Evolving the Loop - The Role of ePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes

Oct 15, 2026

Explores how ePortfolio practice links classroom pedagogy with evidence-based general education outcomes assessment. Addresses rising employer and accreditor expectations for competency-focused, higher-order skills and documented learning growth across degree completion. Draws on experiences at LaGuardia Community College, outlining the “Evolving the Loop” innovation cycle and related assessment and ePortfolio redesign. Emphasizes new Core Competencies, including Digital Communication, and shows how interlinked assessment and ePortfolio processes support 21st-century student learning outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Evolving the Loop: The Role of ePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes

Evolving the Loop at LaGuardia

ePortfolio and Assessment at LaGuardia

ePortfolio as Digital Communication

Assessing for Learning with ePortfolio

Final Thoughts

References

About the Authors

About NILOA

August 2021 N 0 55 Evolving the Loop: The Role ofePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes Regina M. Lehman & Justin Rogers-Cooper [www.learningoutcomesassessment.org](www.learningoutcomesassessment.org) Contents Abstract 3 Evolving the Loop: The Role ofePortfolio in Buidling 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes. . . . .4 Evolving the Loop at LaGuardia. . . . .5 ePortfolio and Assessment at LaGuardia 8 ePortfolio as Digital Communication. . . . . 13 Assessing for Learning with ePortfolio. . . . .15 Final Thoughts. . . . .16 References 17 About the Authors 18 About NILOA 19 Please Cite As: Lehman, R. M., & Rogers-Cooper, J. (2021, August) . Evolving the loop: The role of ePortfolio in building 21st century student learning outcomes (Occasional Paper No. 55) . Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. NILOA Mission The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), established in 2008, is a research and resourcedevelopment organization dedicated to documenting, advocating, and facilitating the systematic use of learning outcomes assessment to improve student learning. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment | 2 Abstract One of the many new directions to explore in ePortfolio practice is the relationship between ePortfolio as a classroom pedagogy and its potential to advance general education outcomes assessment. This direction is especially urgent in relation to the increasing demands by employers for competency-focused, higher-order skills, as well as demands by accreditors for evidence of growth in student learning during degree completion. In this paper, we discuss how two-or four-year colleges might address these demands through our experiences at LaGuardia Community College (City University of New York) . The recent redesign of our college’s outcomes assessment process through an innovation cycle we call “Evolving the Loop,”in addition to simultaneous and intentional innovations in our assessment and ePortfolio practice reinforced the culture of LaGuardia as a learning college. A key decision we made was in adopting new Core Competencies and Communication Abilities, especially Digital Communication, to better collaborate with our next generation, Digication ePortfolio platform. Beginning with an overview of the program, we describe the program’s journey of Evolving the Loop through the creation of Core ePortfolios and provide concrete examples of how interlinked assessment and ePortfolio practice can support twentyfirst century student learning outcomes. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment | 3 Evolving the Loop: The Role ofePortfolio in Building 21st Century Student Learning Outcomes Regina M. Lehman & Justin Rogers-Cooper When the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) identified ePortfolio as an 11th high-impact practice for higher education, it signaled a watershed moment in a “new ePortfolio era” (Watson, Kuh, Rhodes, Light, & Chen, 2016, p. 65; Eynon & Gambino, 2016; Eynon & Gambino, 2018) . In an editorial on this new era published in the International Journal of ePortfolio, prominent scholars of student learning wrote that while ePortfolios do not depend on any one platform, ePortfolio pedagogy shares a common “framework for organizing learning…designed to be owned and developed by the student learner” (Kuh et al, 2016, p. 65). With student learning at the center, ePortfolio practice can also facilitate dispositional learning, includingthe interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies related to expressive and emotional communication (Kuh, Gambino, Ludvik, & O’Donnell, 2018, p. 6) . Indeed, one practitioner and scholar contends that ePortfolio can act to develop “the student as a complete person where the academic and the personal are integrated” (Kapetanakos, 2018, p. 255) . This new era clearly presents many op

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the paper’s discussion of ePortfolio?

To examine how ePortfolio as classroom pedagogy can advance general education outcomes assessment, especially under increasing expectations from employers and accreditors.

What innovation cycle does the paper describe at LaGuardia Community College?

It describes a redesign of outcomes assessment through an “Evolving the Loop” innovation cycle, alongside intentional innovations in assessment and ePortfolio practice.

How does the paper connect ePortfolio practice to student learning evidence?

It emphasizes creating core ePortfolios and provides examples of how interlinked assessment and ePortfolio practice can support evidence of 21st-century student learning outcomes.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Riley West