For my second reflective blog I am writing about e-portfolios and my belief that they are, and will continue to become, important tools for documenting continuing competency for professionals. For many of us continuing competency is a requirement of both licensure and continued credentialing for practice. We are required to document and have proof of activities such as professional service, attending workshops/courses/independent learning, presentations, fieldwork supervision, and publishing. This requires many pieces of paper, someplace to store the data and some system for organizing all this material. Certification is every 4 years and licensure every 2 years. How long do you keep all this stuff? If you teach at the professional level you may also be required to keep additional materials for your professional portfolio for promotion and retention. That’s a lot of paper! One article from a nursing journal correlates the professional e-portfolio to a patient’s medical record. The medical record contains all the clinical conditions and interventions over the course of a patient’s illness. The professional portfolio captures a summary of education and employment, letters of recommendation, licenses, and documents that show competency.
For many years I have had my “red folder”, a very beat-up accordion folder that held everything I thought I should save for that year. At the end of the year I sorted it out and put it all together for my retention and promotion portfolio. If not for the annual required organization those documents would still be in that folder waiting in case I was randomly selected for an audit the state or our national certification board. I still have my “red folder” but I am slowly moving things to my online e-portfolio. They will be safer as I can back up the documents to a disc, thumb drive or other electronic source. I will be able to access this information from different locations so if I am working on a project and need a reference or piece of information it will be readily available.
A web based portfolio will allow for capturing professional development data in real time and decrease the risk that you forget something important and ensuring that all of your data is up to date. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to go back and capture the last six months of more of your professional life because you need an updated CV right now. An e-portfolio can be used to set up alerts and reminders for events such as licensure and certification renewal. For those professionals working in facilities with clinical ladders, the e-portfolio is a great way to demonstrate progress.
There is a continuing discussion within my own profession regarding how to assess continuing competency. The practice of just collecting continuing education hours has been determined to be a poor indicator of competency. Many medical facilities are requiring annual competency assessments to meet requirements for their accreditation but these competency assessments are generally of basic skills and do nothing to show growth and development of new skills within a profession. Many professional associations and state licensure boards are considering portfolio evaluation. When, not if, this comes to pass, the e-portfolio will be the only way to effectively evaluate the professional. Can you just imagine the space that all that paper would take up in Springfield? The cost alone would be staggering. Submission of an e-portfolio would be efficient, cost effective and timely for all concerned.
This spring/summer trimester I will be teaching the first of three Professional Seminars for our Doctoral Students and they will be required to begin an e-portfolio for collecting and maintaining their work as they progress through the doctoral program. This will include a record of their research and capstone project. I will also be introducing e-portfolios to a doctoral class that I teach at the University of Indianapolis on Self-Directed Learning. This is a course for Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists and is designed for them to begin developing their course of study leading to their dissertation/juried project. I truly believe that all professionals can benefit from developing and using an e-portfolio. Whether it is a professionals individual portfolio or an educational program using and e-portfolio process the benefits are similar. The e-portfolio provides the ability to demonstrate life-long learning and continuing professional competency in an accurate, efficient and timely manner.
Here are some sights that you may find interesting:
http://www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio/proceedings2/ep2007/papers/eportfolio/reflective-e-portfolios-for-continuing-professional-development-and-organisational-change/view
For many years I have had my “red folder”, a very beat-up accordion folder that held everything I thought I should save for that year. At the end of the year I sorted it out and put it all together for my retention and promotion portfolio. If not for the annual required organization those documents would still be in that folder waiting in case I was randomly selected for an audit the state or our national certification board. I still have my “red folder” but I am slowly moving things to my online e-portfolio. They will be safer as I can back up the documents to a disc, thumb drive or other electronic source. I will be able to access this information from different locations so if I am working on a project and need a reference or piece of information it will be readily available.
A web based portfolio will allow for capturing professional development data in real time and decrease the risk that you forget something important and ensuring that all of your data is up to date. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to go back and capture the last six months of more of your professional life because you need an updated CV right now. An e-portfolio can be used to set up alerts and reminders for events such as licensure and certification renewal. For those professionals working in facilities with clinical ladders, the e-portfolio is a great way to demonstrate progress.
There is a continuing discussion within my own profession regarding how to assess continuing competency. The practice of just collecting continuing education hours has been determined to be a poor indicator of competency. Many medical facilities are requiring annual competency assessments to meet requirements for their accreditation but these competency assessments are generally of basic skills and do nothing to show growth and development of new skills within a profession. Many professional associations and state licensure boards are considering portfolio evaluation. When, not if, this comes to pass, the e-portfolio will be the only way to effectively evaluate the professional. Can you just imagine the space that all that paper would take up in Springfield? The cost alone would be staggering. Submission of an e-portfolio would be efficient, cost effective and timely for all concerned.
This spring/summer trimester I will be teaching the first of three Professional Seminars for our Doctoral Students and they will be required to begin an e-portfolio for collecting and maintaining their work as they progress through the doctoral program. This will include a record of their research and capstone project. I will also be introducing e-portfolios to a doctoral class that I teach at the University of Indianapolis on Self-Directed Learning. This is a course for Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists and is designed for them to begin developing their course of study leading to their dissertation/juried project. I truly believe that all professionals can benefit from developing and using an e-portfolio. Whether it is a professionals individual portfolio or an educational program using and e-portfolio process the benefits are similar. The e-portfolio provides the ability to demonstrate life-long learning and continuing professional competency in an accurate, efficient and timely manner.
Here are some sights that you may find interesting:
http://www.eife-l.org/publications/eportfolio/proceedings2/ep2007/papers/eportfolio/reflective-e-portfolios-for-continuing-professional-development-and-organisational-change/view
