Creating community engagement around the concept of ePortfolios: An innovative planning process

EPortfolio progress has been slowed at many institutions by a technology-first attitude: a platform is chosen and then wider use of that platform is encouraged. One flaw in this strategy is that ePortfolios can be used for a variety of activities, each of which has somewhat different support needs (often including different technologies). A planning team at the University of Queensland decided to widen the engagement of the academic community by focusing attention on the activities, rather than on the software. The team's innovative planning process has many points of interest including the involvement of international expertise, the list of ePortfolio-supported activities, the workshop's tasks, and the use of Google spreadsheets to make small group breakouts work more quickly and effectively. The resulting half-day workshop has energised wider interest in ePortfolios at the university.