whole range of experiences from which to draw when compiling a final portfolio. In addition, future students were advised not to panic about producing the end product, and that thinking about it in ‘bite sized’ pieces was helpful. The students recognised they would gain more from the exercise by this form of reflection.

Structure

The ability to store, manage, re-use, share and manipulate data within an e-portfolio without be required to move outside that environment, either physically or virtually, was seen as a considerable advantage. Linked to the issues with reflection, some students suggested that more styles, templates and checklists would be helpful. Others requested sight of previous students’ work or examples of good practice at the start of the module. While ownership of the e-portfolio was seen as remaining with the student, there were requests for a more detailed plan and guidance. It was also seen as important not too move too fast in an introductory e-portfolio session, or to make the process too complicated at the beginning.

Training

All students were given some form of training prior to using the e-portfolio, ranging from in-house workshops led by local IT staff to seminars facilitated by the providers. Students were clear that this training was essential to the process, and that those who missed the initial training were at a distinct disadvantage early in the project. Most of the e-portfolio applications used in the project were supported by user guides and manuals, but the students valued structured sessions.

Very few of the students in the mini-pilots had used learning logs or an equivalent personal development planning tool before the e-portfolio, and thus this was their first experience of this form of teaching and learning. They had initial difficulty both with the technology as well as with the rationale for using this form of application. Most managed to operate the e-portfolio itself during the course of the module, but it was not clear that they all understood why this methodology was being used.

Rather than being presented with a blank canvas for them to populate, the students were keen for styles, templates, examples of good practice. They wanted to be able to enter data as they liked but still to have the freedom to be creative in how to store and use the digital artefacts. Lawyers are as a general rule a fairly conservative body, not given to demonstrating their creative abilities, but the e-portfolio became a means for some of them to express their own identity in ways not otherwise open to them.

Workload

A number of students identified the e-portfolio as an additional burden, which meant they were required to dedicate more time to the module associated with it in comparison to other modules.

This was also identified as an issue in the workplace. The students were anxious that future employers realised how much time was required to complete an e-portfolio, and that this should be factored into their working day.

Last Modified: 6 July 2010