By Tracy Penny Light and Helen L. Chen, the Executive Editors of the Field Guide to Reflection in ePortfolios

The Significance of Reflection

Reflection, the cornerstone of effective ePortfolio learning and implementation, is more than a method; it’s a mindset also known as “folio thinking.” It encourages learners to connect their learning experiences across contexts (academic, workplace, community), fostering lifelong learning skills, and integrative thinking. The habits of mind fostered in reflection are needed today to address real-world challenges that are encountered across our learning journeys. Identifying appropriate reflective activities that suit our unique learning contexts, however, can be challenging. 

To address this, our collective mission is to co-author an Open Educational Resource (OER) to serve as a living and evolving compendium of ePortfolio best practices, the Field Guide to Reflection in ePortfolios. 

We are inviting authors/co-authors to contribute to the Field Guide in various ways. Contributors may submit, for instance, frameworks, activities, templates, and rubrics, orienting chapter, histories, case stories, exemplars. Below is a sample table of contents that will be refined based on submissions. This is not exhaustive so please feel free to share additional ideas!

Field Guide to Reflection in ePortfolios – Sample Table of Contents

1. History of Reflection and Folio Thinking
   1. Art & Science of Reflection
   2. Reflection and Integrative Learning
2. Translating Reflection across Disciplines
   1. Disciplinary Examples
   2. Case Stories
3. Reflection and Assessment
   1. Best Practices & Writing Effective Prompts
   2. Rubrics
   3. Examples
4. Reflection and Learner Identity/Positionality
   1. Agency and Autonomy
   2. Reflection to Promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Mattering
5. Reflection across the Campus: Bridging Academic & Student Affairs
   1. Reflection across the Learning Career/Journey (Scaffolding)
   2. Reflection at Orientation/Transition to Higher Learning
   3. Leadership and Careers
6. Curating Reflection: Instructors and Learners
   1. Modelling Reflection
   2. Types of Portfolios
7. Reflection as a Wellness Practice for Learners, Teachers, Leaders

Timeline

• January 27, 2025: Proposal submissions due 
• January 27-31, 2025:  Review of proposals
• February 3, 2025: Authors notified of acceptance
• Week of February 10, 2025: Authors online meetup for planning
• March 10, 2025: Draft submissions due
• March 11-21, 2025: Peer review of submissions
• March 24-31, 2025: Final edits
• April 3-5, 2025 and beyond: Presentation of the Field Guide at various conferences

How to Submit a Proposal 

Prospective authors/section editors will be asked to submit a brief (250 word) synopsis of their contribution, a brief CV (2 pages), and a statement of their experience with reflection and ePortfolios via the proposal submission form by January 27, 2025. Questions can be sent to fgreflect@gmail.com.

Call for papers for the AAEEBL ePortfolio Review, focused on Practices of Digital Ethics. Due March 16. See tab for Resources/AePR/Call for Papers.

The Field Guide to Eportfolio, a publication produced by more than fifty members of the ePortfolio field, provides an authoritative and representative account of the ePortfolio idea.

It combines entries on what the most important dimensions of the ePortfolio concept are with case studies from various countries.

This publication intends to be both an authoritative guide for how to understand ePortfolio in the context of higher education as well as an attempt to break new ground.

The Field Guide to Eportfolio is a collaborative of the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL), the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the International Journal of ePortfolio (IJeP), and the Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication (EPAC) Community of Practice.  The Field Guide was created by a number of key AAEEBL practitioners, researchers and technologists in partnership with AAC&U. It is now archived as a key look at the field, as a guide to ePortfolios and what they mean to/as/of/for education in that moment in time. Field Guide Editor, Kate Coleman with Kristina Hoeppner, Mahara Project Lead have been workshopping the Field Guide in 2018 to curate new resources for the field. We now invite a continued participatory approach to building into and onto the field for the future through workshopping the ideas that the possible/probable field will explore. This padlet has been created to collect and curate these ongoing resources for the next iteration of field guide users, we invite you to leave links to institutional web pages, published articles and other forms of digital collections for sharing in the ePortfolio community.

If you have questions about connecting with the AAEEBL community, send an email to connect@aaeebl.org.

In response to rising concerns about digital ethics in ePortfolio practice, AAEEBL created a Digital Ethics Task Force charged with researching and articulating research-based practices for ePortfolios. The Task Force is a standing committee that accepts new participants in July of each year. Visit the most current version of our work, Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios: Version 2, for guidance and support on implementing ePortfolios with digital ethics at the forefront of this work.

During its first year, the Task Force developed Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios: Version 1, which supports ePortfolio decision-making and practices across different locations and contexts, enabling important principles, strategies, scenarios, and additional resources to be accessed both interactively and in text formats. In year two, the Task Force revised the Principles document, with added attention to how digital ethical literacy intersects with the mass transition to online learning due to COVID-19. In addition to the recursive revision of the primary Principles document, the Task Force works to contribute to the scholarship on digital ethics through publications, conference attendance, and other professional networking opportunities.