Binghamton University is moving further into the digital age by having Richard Kiely, the director of Engaged Learning + Research at Cornell University, teach faculty members about electronic portfolios.

Faculty members gathered in Library North on Wednesday to watch Kiely’s presentation entitled, “How to Measure Learning.” The presentation, which was organized by the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT), was through video conference, and the 15 BU faculty members who attended could ask him questions live. According to organizers, more professors watched from their own offices and messaged in questions.

Kiely described electronic portfolios, or ePortfolios, as “an alternate grading strategy.” EPortfolios allow students to create an interactive portfolio resembling a website dedicated to a certain topic. Kiely said that these can be used for assignments because students can better convey what they have learned to their professor.

“The complexity of learning and the complexity of how one learns in any educational environment is difficult to represent,” Kiely said. “Electronic portfolios by their very nature take learning experiences and allow the person to use the portfolio to reflect on those experiences.”

According to Kiely, unlike a paper, the ePortfolio can have different tabs that allow a student to collect and organize data in one place. The reader can search for and click on what they would like to read digitally, instead of sifting through a pile of papers. Kiely explained that this can also be useful for interactive résumés that students can digitally send out to prospective employers.

“They conceptualize the integration of their representation of learning,” Kiely said. “So they’re already setting themselves up for thinking about their professional career. Students don’t often get an opportunity to do this.”

Kiely taught the faculty members different ways that students can go about making ePortfolios. He explained that they can use portfolio-specific software or Google Sites to set up an ePortfolio, which he said were both easy to use. He also said that they could use a slightly more complex platform called Adobe Dreamweaver CC, but according to Kiely, all of these options are relatively low-cost.

Myra Sabir, an assistant professor of human development, is currently using ePortfolios with her senior class students. She said that she intended for them to leave the University with a clear path in front of them, and creating an ePortfolio about their skills and knowledge can help with that goal.

“Many students have indicated how prepared they were for interviews and for writing graduate school essays after completing the ePortfolio, and that the process was an important reason they secured the job or internship or graduate school acceptance,” Sabir said.

Eric Machan Howd, an instructional designer of the CLT, facilitated the event. He said the CLT invited Kiely to speak about ePortfolios because of their spreading popularity across the country.

“Some universities and colleges are going in that direction, and from the business end many employers love to see electronic portfolios along with a résumé,” Howd said. “Many students that have submitted them for internships have been successful in gaining them because they used both the ePortfolio and the résumé.”

Rachel Scheckman, an undeclared freshman, said she had never used an ePortfolio but that it seemed like a good change from the standard papers that college students are often assigned.

“I think it’d be cool to have a different way to do assignments that’s more interesting than just writing a paper,” Scheckman said. “The world is is all online now, and I think students should get to utilize it more in their education.”