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Exploring Students' Agency in E-portfolio Implementation: A Case Study

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This qualitative study investigates senior high school students' perceptions of their agency's resources in three agency domains: individual, contextual, and relational, in an e-portfolio learning context. A semi-structured interview was conducted with a purposeful sample of senior high school students, and the acquired data were thematically analyzed using NVivo 14. The study showed that the three agency domains were referenced similarly, with the individual domain being referenced slightly more than the contextual and relational domains. Moreover, it was identified that the various manifestations of agency resources in each domain influenced stu-dents' agency differently. The results emphasize the importance of student agency in the e-portfolio learning process and suggest that educators should consider the implications of promoting agency when implementing e-portfolios. The study concludes with recommendations for enacting agency in using e-portfolio, emphasizing the need for educators to empower students to develop agency and provide them with opportunities to take charge of their learning while using e-portfolios.
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Exploring Students’ Agency in E-portfolio Implementation: A
Case Study
Peng Zhang
University of the Balearic Islands
p.zhang@uib.es
Gemma Tur
University of the Balearic Islands
gemma.tur@uib.es
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study investigates senior high school students’
perceptions of their agency’s resources in three agency domains:
individual, contextual, and relational, in an e-portfolio learning con-
text. A semi-structured interview was conducted with a purposeful
sample of senior high school students, and the acquired data were
thematically analyzed using NVivo 14. The study showed that the
three agency domains were referenced similarly, with the individ-
ual domain being referenced slightly more than the contextual and
relational domains. Moreover, it was identied that the various
manifestations of agency resources in each domain inuenced stu-
dents’ agency dierently. The results emphasize the importance of
student agency in the e-portfolio learning process and suggest that
educators should consider the implications of promoting agency
when implementing e-portfolios. The study concludes with recom-
mendations for enacting agency in using e-portfolio, emphasizing
the need for educators to empower students to develop agency and
provide them with opportunities to take charge of their learning
while using e-portfolios.
CCS CONCEPTS
Information systems Multimedia content creation.
KEYWORDS
e-portfolio, agency, case study, interview
ACM Reference Format:
Peng Zhang and Gemma Tur. 2023. Exploring Students’ Agency in E-
portfolio Implementation: A Case Study. In 2023 the 6th International
Conference on Educational Technology Management (ICETM 2023), Novem-
ber 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3637907.3637975
1 INTRODUCTION
E-portfolios continue to rise in popularity as a tool for preserving
learning-related information, collecting, and organizing learning
evidence, and showcasing student learning and development as
time progresses [
1
,
2
]. They are electronic archives of student work
Corresponding author
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https://doi.org/10.1145/3637907.3637975
that may consist of text, images, videos, and other multimedia com-
ponents and have been used in a variety of sectors, such as medical
education [
3
], distance education [
4
], physics learning [
5
], nursing
education [
6
], and language learning [
7
]. As an emerging tool for
promoting learner agency, e-portfolios have been utilized to foster
reective and integrative learning and to endow students with an
instrument for documenting their learning evidence and demon-
strating their learning achievements [
2
,
8
]. It has been discovered
that e-portfolios improve students’ self-directed learning [
9
], en-
courage students to participate actively [
4
], and boost self-reection
[10].
Student agency is the capacity of students that allows them to
take accountability for their learning and make decisions during
their educational journey [
11
]. It entails student-centered learn-
ing, which promotes self-ecacy as students complete work and
harbor condence in their ability to work eectively [
12
]. Stu-
dent agency meets two essential student learning requirements:
process-oriented experiential learning and the development of pro-
fessional skills [
13
]. It substantially inuences students’ academic
performance, perceived learning experience [
14
,
15
], and course
completion [16].
Implementing e-portfolios has been identied as a promising
approach for cultivating autonomous learning, monitoring student
progress, improving educational outcomes, and facilitating students’
reection on their understanding, contributing to developing a
sense of learning agency [5]. Multiple researchers discovered that
e-portfolios might improve students’ learning agency by giving
them control over their learning progress and enabling them to
demonstrate responsibility for what they produce [
17
]. The use of
e-portfolios as part of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) can
also promote student agency development in their learning [18].
Despite the growing recognition of e-portfolios as an eective
tool to promote learner agency, there is signicant debate regard-
ing the most eective approach to assessing and evaluating learner
agency during the e-portfolio implementation process, given the
concept’s multifaceted nature [
19
]. Specically, there is an urgent
need for empirical research on the perception of agency resources
among e-portfolio-using students during their learning journey.
