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ePortfolio grant recipients set the precedent for ePortfolio integration

IU Indianapolis faculty set the precedent for ePortfolio integration

By: Yessica Salgado Quintana

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

IU Indianapolis faculty continue to be industry leaders, incorporating ePortfolios into their existing curriculums.

The Institute for Engaged Learning’s ePortfolio Program awarded 25 ePortfolio Course Integration grants for the 2024–25 academic year to faculty representing 8 schools and 15 departments. This effort is one of the most extensive ePortfolio faculty grant initiatives in the U.S. this year.

An ePortfolio is a tool that aids students in exhibiting their learning experience and expertise gained throughout their academic career. IU Indianapolis’ ePortfolio grant initiative is unique in its focus on using ePortfolios as a tool for learning. Grant recipients are encouraged to use ePortfolio through five different categories: project-oriented, course-oriented, degree/program-oriented, personal, and professional. Recipients can also access a shared ePortfolio, serving as a repository of documentation of faculty work and progress.

Debbie Oesch-Minor, interim director of the ePortfolio Program

Debbie Oesch-Minor, interim director of the ePortfolio Porgram, emphasized the benefits that embedding ePortfolios into courses has on students.

“Most faculty see ePortfolios as a showcase for future employers, like the cherry on top,” Oesch-Minor said. “We try to flip that paradigm and say, ‘ePortfolios are most beneficial when they're baked in [to courses] like a cherry pie.’”

According to pre/post curriculum surveys conducted by the ePortfolio office, students feel that they have been given the opportunity to take control of their assignments, how they're relating to the assignments, resulting in students feeling more ownership, support in career development, familiarity and comfort with technology, when they use ePortfolios throughout the semester.

Candid communication

Jennifer Bute, a professor for the communication studies department, worked closely with the ePortfolio team to develop a Google template for students to use in her Introduction to Communication course. Students receive a taste of ePortfolio and can add to it throughout their program and into their capstone where they might revisit it again.

ePortfolios engage students in digital storytelling using structured frameworks, such as Google Sites or Wix to present mastery of dense academic content through agency, customization, and creativity of each ePortfolio page.

Bute believes the use of ePortfolios teaches students valuable communication skills, namely communicating interpersonally, managing conflict, and presenting themselves online.

“Not only can it help you potentially secure a job, but as you're entering the workforce, having that skill set is important, because we know that from a communication perspective, every little aspect of that matters,” Bute said. “Whether it's the colors you use or the font you use, or whether or not there's a typo, all of those kinds of things are indicative of how important communication is in general.”

Jennifer Bute, professor for communication studies

Aaron Dusso, associate professor of political science

Aaron Dusso, an associate professor of political science, is charting new territory by integrating ePortfolio use into his online Introduction to American Politics course.

“It’s a skill in itself; given that we’re moving into a more digital age, being able to present ideas in a more engaging way through an ePortfolio [is] a skill that may be more translatable to the future of how we communicate with each other,” Dusso said.

Dusso created his own ePortfolio as an instructional tool to teach students how to make theirs for his course.

Lynn Jettpace, English teaching professor and director of the University Writing Center, is another grant recipient who worked with Debbie Oesch-Minor to create a Google Site template for students to use for a project in her general education writing course, Writing in the Sciences.

Jettpace thinks IU Indianapolis fosters experimentation in the classroom to promote student success.

“We have a mentality of, ‘let's try things in our classrooms. If there's evidence-based learning to be had, let's play with it and see how we can make it useful.’ I think there is a teaching focus and a student focus on this campus that you don't see in many of the other campuses of its size.”

Lynn Jettpace, director of University Writing Center and English teaching professor

For more information, contact the Division of Undergraduate Education Office of Communications at duecomm@iu.edu.

IU Indianapolis faculty set the precedent for ePortfolio integration

Candid communication

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