ePortfolios to Promote Equity, Engaged Learning, and Professional Identity Development in STEM

ePortfolios are considered the eleventh high-impact practice (HIP) by the AAC&U (now the American Association of Colleges and Universities). They have been widely implemented in the humanities but remain underutilized in STEM fields. The benefits of engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and professional identity development in those programs that use them suggest that students who are not exposed to them are missing out on a valuable pedagogical practice. Participating in multiple HIPs, and even combining them, has been shown to benefit students, particularly those who are first-generation, low-income, minority, and members of other traditionally underrepresented student populations likely to switch out of STEM into other disciplines and whose college attrition rates are higher. We demonstrate the affordances of ePortfolios for promoting equity, engaged learning and professional identity development in STEM. Drawing on published research, our own and others, we show how ePortfolios in the context of inclusive teaching practices can ameliorate some of the causes of attrition or lack of engagement of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. We conclude with a research agenda to encourage further study into the potential affordances of ePortfolios for promoting engaged learning and professional identity development in STEM.