Haitham ALSheyadi 85753 Yousuf ALKaabi 86471

Overview / background: With the recent growth of the Internet and other distance technologies, web based portfolios has become an attractive option for expanding the educational management system which could be more appropriate to the instructor and to the learner. The instructor dr.Alaa who taught the course of the distance education in the spring 2008 applies for the first time e-portfolio. Thus the students must submit their activities and assignments using e-portfolio instead of submitting portfolios in CDs. They have a home page which is uploaded on freewebs and has links to the assignments which was uploaded previously in freewebs, blog or scribd. We conduct this survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-portfolio and its effectiveness from the students' perception and the aspects that need more consideration and emphasis when we need to apply eportfolio next time. Here is a screen shoot for one of these e-portfolios:

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to: 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of web-based course portfolio.

2. Evaluate the appropriateness and attractive of the homepage interface to the portfolio visitors
3. Evaluate to which extant the student benefit from others portfolios 4.

Reveal the difficulties that the students face in uploading and managing their portfolios.

Method: Context of the Study: Our study was conducted in the learning and instructional technology department where some students take the Distance Education & the Internet" TECH4101"course.In this course the students developed their portfolio which contain all the assignments and activities throughout the course and by following some guidelines which was provided by the instructor. Some of these guidelines were to use the same template or design for the homepage of the portfolio.

Participants in this study: Eight groups out of 17 groups were in the course are participate in this study. Each group has one portfolio. Interments: This survey data was collected by using questionnaire which can be called (WBLP) which was developed by chang (2001).In addition; we interview some students who take the course of distance learning to reveal the reasons behind some findings and to explore the disadvantages of the e-portfolio as management system. Findings of the study: Portfolio effectiveness of the portfolio:

Effectiveness of exploring and appropriateness of the e-portfolio instead of the CDportfolio: (%) of agreement 1 62.50 % 2 37.50% 3 0.00% 4 0.00% 5

Statements: 1. The explore process of the portfolio is clear and easy to understand 2. The E-portfolio is more

Mean

0.00% 1.38

appropriate and convenient 62.50 method to browse my %

37.50%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00% 1.38

course activities 3. The E-portfolio is an appropriate and convenient method activities to browse in the more 62.50 %

37.50%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00% 1.38

organized way. 4. The E-portfolio is an Appropriate convenient explore portfolio 5. The Appropriate method contents and for of 62.50 % 12.50 % 1.63

25.00%

0.00%

0.00%

E-portfolio and 62.50 %

convenient method to fill out the feedback opinions of the peers 6. Upload course method works of

37.50%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00% 1.38

is 12.50%

62.50 %

25.00 0.00% % 0.00%

2.38

appropriate and easy to use 7. Filling-in method be appropriate and easy to use for self-reflection and assessment records 8. Personal 12.50%

62.50 % 75.00 %

12.50 % 0.00%

12.50 % 0.00%

0.00%

2.25

basic 25.00%

0.00% 1.75

information is appropriate and easy to set up and

maintain 9. Upload

method

for

personal web page files be 25.00% appropriate and easy to use 10. E-portfolio platform is simple and appropriate 11. Portfolio production is a time consuming task and 25.00% with much effort 12. It is easy to write the feedback for peers 25.00%

50.00 % 75.00 %

12.50 %

12.50 %

0.00%

2.13

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

1.75

62.50 % 25.00%

0.00%

0.00% 12.50% 62.50 %

2.13

12.50%

0.00%

0.00%

3.75

Analysis of the results: Above average of the students who take the course of distance learning see that the eportfolio is an effective way to upload, submit and explore the course assignments. This can be reveal from the table which has 12 items related to the term of effectiveness of the used e-portfolio. The item 12 shows high disagreement (meant 3.75).This result was according to the e-portfolio condition which didn't has a direct way to comment on others works and to discuss such point. The e-portfolio was in short a webpage which has some links to assignments in blogs and scribd and most of the student get the way to navigate and comment much complex than if having the ability to add comments in the homepage of the portfolio. The result of agreement in the other items and relatively the high agreement may was due to that the whole students who take this course are from the learning and instructional technology major and most of them are in their final year. Thus according to the participant characteristics their mastery level of technology is relative high. In addition, some of the students have some bad experiences in previous courses in submitting their portfolio of the course in CD. Some the instructor e-mails them that the CD was empty. Furthermore, the e-portfolio is more flexible to submit from anywhere and at anytime. The effectiveness of the e-portfolio in the distance learning course in term of exchanging and sharing ideas with other classmates and the course instructor:

Statements: 13. E-portfolio helps me to share my activities with my classmates 14. I benefit from other activities and assignments 15. I have explored the

(%) of agreement 1 2 37.50 % 37.50 %

Mean 3 12.50 % 12.50 % 12.50 % 4 5

0.00%

12.50%

2.13

12.50%

12.50%

50.00 % 37.50 %

12.50%

3.38

course works of most of 0.00% my classmates 16. I have explored the teacher feedback of most of my classmates 17. I have explored the peers feedback opinions of most of my classmates 18. I have explored the feedback opinions from 0.00% my teacher 19. I have explored the feedback from my peers 20. Exploring my 0.00% 12.50% 0.00% 0.00%

25.00%

25.00%

3.63

12.50%

12.50 %

37.50 %

37.50%

4.00

12.50%

12.50 %

37.50 %

37.50%

4.00

12.50%

12.50 % 12.50 %

50.00 %

25.00%

3.88

12.50%

25.00%

37.50 %

3.63

classmates works helps to upgrade the quality of my works

25.00%

12.50 %

25.00%

37.50 %

3.75

21. It helps me to know about my teacher feedback 0.00% and suggestions by using this system 22. It helps me to know about my classmate 12.50% 12.50% 12.50 % 25.00% 37.50 % 3.63 25.00% 12.50 % 25.00% 37.50 % 3.75

feedback and suggestions by using this system 23. It enhances my

interactions and exchanges 12.50% with my classmates by using this system

12.50%

0.00%

37.50 %

37.50 %

3.75

Most of the students how enrolled in the course of distance learning didn't agree that the e-portfolio help them to explore others works and benefit from peers and teacher feedback. This because of that each group e-mail the link of their portfolio to the course instructor and there was no board to collect the whole portfolios on it. Thus most students didn't have peer feedback to benefit from it. (%) of agreement 1 2 e-portfolio of my 12.50% 25.00 % Mean

Statements: 24. The

3 12.50 %

4 37.50 %

5 12.50 %

homepage

3.13

classmates was attractive 25. I hope to use this system (e-portfolio) in 75.00 %

25.00 %

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

1.25

other courses as well

As this table shows that most of the students see that the design of the homepage portfolio was not attractive to the portfolio visitors. This result may because that portfolio homepage was the same for the all portfolios of the students in the course. The web page was so poor and doesnt have images in it which could be more attractive.

About 75% from the survey participants want to use the e-portfolio again and thus may be according to their good experience with e-portfolio in comparison with the CD portfolio. In addition, their technology mastery level may be high so they can use computer and programs well. Difficulties of using e-portfolio: Most of the students get problems in using the webs and how to make pictures appear on their websites properly. This because that the student use the webs for the first time. In addition, they had some difficulties in uploading their assignments to scribd. Furthermore, some of the participants weren't able to explore others works to improve their works and didn't get feedback from the instructor. Advantages of using e-portfolio: The e-portfolio is more flexible way than submitting portfolio in CD. You can submit anywhere and anytime. The e-portfolio provide much guarantee to submit activities in proper way

Recommendations: The e-portfolio is an appropriate way to gather activities and share them with other but it is important to give the students a discussion board to discuss together the difficulties either related to the activities or technical problems and help students to exchange feedbacks to improve their learning. The student should have some option to change the homepage of the portfolio to be more attractive with some guidelines from the instruction related to the design and page elements.

 Reference:
Chang, Chi-Cheng; A study on the evaluation and effectiveness analysis of web-based learning portfolio(WBLP) ,2001 [Online] British Journal of Educational T echnology,http://www.stanford.edu/dept/SUSE/projects/ireport/articl es/eportfolio/a%20study%20on%20the%20effectiveness%20analysis%20 of%20web-based%20learning%20portfolio.pdf (Accessed: April 30/2008)