In addition, most of the current research on student agency and
e-portfolios use is primarily contextualized within higher education.
There is a dearth of research in this eld at other educational levels,
such as K–12. In order to address these gaps, the study investi-
gated high school students’ perceptions of their agency’s resources
while using e-portfolios as learning process journals. The following
research questions guided the study:
RQ1: To what extent are domains and manifestations of agency
resources enacted in the e-portfolio learning journey?
ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China Peng Zhang and Gemma Tur
Figure 1: The e-portfolio Learning Design (authors’ elaboration)
RQ2: What are the implications for educators to implement e-
portfolios to promote students’ agency?
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 The E-portfolio Learning Settings
In this study, an e-portfolio-based learning design, inspired by
Zhang and Tur’s [
20
] synthesis of recommendations from their
systematic review, was implemented to support student learning
across all subject areas. The learning design consisted of ve key
components (see Figure 1): setting learning objectives, training,
and preparation, providing learning materials (guidelines, exam-
ples, templates, and rubrics), ongoing feedback and reection, and
showcasing and celebration.
The teachers rst helped the students identify the learning ob-
jectives for dierent subjects using the e-portfolio. Google Sites
was utilized as the e-portfolio platform because it is easy to use
and allows customization. The participants in the school have a
school-based Google account, making it safe to share within the
school community. It is noted that each subject has a dierent site
for each class cohort, and the students have their pages on the same
site for each class to get access to their peers’ work to get inspired
and give feedback. Multimedia and social networking features, such
as commenting, were integrated. Besides, the teachers oered clear
guidelines and claried how e-portfolios are used throughout the
course, emphasizing organization skills, time management, and
reection in eective e-portfolio construction. Besides, technical
skills training on using Google Sites and other learning tools to
utilize e-portfolios was provided before the implementation. After
setting objectives, deciding on the platform, and receiving technical
skills training, teachers gave students examples of well-designed
portfolios and templates to help them start their work and reduce
their fear of using e-portfolios. Prompts for each section of the
e-portfolio were integrated to inspire the students’ work; rubrics
were introduced to strengthen students’ self-reection. Deadlines
to submit each section of the e-portfolios were also set to enable
students to manage their work and avoid procrastination. Students
were required to use e-portfolios as learning process journals to
track and reect on their learning. The e-portfolios contained both
learning artifacts and student reections, as well as feedback from
teachers. Ongoing feedback and reection were integral parts of
the learning process, with students encouraged to reect on their
learning and receive feedback from their teachers. The feedback
is in multiple formats, such as written comments and one-on-one
talks. At the end of the intervention, the students presented their
work, and the teachers acknowledged the students’ achievements
in their completed e-portfolios, celebrating good practices.
2.2 Research Design
The present research employed a method that was qualitative in
nature, with the interview serving as the primary data collection
technique. The semi-structured interviews contained open-ended
questions, allowing participants to express their perspectives on
their e-portfolio learning freely. This study aimed to examine the
agency of senior high school students transitioning to higher edu-
cation, as well as their agency enactment during learning with e-
portfolios. Figure 2 illustrates the AUS Scale framework, designed as
a multidimensional instrument for assessing course-specic agency
[
19
,
21
]. The AUS Scale has been validated in Finland and Spain
[
19
,
21
], demonstrating its cross-cultural applicability and reliabil-
ity.
2.3 Participants
Twenty-ve high school students between the ages of 16 and 18
participated in the investigation. They are currently studying at
an international school in Hong Kong. Participants were chosen
based on their availability, willingness, and capacity to participate
Learner Agency in E-portfolio Implementation ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China
Figure 2: The Domains of Agency Resources [19, 21]
in the study. They were made aware of the purpose of the study
and their right to withdraw at any time. Besides, their anonymity
and condentiality were maintained throughout the study, and
the data were stored securely. It is noted that all participants and
their guardians’ have been presented with consent forms and have
signed them.
2.4 Data Collection
Through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions
for the participants, data were gathered. The AUS Scale served as
the framework for the interview questions, and a set of questions
represented each resource domain of the learners’ agency. Face-to-
face interviews were conducted with the participant’s permission,
and audio recordings were captured. Following data collection,
the interviews were transcribed word-for-word using the digital
transcription software iFLYTEK. The transcription was rechecked
and subsequently analyzed.
