Executive Summary
This report presents findings from the North American ePortfolio Labor Mapping Survey, conducted by the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force to better understand who performs ePortfolio-related work in higher education, how that labor is supported, and how it is acknowledged across institutions in the U.S. and Canada. For the purposes of this project, an ePortfolio is understood as “a thoughtfully arranged collection of multimedia-rich, interlinked, hypertextual documents that students compose, own, maintain, and archive on the Internet or in other formats” (Conference on College Composition and Communication [CCCC], 2015). ePortfolio practice is seen as both focused on process and product.
Drawing on responses from 64 practitioners across a wide range of institutional types, roles, and experience levels, the findings suggest that ePortfolio labor is most often carried out by instructors, instructional designers, and instructional technologists working closely with students and faculty. While many respondents reported long-standing institutional use of ePortfolios, implementation remains largely localized, most commonly within individual courses, programs, or departments, rather than institution-wide.
Across institutions, ePortfolios are primarily used to support reflection, integrative learning, and assessment. However, practices that depend on sustained coordination, such as longitudinal learning, career preparation, and institutional assessment, appear less common, suggesting structural and infrastructural barriers to scale. Support for ePortfolio creators is most often technical in nature, with fewer institutions offering integrated design, writing, pedagogical, or professionalization support.
Most notably, respondents reported limited formal acknowledgment of faculty ePortfolio labor. Over half indicated that their work with ePortfolios is not recognized through course releases, stipends, promotion and tenure processes, or other institutional mechanisms. This lack of recognition raises concerns about sustainability, burnout, and the long-term viability of ePortfolio initiatives.
Taken together, these findings highlight a persistent disconnect between the pedagogical value of ePortfolios as a high-impact practice and the institutional structures that support and reward the labor required to sustain them. This report represents an initial phase of analysis and establishes a foundation for deeper examination of labor distribution, institutional support models, and equity considerations in future work.
Five Things We Learned from the ePortfolio Labor Mapping Survey
- ePortfolio work is carried primarily by instructors, instructional designers, and instructional technologists, with less involvement from upper-level administrators or formal assessment leaders, meaning much of the labor happens at the ground level rather than through institutional infrastructure.
- Most ePortfolio initiatives remain localized within individual courses, departments, programs, or General Education rather than being institution-wide, which limits the ability to support longitudinal learning, career integration, and coordinated assessment.
- Institutions primarily use ePortfolios for reflection, integrative learning, and course-level assessment, while practices that require sustained coordination, such as longitudinal learning and career preparation, are much less common.
- Support for ePortfolio creators is heavily weighted toward technical help, with fewer institutions offering integrated support for writing, design, pedagogy, or professionalization, despite ePortfolios requiring all of these skill areas.
- Over half of respondents report that faculty ePortfolio labor is not formally acknowledged at all, with minimal use of course releases, stipends, promotion and tenure credit, or institutional recognition, raising major concerns about sustainability and burnout.
Questions for Your Institution
- Where is ePortfolio labor currently happening at our institution, and who is carrying it?
- How is ePortfolio labor acknowledged, compensated, or rewarded (if at all)?
- If we want to scale or sustain ePortfolios, what infrastructure would need to change?
- What additional support (technical, pedagogical, assessment, administrative) would be required to ensure long-term viability?