Create. Share. Engage.

Dr Debra Hoven is an educator at Athabasca University in Canada, teaching and researching primarily in the Master in Education in Open, Digital, and Distance Education and in the Doctorate in Education programme. She has a long history with portfolios and shares one aspect of her research and practice in this interview, the autoethnographic video project that some of her MEd students engaged in to reflect on their own learning in the programme and help students coming after them get a head start.
Connect with Debra on LinkedIn
Resources

• Presentation 'What I know now that I wish I'd known then: A photo(video) voice collaborative autoethnographic study of student ePortfolio creation' at the 2023 Eportfolio Forum (shortened peer-reviewed paper)
• Hoven, D., Walsh, P., Al-Tawil, R., & Zuba Prokopetz, R.: Exploring professional development needs and strategies for instructors/faculty facilitating ePortfolios online, Irish JTEL 2021
• Debra's Technology Demonstrators Community of Practice Event on portfolios in March 2024
• Master in Education in Open, Digital, and Distance Education at Athabasca University
• Debra's professional interests and publications

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.
Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Until recently, Lisa Donaldson, MSc, worked at Dublin City University in Ireland in the Teaching Enhancement Unit. There she was responsible for Loop Reflect, DCU's ePortfolio platform based on Mahara. In our conversation, Lisa shares how everything started at DCU, and what some of the important steps were that the University took to grow its portfolio initiative.
Click through to the episode page for the transcript.
Connect with Lisa and ePortfolio organisations she's active in

• Lisa on Twitter
• Lisa on LinkedIn
• Eportfolio Ireland
• AAEEBL

Publications of interest

• Ebook 'Eportfolio based assessment: Inspiring exploration and supporting evaluation for practitioners'
• Ebook 'Exploring the diversity of ePortfolio practice: An international sharing of practice, activities, and assessment'
• Special issue on ePortfolios in the Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning
• The learning portfolio in higher education: A game of snakes and ladders

Portfolios at Dublin City University

• Loop Reflect, DCU's ePortfolio site
• Annual Student Showcase and Awards for 2022
• AAEEBL student interviews, in particular Emaan, Ruby, and Samantha

Audio editing support: Sofia Kokoreva

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.
Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Sarah Zurhellen (Appalachian State University), Dr Megan Mize (Old Dominion University), and Dr Amy Cicchino (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) talk digital ethics in portfolio practice. The main focus is on the AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principle 'Visibility of Labor', and how that impacts educators and students alike.
This is the first episode with members of the Digital Ethics Task Force. The next one will look at the principle of 'Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Decolonization' (DEIBD) with Dr Christine Slade and Dr Kevin Kelly.
Click through to the episode page for the transcript.
Connect with Amy

• Amy on LinkedIn
• Amy on Twitter

Connect with Megan

• Megan on LinkedIn
• Megan on Twitter

Connect with Sarah on Twitter

Resources

• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principles
• AAEEBL Task Force webinar on sustainable ePortfolio practice
• ePortfolio Mapping Survey - participate to have your voice heard
• Folio thinking post by Vicky Suter, inspired by Helen L. Chen's definition shared in 'Documenting Learning'
• AAC&U High Impact Practices
• 3-part podcast conversation on 'Digication Scholars' exploring the Digital Ethics Principles
• WAC/WID Mapping Project
• Upcoming AAEEBL events

Note: Interviewees are not affiliated with the Mahara community. They use different technologies.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.
Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Debra Hoven and Margaret Rauliuk, dissertation mentor and student team at Athabasca University in Canada, talk about the trials and tribulations but also the joy in creating a portfolio as alternative to the Doctor in Education monograph. They share how their work contributes to opening doors for other types of dissertations and what they have learned along the way besides why Margaret wanted to create a portfolio in the first place.
Connect

• Debra on LinkedIn
• Margaret on Hylo and on X (formerly Twitter)

Resources

• Margaret's research seminar portfolio
• Selected publications of Margaret
• Debra's podcast episode 'The value of self-reflection and peer feedback'
• Debra's professional interests and publications
• On Ecological Constructivism: Hoven, D. & Palalas, A. (2011). (Re)Conceptualizing Design Approaches for Mobile Language Learning. Special Issue of CALICO Journal: CALL Research in Canada. 28(3).
• 2018 Canadian Association for Graduate Studies Taskforce on the Doctorate
• Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED)
• Other doctoral portfolio projects (not mentioned in the episode; added here for further exploration)
  • Dr Kathryn Coleman's 'An a/r/tist in Wonderland: Exploring identity, creativity and digital portfolios as a/r/tographer'
  • Presentation 'Doctoral ePortfolios: Can a dissertation be an ePortfolio?' by Mandi Mizuta, Sheila Mulooly, Melissa Shaquid Pirie, and Candyce Reynolds (Portland State University) in 2021
• Debra's Technology Demonstrators Community of Practice Event on portfolios in March 2024
• Sandra Styres's book 'Pathways for remembering and recognizing Indigenous thought in education'
• 'Joyce's Principle'
• Heiltsuk Nation
• Esquimalt Nation
• lək̓wəŋən Traditional Territory

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.
Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Honorary Senior Lecturer Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP, from The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, teaches computer science students. He uses authentic learning tasks, in particular around the topic of job applications to engage his students in portfolio practice.
In this interview, Tom shares his own journey from a design portfolio to one for his Master's in Education and what he has learned along the way that is helping him support his students in their own reflective practice without employing portfolio language, but rather using language that has more meaning to his students.
Connect with Tom on LinkedIn
Resources

• Tom's blog posts on his portfolio course ideas
• Presentation 'A job application as the capstone for work integrated learning'
• Professor Dr Stephen Dann
• LEGO SERIOUS PLAY
• Professor Dr Charles Gretton
• ANU TechLauncher
• Awasthy, R., Flint, S., & Sankaranarayana, R. (2017). Lifting the constraints—Closing the skills gap with authentic student projects. 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 955–960.
• Worthington, T. (2019). Blend and flip for teaching communication skills to final year international computer science students. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE), 1–5.

Related episodes
The Master in Education at Athabasca University:

• Dr Rita Zuba Prokopetz: Building a learning community
• Professor Dr Debra Hoven: The value of self-reflection and peer feedback

Mike Joiner-Hill: Represent yourself through a portfolio

Click through to the episode notes for the full transcript.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.
Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward