The Electronic Portfolio in Online Career Development: Creation and Implementation of E-Portfolios

By:

Students with disabilities have been able to overcome many barriers by participating in the online learning environment. Also, this type of learning environment has afforded many diverse groups to interact and develop a “different type of technological skills,” which helped them to become more marketable. This presentation will focus on how one university has changed their curriculum to incorporate a new type of “capstone” final course for all business undergraduate students. As Knowles (1987) noted that “everyone [learners] should be able to participate and control their own learning process.” While many academic curriculums are well established, there still appears to be a disconnection between student learning and preparation for job seeking and career development. As a result, there are still students leaving educational institutions not fully prepared as to how to approach the job hunting process. Thus, these graduates tend to wonder why they have not been fully prepared for the next step after college. Further, for students with disabilities, career development is yet faced with many barriers.

This presentation will aim towards a discussion with the participants as to how they can personalize or customize their online learning goals to incorporate career development. Also, there will be a discussion during this presentation that will encourage participants to discuss potential applications of e-Portfolios to include academic works and achievements which best represent the student’s ability to demonstrate what they have learned and what they can offer to potential employers. For those individuals not familiar with the e-Portfolio approach, this discussion and presentation will allow them to explore potential applications for use in their own learning environment.

Stream: Special Education, Learning Difficulties, Disability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr. Bob Barrett is a professor in the Department of Management Studies at The American Public University System (American Military University and American Public University). Dr. Barrett's current research interests are: Human Resource Development (HRD); Human Resource Management (HRM); Virtual Management Teams; Stakeholder Theory/Ethics; Logic/Dominant Logic; Disability/BDEP. He speaks both nationally and internationally on the topics of disability in the e-learning environment, as well as lectures on the impact of online learning for the military student.