Either in movies or in life, we have seen the beautiful models hurrying to meet with a prospective employer with large, thin black leather portfolio in which they transport their most flattering photographs.  They use the contents of their portfolios to convey a sense of the value they represent to potential employers. ePortfolios are simply an electronic version of a model or photographer’s portfolio used to document the competencies, skills, and knowledge developed by a person – focused on a specific career objective or path.

According to research conducted by the Campus Computing Project www.campuscomputing.net/survey, the number of U.S. colleges and universities using ePortfolios has more than tripled over the past five years.  Soon, students will accept ePortfolio systems as an integral element of their college experience and an important mechanism to translating at college experience into a rewarding career.

Most ePortfolio programs encourage students to start the design and development of their ePortfolios at the outset of the academic programs to begin the process of establishing academic goals, to make the best choices with respect to specialized majors and elective courses, and to create a context in which to judge their progress through their educational journey.  ePortfolios promote student engagement with their learning, facilitate appropriate student choices, and help students keep their professional goals in clear view while taking courses.

Universities derive benefit from ePortfolio programs because they provide a means of documenting, organizing, and assessing evidence of student learning and outcomes.  ePortfolios are not just a fad, but rapidly becoming a mainstay of higher education.

In a previous post on this blog, I described a seven-step process I have developed to create this podcasts using Skype.  I also use Skype to create guest lecture podcasts that students can listen to in three to four minutes directly from our course-management software (we use Moodle) or they can download the podcasts.

Rather than develop a script, as I do for producing microlectures, guest lectures are based on an interview guide.  The interview guide typically contains five or six questions that relate to the learning objectives of the online course I am teaching, the answers to which I believe my students will find interesting.  I ask the person I plan to interview to select two or three questions that they can answer in about one minute each and outline their responses to those questions.  After making sure they have Skype, we agree to my recording the interview, and the specific questions they will be asked.  I then make an appointment to call them and conduct the brief interview.

There is a great plug-in for Skype called Pamela that I use to record my Skype call.  When my guest answers my Skype call, the Pamela application informs my guest that I would like to record our conversation and asks their permission to begin recording.  I then introduce the person I’m interviewing by reviewing that portion of their background that is relevant to the questions I will ask them.  Next, we cover the two or three questions and answers followed by my thanking them for agreeing to be a guest lecturer.  The entire interview process should only take four or five minutes.

There are several free or inexpensive applications you can use to edit your interview audio file and create your guest lecture podcast. I like to keep my podcasts simple, but you can add extra tracks for background music and other features.  The guest lectures can really be any length, but keeping them around three or four minutes makes it easier to find persons to interview and more likely your students will take the time to listen to them.