UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS E.PORTFOLIO: AN EMPIRICAL CORRELATIONAL STUDY

 Mohamed Elgeddawy

Dr., Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, melgeddawy@pmu.edu.sa

 

Abstract

Purpose – Over the last twenty years or so, the discourse of integrating e.portfolio into higher education curriculum for enhancing student learning and reflection has been increasing. Almost all the narratives in this respect come to the conclusion that implementing e.portfolio has an academic value for student education and future employment. Yet the available literature on e.portfolio, by and large, reflects an absence of exploring the impact of e.portfolio on student learning within the context of Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, the study addresses this gap in the literature. On the other hand, the aim of this report is twofold: Firstly, it examines the underlying premise, design, development, and evaluation of e.portfolio at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA); second, it explores the extent to which two main variables, the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use, impacts students’ attitudes towards e.portfolio.

Design/methodology/approach – The main design of the study is premised on an ontologically-oriented constructivist paradigm which derives the pedagogical approaches of learning by doing. Within this conceptual framework and guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study addresses the following questions: (1) To what extent do university students perceive e.portfolio as a useful digital tool of learning?, (2) To what extent do university students perceive e.portfolio as an easy digital tool to use?, (3) To what extent do university students have a positive attitude towards the implementation of e.portfolio in the Learning Outcomes Assessment Capstone Courses? and (4) What is the relationship, if any, between student’s behavioral attitude towards e. portfolio and the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use of the tool? .Towards this goal and in alignment with the ontological/constructivist design of the study, a mixed methods case study approach with a validating quantitative data is conducted. The quantitative component of the study consists of a 15-item-questionnaire administered to 230 students enrolled in two Learning Outcomes Assessment Capstone Courses at the PMU. The survey ends with three open-ended questions to collect qualitative data for increasing the validity of the findings from the survey. The overall purpose of the collected data is to identify key factors that impact students’ positive or negative attitudes towards e.portfolio. The 15 items of the survey aim at collecting data pertaining three main variables. The first five survey items address the perceived usefulness; the second five items address the perceived ease of use and the last five items address participants’ behavioral attitudes towards e.portfolio. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) is used for data analysis and considered descriptive statistics (frequencies, mean and standard deviation) and correlation analysis.

Findings - Theoretically, research-based evidence indicated that e.portfolio improves student’s reflection in a constructivist learning environment. Empirically, the study found that successful implementation of e.portfolio depends on variables such as students’ perceived ease of use, faculty support, available online multi-media tutorials, students’ conscious awareness of e.portfolio benefits at the academic, personal, social and professional levels, assigning 30% of the capstone course grade for the e.portfolio assignment, providing students with feedback on the progress of their e.portfolio, providing an e.portfolio template , and making available exemplary samples of other students’ e.portfolio. In addition, it is evident that participants have a positive attitude towards the integration of e.portfolio. Students’ positive attitude statistically correlated with the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

Originality/value – To my knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the context of the KSA. The findings draw attention to key factors concerning the successful implementation of e.portfolio within the context of the KSA Higher Education. The results also provide insights, via participants’ voice, into the importance of structuring e.portfolio around lifelong learning competences and their affiliated skills to maximize the effective use of e.portfolio for all students across all the university disciplines.

Originality/value – To my knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the context of the KSA. The findings draw attention to key factors concerning the successful implementation of e.portfolio within the context of the KSA. The results also provide insights, via participants’ voice, into the importance of structuring e.portfolio around lifelong learning competences and their affiliated skills to maximize its effective use for all students across all the university disciplines.

Keywords: e.Portfolio, Ontology of Learning, Correlation Analysis, Active Learning, Learning-by-doing, Technology Acceptance Model