Qualitative study of the impact of an authentic electronic portfolio in undergraduate medical education

BMC Medical Education

Deborah Gill¹  Inam Haq²  Julia Montgomery²  Sindhu Bhaarrati Naidu¹  Tim Vincent²  Laura-Jane Smith¹  Anna Jones²  Rosie Belcher¹ 

[1] Department of Medical Education, University College London Medical School, London, UK;Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

关键词: Enculturation;    Transition;    Feedback;    Assessment;    Portfolio;   

Others  :  1089975
DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-014-0265-2

 received in 2014-06-14, accepted in 2014-12-08,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Portfolios are increasingly used in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Four medical schools have collaborated with an established NHS electronic portfolio provider to develop and implement an authentic professional electronic portfolio for undergraduate students. We hypothesized that using an authentic portfolio would have significant advantages for students, particularly in familiarizing them with the tool many will continue to use for years after graduation. This paper describes the early evaluation of this undergraduate portfolio at two participating medical schools.

Methods

To gather data, a questionnaire survey with extensive free text comments was used at School 1, and three focus groups were held at School 2. This paper reports thematic analysis of students’ opinions expressed in the free text comments and focus groups.

Results

Five main themes, common across both schools were identified. These concerned the purpose, use and acceptability of the portfolio, advantages of and barriers to the use of the portfolio, and the impacts on both learning and professional identity.

Conclusions

An authentic portfolio mitigated some of the negative aspects of using a portfolio, and had a positive effect on students’ perception of themselves as becoming past of the profession. However, significant barriers to portfolio use remained, including a lack of understanding of the purpose of a portfolio and a perceived damaging effect on feedback.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Belcher et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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