Documenting Experience

Migrants to Australia Embrace e-Portfolios

Brisbane (AU), September 2011 - Newly arrived migrants have participated in an eLearning project that provided them with a method to record their learning and employment experiences. The project, which was conducted by AMES (Adult Multicultural Education Services), piloted the use of e-portfolios by adult Cultural and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) learners.




As Australia celebrates Adult Learners Week, the e-Portfolios for adult ESL learners project provides a good example of the importance of proving training for all age groups. Four learner groups and several distance learners who were studying the Certificate I or III in Spoken and Written English created e-portfolios that incorporated resumes, work samples, and digital recordings.

Project coordinator Dora Troupiotis says the "learners participating in this project are developing a better understanding of the benefits of e-portfolios, while also improving their employability skills. And all of this will occur in the context of completing assessment tasks for their course."

The learners used several technologies in the process of making the e-portfolios:

  • Mahara (e-portfolio application)
  • flip video camera for learner-generated digital videos
  • mp3 player/digital recorder for learner-generated audio files
  • digital cameras and photo-editing software.

Six participating trainers also received ongoing mentoring and support as they integrated e-portfolios into their courses. In addition, the trainers used the following to support students and their own learning network:

  • Snag It (screen capture)
  • Wikispaces wiki
  • Elluminate (web conferencing).