What is a Portfolio?

A portfolio is "a targeted collection of work that shows the individual progress and achievements of the learner in one or more areas [...]" (Paulson et al 1991, p. 60, German text version quoted from Häcker 2006). The portfolio is used as a collection folder for various artifacts (scientific articles, personal reflections, video contributions, etc.). Usually, there are one or more guiding themes that students use as orientation when creating their portfolio.

The learning platform ILIAS offers the possibility to create a portfolio in electronic (digital) form, a so-called e-portfolio. You can find this function in the main menu under "My Workspace".

What can the Portfolio be used for?

The portfolio is a didactic instrument that can be used for a variety of purposes, e.g. as an alternative pass/fail or graded assessment to support scientific work or as a reflection tool.

With the help of the portfolio function of ILIAS, it is now possible to offer this task also in a digital version. When the students have completed their portfolio with ILIAS, it is possible to submit it to the teacher for evaluation or to release it for others to view and/or export it in HTML format. The portfolio function can be used in combination with the ILIAS objects "Portfolio Template" / "Blog" / "Submission Task/Exercise".

Example: Portfolio work on the topic "Evaluating the scientific character of sources”

An important basis for studying is to recognize good scientific sources and to distinguish them from "unscientific" sources, i.e. being able to understand the quality of scientific work and evaluating it for oneself. It is important that students are particularly sensitized to this in order to produce good scientific work later.

For such a topic, it is a good idea to do a portfolio work with the students. The students are asked to collect sources on a topic of their choice and examine these articles with the question: "Is this source scientifically correct?” They should record their experiences, in which way they arrive at their evaluations regarding the "scientific character" of the source, in a reflection on the respective article. In this way, the students develop the evaluation criteria themselves and can thus actively deal with the topic. Later, these own criteria can be discussed and deepened in a joint discussion.

Methodical-didactical Hints

Portfolios in teaching - opportunities and challenges (lecture by Marion Degenhardt, July 24, 2017)
https://www.hochschuldidaktik.uni-freiburg.de/angebote/fruehstueck/fruehstueck_170224 (in German)