The benefits for employers of using eportfolios are well-known – slashing time, hassle, duplication of effort and manual paperwork. But what about the most important people involved? Students.
As an employer, you need to deliver the biggest return on your training investments. And one surefire way to do that is to make it as easy as possible for learners to evidence their work and track progress.
We live in a world, where ‘digitally savvy’ students will expect to use online eportfolio every day during their programme. Eportfolios enable students to learn any time, anywhere, on any device - logging in online to view assignments, access resources, upload evidence and read feedback from their tutor.
With everyone benefiting from eportfolios, here are our top 6 ways to optimize them for students:
1. Maximise engagement
By offering access to eportfolios, you can maximise learner engagement. Why? Because that’s how students want to learn. Candidates can log in to their portfolio on a laptop or smartphone and work their way, wherever they are – on the bus, at home or in the office.
OneFile's eportfolio is proven to be a favourite among learners, increasing engagement by 35% and timely completion rates by 10%. Find out why learners love OneFile here.
2. Enable multimedia evidence
Eportfolios enable learners to provide multimedia evidence. Instead of writing notes describing what they've done, learners can upload photos, videos and audio recordings of their skills in action. This saves loads of time and makes learning more fun. And, if your eportfolio has an offline app, learners can even take snaps and videos at any time and sync the files to their account when they’re ready. It's learning their way.
3. Support online storage
Offering professional training represents a significant financial and operational commitment for employers. By offering access to online eportfolios, you can design out potential errors like loss of materials or communication breakdowns. With everything stored online, you can maximise visibility, transparency and performance for you and your learners.
4. Enhance lifelong learning
Learners who take ownership of their eportfolios will find they can use them as a secret weapon for personal development. OneFile’s eportfolio has built-in feature for recording Continuing Professional Development, as well as recording all achievements throughout students’ careers – both of which can be powerful tools for acing interviews for jobs and training.
By working with learners to boost their eportfolios, you might also boost their long term career prospects.
5. Enable self-assessment
Eportfolios maximise visibility of requirements and transparency of performance. Learners can easily read the assessment criteria and understand exactly what they have to do to measure up. This supports accountability and responsibility – where learners can take ownership of their development throughout the entire programme.
6. Maintain motivation
OneFile’s eportofolios are designed to motivate learners – with progress dashboards updating from red, to amber and green - spurring candidates on to finish their work. Our eportfolios also include a gap analysis function, so learners can easily see how they need to improve.
“I loved OneFile from the start. Working online was so much easier than paper. OneFile enhanced communication with my tutor, giving me more control over my apprenticeship and more confidence in my ability. My advice would be to use OneFile – go for it!”
Barbara Harrison, UKCC Level 2 learner – Horse Scotland
To find out more about why learners love OneFile, download our free guide. We explain what features keep learners engaged and hear from the learners themselves.