2.5 Data Analysis
The transcription from the interview were analyzed using a method
known as thematic analysis [
22
], which consisted of the following
steps: familiarization with the data, generation of initial codes,
search for themes (in this study, the themes were predetermined),
designating and dening themes, and composing the report. NVivo
14 was employed for thematic analysis. The researcher read the
interview transcripts multiple times to identify the patterns and
themes that emerged from the interview and connect them with the
dierent categories of agency resources. The determined themes
were then categorized and subcategorized, and the data were further
analyzed.
3 RESULTS
The ndings revealed that the three domains of agency, namely
individual, contextual, and relational, were referenced similarly,
with minor variations, by the participants. The NVivo-generated
hierarchy chart (see Figure 3) demonstrated that the individual do-
main was marginally more referenced than the contextual domain,
which was moderately more referenced than the relational domain.
Participation activity and competence beliefs were most often
mentioned within the individual domain. Students pointed out
the signicance of actively participating in the e-portfolio process,
such as setting objectives and choosing artifacts demonstrating
their learning. In addition, they emphasized the signicance of
personal competence beliefs, such as self-ecacy and meaning-
oriented learning. Some students acknowledged that they were
motivated by their intrinsic interest in the e-portfolio process and
their desire to earn high grades.
As Participant P06 mentioned, “High tech gains my motivation, I
have clear goals, and I know what I want to put on my e-portfolios,
I am sure I can do it well since it seems interesting, and I can use it
as evidence of my learning and get good grades at the same time.
ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China Peng Zhang and Gemma Tur
Figure 3: The Hierarchy Chart of Agency Resources Generated by NVivo 14
In the contextual domain, opportunities to inuence were most
frequently mentioned, followed by opportunities for active partic-
ipation, and opportunities to make choices were mentioned the
least. The students emphasized that e-portfolios allowed them to
impact their learning, including selecting artifacts and the reection
process. Collaboration during the implementation of e-portfolios
enabled students to actively engage in learning and participation.
Nevertheless, they also noted that the allocated learning assign-
ments lacked exibility, with the majority requiring a specic ap-
proach and expected outcome. They have few opportunities to
make their own decisions, which aects their sense of agency in
this domain under the opportunities to make choices category.
These comments best example this:
Participant P12 stated, “I feel like I am the master of my learning
since I record everything I learn, and I want to do it well since all
evidence are there. In this way, I feel like I direct my own way and
have the responsibility to do well”
Participant P09 claimed, “We are not just studying by ourselves,
the teachers gave me lots of tasks to work with classmates, such as
small projects, like recording a documentary, interview, research
tasks. We are also asked to comment on each other’s work.
As participant P03 declared, “I can surely choose what I put on
my process journal, but I can’t choose assignment, because usually
we just have one option. I can deceit how I do it though. I wish we
could have more choices.
In the relational domain, peers as resources for learning were
referred to substantially more frequently than other categories,
with emotional atmosphere and power relationships coming in
second and third, respectively. The participants highlighted peer
support in their e-portfolio learning journey, including receiving
assistance from others in their class and providing support to other
peers. Some students have noted that the closeness of the teachers
and the general learning environment contribute to the emotional
atmosphere. Very few students witnessed the inequitable treatment
of students by their teachers.
These following excepts from the interview illustrate this:
Participant P23 mentioned, “My classmates and teachers helped
me so much. When I have questions, I just ask my friends for help,
and they always help me. At the beginning, I really had no idea
how to do the work since it is kind of new. I also asked questions
from teachers, most of our teachers are nice and supportive. I also
help my classmates if they need help.
As participant P15 stated, “We can actually see all classmates’
work, when I need some ideas, I just check what others have done
and get inspiration or just go to ask help.
Participant P10 said, “Most teachers treat us equally. I don’t
really notice any dierence. We have several classmates who get
bad grades because they are lazy; I won’t say teachers treat them
dierently. But all teachers like good and hardworking students,
right?”
4 DISCUSSIONS
This study suggests that e-portfolios may provide students with
opportunities for leveraging their agency in a variety of ways. The
individual domain was slightly more referenced than the contextual
and relational domains, suggesting that the students viewed their
individual domain as the most important agency resource while
learning with e-portfolios.
Participation activity and competence beliefs were most fre-
quently mentioned in the individual domain. This indicates that
students valued being actively involved in the e-portfolio process,
such as setting objectives and selecting learning-related artifacts.
