Evaluation of an e-Portfolio system

I've recently received a copy of the report, 'Assessing the Efficacy and Effectiveness of an E-Portfolio Used for Summative Assessment '. - A very clear and well written document!

As regular readers will appreciate, I disagree with some aspects of the report such as the decision to use the embedded e-Portfolio tool within Blackboard. The authors also recognise a serious limitation of the report in not having any pre-implementation rubric results with which to compare findings. Again, I would disagree with the emphasis on evaluating implementation skills. I think that in terms of e-Portfolios we should be well passed that stage by now and just use the e-Portfolio to assess learning outcomes.

As the title of the report indicates, this implementation was being used to assess SUMMATIVELY. NO reference is made to the use of the e-Portfolio for enabling teachers to provide FORMATIVE feedback. However, the report is well worth reading in terms of the research methodology and the lessons learnt. People considering implementing e-Portfolio systems or even developing existing systems would do well to carefully study this document.