ePortfolios and graduate recruitment in the tertiary sector Reflections from the University of Wollongong experience

2 Presenter Ms Sarah Lambert Project Manager Student ePortfolio Project University of Wollongong Australia

3 ePortfolios and Unis University of Wollongong –Working with ePortfolios since 2002 QUT earlier still! –DIY product QUT leading Carrick project –National strategy and leadership –Forum Feb 2008, report July 2008

4 Collection Selection Reflection and Presentation of Students’ best work…

5

6

7 Customised Goals

8 Collection Selection Reflection and Presentation of Students’ best work… -more than online storage

9 Why do it? Jobs for students! –Highlight and promote better understanding of Graduate Attributes and Professional Skills Other benefits –Better assessment, learning outcomes –Reflective, life-long learners –Portability as students move through uni, tafe, work

10 ePortfolio - a vision In the future, “everybody would have a personal online space where they would store their ‘life’s work’ and make presentations of it in different formats for… friends and family, school and higher education, workmates, and job interviews. It would be a repository of all their accomplishments, their hopes and their reflections. It would stay with them for life and be a constant updatable companion: a diary, CV, a record, a forward planner” Stephani, Mason and Peglar, 2007

11 Will it transform recruitment? Not clear if it will directly influence moves to online recruitment – workload concerns –maybe look at ePortfolios for shortlisted candidates? –Good for designers, architects?? Great tool for students to be really prepared for recruitment –Understand their skills, strengths –Be in a position to justify and explain them

12 Discussion