I’m being pressed to demonstrate that there is a “market” for ePortfolios. I’ve assembled sites like the Merlot connection, and of course the recent AAC&U study about what employers want resonates that ePorts trump tests. I’m jotting this note in case you have some numbers or better yet indicators that this ePorts are not a flash but a substantial trend. (Yes, it’s that “market” term that has gained cache of late…)

-- Gary Brown, Washington State University

From Darren Cambridge, George Mason University:

I don't have a lot of numbers to help you, although I do think I remember that the Campus Computing survey of CIOs in 2007 results show that 39% of HEI in the US now offer ePortfolio services to their students in some form.

In addition to the employer survey, you might point to recent multi-million dollar grant given by the Department of Education to AAC&U and LaGuardia C.

As for an external market, there's not a lot of systematic research. You might check in with the folks at Florida State, who are studying employer expectations of ePortfolios as their cohort III research project. Their contact information is on the Coalition website: http://ncepr.org/.

My own research (and work with George Mason alumni who completed portfolios) suggests that, whether or not there is a market for the portfolios produced, employers value the understanding of one's capabilities and ability to articulate them that are a result of composing them.

My research on eFolio Minnesota also provides fairly compelling evidence that people find composing portfolios, for a variety of purposes, intrinsically valuable and continue to use them even without an academic context that compels such use. See my article in press in Computers & Education: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2007.11.010.

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