JCPSLP Vol 16 no 3 2014_FINAL_WEB

Clinical education

Implementation of an ePortfolio Perspectives of speech pathology students Abigail Lewis and Katrina Strampel

In order to graduate, speech pathology students need to effectively apply taught theory to clients in their clinical practicum. Following graduation, students showcase their competency to employers in a challenging and competitive employment environment. Once employed, they engage in lifelong learning, demonstrating ongoing competency to practice. An ePortfolio is a collection of artefacts and reflections from clinical experiences that can be used as learning, assessment and showcasing tool. An ePortfolio was embedded across the new speech pathology course at Edith Cowan University. Student perceptions of the utility of the ePortfolio for learning and showcasing were investigated by questionnaire. Students were engaged with the ePortfolio, seeing it more as an organisational than learning tool. They were negative about the time required to complete an ePortfolio and did not see the link with their future career. With additional support and a more flexible and user-friendly software platform, an ePortfolio may be of use as a learning tool for students and for professional self-regulation. P aper-based portfolios have been used as an assessment tool in higher education and to demonstrate learning for promotion or appraisal in the workplace for over twenty years (Klenowski, Askew, & Carnell, 2006). Since the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, the use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) has substantially increased in many universities across the world (Hallam & Creagh, 2010), and ePortfolios are used in disciplines such as teaching, nursing and medicine (Chou & Chen, 2008). The term “ePortfolio” has many definitions in the literature depending on its context and purpose (Hallam & Creagh, 2010). The Australian ePortfolio Project (AeP) defines an ePortfolio as: “an electronically stored collection (or archive) of a student’s experiences, achievements and

artefacts, together with their reflections on learning” (AeP, 2009, p. 2). The advantages of ePortfolios over traditional paper portfolios are ease of access, revision and updating, increased storage capacity, the inclusion of multimedia materials such as video and audio, use of hyperlinks; and the development of technological skills (Chou & Chen, 2008; Tochel et al., 2009). A report documents how countries, such as Wales and the Netherlands, are using ePortfolios for all citizens (not just students) to support transitions, career development and lifelong learning, and recommends Australia follows suit (Leeson & Williams, 2009). Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) requires practising speech pathologists to continue learning and be certified in a commitment to self-regulation in line with other non- registered professions (SPA, 2014). An ePortfolio may be an effective tool for monitoring such a process (Gordon & Campbell, 2013), yet there is no research exploring this for speech pathologists (SPs). In Australia, universities offering speech pathology programs need to demonstrate to Speech Pathology Australia how their students meet the entry level requirement for the profession, using the Competency Based Occupational Standards for Speech Pathology (CBOS; SPA, 2011). As well as traditional on-campus teaching, universities ensure students have clinical practicums under the supervision of qualified practising speech pathologists. Students in speech pathology (SP) courses often report a disconnect between taught theory and applying that knowledge in clinical settings (Walden, 2010); therefore strengthening clinical practicum–theory links is important. An ePortfolio can be used as a learning tool to support students to make these links (Buckley et al., 2009). Universities need to evaluate the student’s learning in the clinical practicum. According to Yorke (2011), an appropriate and valid assessment would include an assessment of actual performance along with a record of performance and a reflection on learning in a portfolio format. The SP profession has a valid and reliable assessment of performance in COMPASS® (McAllister, Lincoln, Ferguson & McAllister, 2013) and the process of developing an ePortfolio for assessment would further demonstrate entry-level skills to university staff. For students, therefore, an ePortfolio is a tool for learning

KEYWORDS EPORTFOLIO FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY STUDENTS SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED

Abigail Lewis (top) and Katrina Strampel

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JCPSLP Volume 16, Number 3 2014

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au