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

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posted on 2023-06-08, 20:19 authored by Rosie Belcher, Anna Jones, Laura-Jane Smith, Tim Vincent, Sindhu Bhaarrati Naidu, Julia Montgomery, Inam Haq, Deborah Gill
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.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

BMC Medical Education

ISSN

1472-6920

Publisher

BioMed Central

Volume

14

Article number

a265

Department affiliated with

  • Division of Medical Education Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-03-13

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-03-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-03-13

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