How are portfolios different from records of achievement?

Records of achievement (RAs) or personal development plans (PDPs) are important tools for encouraging and supporting personal development and both academic and career planning. They are commonly linked into personal tutoring schemes, and have also been used to support the development of students’ skills awareness and reflective capacities – see for example the PADSHE Project and the the work of UKCLE’s PDP working group.

In RAs/PDPs the recording of achievement tends to be across a whole programme of study (rather than module-specific) and to be more summary and factual than in a portfolio. RAs/PDPs are not always used as a basis for assessment.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010