e-Portfolio as a means of assessing WIL in the Graduate Diploma of Education

Abstract

Although several Australian Schools of Education have embedded types of work-integrated learning (WIL) in their courses for a number of years (Patrick et al. 2008), more recent issues around employability, insufficient interaction between university and industry, and need for engagement and blending of academic learning with workplace experience (Goulter, 2007) has lead to a growth in WIL or industry-based learning. This paper presents the process a team of lecturers undertook to connect and assess university and professional experiences within the Graduate Diploma of Education. Guided by the Innovative Research Universities WIL principles (2008) of policy, pedagogy and curriculum issues, and partnerships; Billett's (2009) notion of criticality in WIL; and Zeichner's (2010) hybrid spaces, we created innovative assessment, and embedded the e-portfolio as an authentic learning and assessment task to capture WIL and evidence of trans formative learning in the university and professional experience assessment. We were also interested in the portability of the e-Portfolio for graduate employment applications.