Work in progress: using e-portfolios to assess communication skills

With communication skills crucial to workplace success and communication-in-the-disciplines programs gaining popularity, educators need effective mechanisms to assess student learning in this area. Traditional product-based assessments in individual courses reflect students´ mastery of assignments, but provide no means to evaluate their understanding of how to develop documents based on situational constraints or to track student progress and curricular effectiveness across a multi-year program. Portfolio assessments offer one solution, and the advent of Web-based e-portfolio systems provide added gains. This project explores the potential of e-portfolios in assessing both student and programmatic success. Preliminary results of a pilot project suggest that while the interface, which is still in development, has some usability issues, the e-portfolio system, with appropriate pedagogical support, is a feasible alternative to paper portfolios.