Individual competence beliefs, such as self-ecacy and meaning-
oriented learning, were also highlighted. Some students were intrin-
sically motivated to get involved in the e-portfolio process, which
is consistent with research [
23
] indicating that intrinsic motivation
is an important predictor of academic achievement.
In the contextual domain, collaboration during the implementa-
tion of e-portfolios allowed students to actively engage in learning
Learner Agency in E-portfolio Implementation ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China
and participation. However, the study also revealed that the desig-
nated learning tasks were not highly exible; most were required
to be completed in specic ways. This might weaken the students’
sense of agency in this domain. This nding emphasizes the signi-
cance of designing learning environments that allow students to
make decisions and enact their agency [
24
]. Incorporating opportu-
nities for active participation into learning activities may promote
students’ agency and promote deeper learning [25].
In the relational domain, it appears that students valued the peer
support they received and gave during the e-portfolio process and
the aective climate of the learning community. Furthermore, a pos-
itive emotional atmosphere in the relational domain can promote
student agency in their learning [
26
]. The relatively low prevalence
of power relationships in this domain suggests that students may
be oblivious to the signicance of their relationships with teachers
as agency resources. However, teacher neutrality and impartiality
ought to be considered to provide students with a sense of equity
and fairness so that they can more eectively enact their agency
[19].
The study’s ndings are applicable to the design of e-portfolio
learning environments that promote student agency and facilitate
meaningful learning experiences. Based on the ndings, the follow-
ing recommendations are made to promote learner agency through
the use of e-portfolios in education (see Table 1).
5 CONCLUSION
The study provides a glimpse into how students perceive the
agency’s resources when using e-portfolios. The ndings emphasize
the signicance of designing e-portfolio-facilitated learning envi-
ronments that enact student agency through multiple approaches,
such as active participation, goal setting, collaboration, reection,
and support from peers and teachers. It also implies that fostering
student agency is crucial to the e-portfolio learning process. To ad-
dress this, educators should empower learners to take ownership of
their learning by allowing them to engage in the e-portfolio process
actively. The study also identied several limitations regarding the
exibility of assignments or assessments through e-portfolios and
the opportunities for students to make choices and regulate their
learning. Thus, educators should create learning settings that allow
for exibility and decision-making since this encourages student
agency and deeper learning. Collaboration and peer support should
also be promoted since they can improve the relational domain
of the agency. Furthermore, educators should stay unbiased and
impartial while supporting justice and fairness in the learning pro-
cess. In sum, the study implicates the design of e-portfolio-enabled
learning and ecient ways to use e-portfolios, which should be
designed to promote student agency by facilitating many factors.
The limitation of the present study is that it was conducted on a
small scale and that only participant perceptions were investigated
through interviews, which might lead to diculty in generalizing.
Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between
student agency and learning outcomes in e-portfolio contexts in
broader contexts, using multiple approaches to elaborate on the
ndings. Future research might consider analyzing students’ e-
portfolio-based learning artifacts for more evidence.
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ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China Peng Zhang and Gemma Tur
Table 1: Implications of enacting agency in e-portfolio implementation
Domains Dimension of agency Implications of enacting agency in e-portfolio implementation
Individual Meaning-oriented
learning
Enable students to set clear learning objectives.
Create an action plan for learning with e-portfolios and allow students to monitor their learning
progress.
Teachers motivate students and encourage them to motivate each other continuously.
Teachers use prompts that help learners reect on their learning and think critically.
Self-ecacy Encourage students to become condent and believe that they will use e-portfolios eectively.
Motivate students to make eorts and be willing to overcome challenges in implementing
e-portfolios.
Emphasize the learning process above the nal product to help students value their learning
journey and gain condence in their abilities to learn and progress.
Competence beliefs Help students develop a sense of understanding of how to use e-portfolios and collect learning
evidence.
Oer adequate technical training at the beginning and ensure students feel competent in
e-portfolio use.
Enable students to gain competence through ongoing self-reection and self-assessment.
Encourage experimentation and risk-taking.
Help learners develop a growth mindset and view mistakes as an opportunity to learn and
improve.
Participation activity Implement e-portfolio collaboratively.
Take the initiative in collaboration and discussion during the e-portfolio use process.
Students actively track their learning, collect learning evidence, and develop their e-portfolio.
Students feel responsible for completing assigned learning tasks through e-portfolios.
Relational Power relationships Treat each student equally and advocate equity and fairness in the e-portfolio implementation
process.
Regularly check in with students, give ongoing feedback on students’ e-portfolio work, and
develop a good student-teacher rapport.
Develop a reciprocal relationship with students while implementing e-portfolios.
Peers as resources for
learning
Encourage peer support and feedback.
Create an e-portfolio learning community and facilitate peer discussion.
Encourage students to do peer teaching and peer mentoring, further establishing a supportive
and collaborative learning vibe.
Emotional atmosphere Be approachable when students have questions or diculties with e-portfolio use and have an
approving attitude toward students.
Foster a trusting and safe environment during e-portfolio implementation.
Enable students to embrace diversity, appreciate dierent viewpoints, and learn from each
other’s experiences.
Contexual Opportunities for active
participation
Encourage students to collaborate and engage in discussion and collective meaning-making
through co-constructing e-portfolio and peer feedback.
Provide opportunities for self-regulated and self-directed learning.
Ask students to actively seek feedback from others and encourage them to improve their work
based on the feedback.
Using various tech tools for creating multimedia content made the learning process more
engaging.
Opportunities to
inuence
Help students to develop a sense of self-direction, ownership, and responsibility.
Give students opportunities to inuence their own learning through self-reection,
self-assessment, and revision.
Respect students’ perspectives and empower them to inuence their own learning during
e-portfolio implementation.
Opportunities to make
choices
Give the students the exibility to choose the e-portfolios designs, learning tasks and artifacts,
and ways to showcase their learning.
Provide students with opportunities to make choices to address their e-portfolio development
plan and learning.
Allow students to choose the ways to accomplish their e-portfolio- based assignments or
assessments.
Learner Agency in E-portfolio Implementation ICETM 2023, November 03–05, 2023, Guangzhou, China
[25] Ahshan, R. (2021). A Framework of Implementing Strategies for Active Student
Engagement in Remote/Online Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19
Pandemic. Education Sciences, 11(9), 483. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090483
[26]
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher
Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Out-
comes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491–525. https://doi.org/10.3102/
0034654308
... Within the realm of e-portfolio learning, agency is manifested when students engage in creating and managing their own e-portfolios; this entails undertaking tasks such as making decisions, reflecting, and setting objectives (Zhang & Tur, 2023a). However, the emphasis goes beyond the ultimate product and encompasses the transformative learning experience inherent in the e-portfolio creation process. ...
... With the aim of exploring and understanding students' perceptions, a mixed-methods approach was designed, including techniques to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Regarding the former, an electronic survey based on a Likert scale was delivered, which had been developed ad hoc in previous stages of the research (Zhang & Tur, 2023a). It is based on the agency framework by Jääskelä et al. (2017Jääskelä et al. ( , 2023, and includes each element defined in the three domains in each e-portfolio stage. ...
... Agency enactment is more prominent in the contextual domain during the Implementation phase when students believe they have the opportunity to make choices and participate. Students' engagement and motivation can be increased by allowing them to personalize and record their learning evidence (Zhang & Tur, 2023a). This can foster a sense of ownership and satisfaction in their accomplishments, improving their overall learning experience. ...
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... One of the developments that have significantly impacted learning environments is the advent of electronic portfolios or e-portfolios as dynamic learning instruments. It has been extensively documented that they have an effect on student engagement, self-directed learning, and assessment, demonstrating their capacity to transform learning experiences and outcomes (López-Crespo et al., 2021) and, more recently, students' agency (Zhang & Tur, 2023a). Despite the recognition of e-portfolios as a catalyst for educational advancement, the full extent of their benefits, particularly when integrated within a co-designed learning framework in which close collaboration between teachers and students is well defined, is yet to be fully explored. ...
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Chapter
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Personal Learning Environments as a learning approach are strongly connected to idea of the development of the conditions and resources for fostering the learners' enacting of agency. In this study, some PLE-related pedagogical designs have been analysed in light of how they implement resources and opportunities for students to practise/enact their individual, relational, and contextual agency. The final sample includes the most cited PLE-related pedagogical experiences in the last decade in which the PLE concept is explicitly mentioned. Conclusions remark on the importance of going further in the implementation of more relational resources, as well as the contextual opportunities that give students more open choices to help them to develop a deeper sense of agency and enact it as a way for managing and enriching their PLE.