Much of the evidence and research available on the use of e-portfolios focuses on faculty and institutional perspectives and/or consists mainly of anecdotes about how useful the e-portfolio has been to learners. While it is generally agreed that e-portfolios have great potential to engage students and promote deep learning, the research that has been conducted to date focuses very little on student perceptions of value of the e-portfolio for their learning. If students do not accept the e-portfolio as a holistic means with which to document their learning in different contexts and more importantly, agree or wish to use the e-portfolio as an integral part of their educational experience, then the potential impact the e-portfolio will have on learning will not be realised. This paper highlights four themes arising out of research that is underway within an international framework of collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo.

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The objective of the study was to assess the attitude of Edinburgh University medical students towards computers and to evaluate the effects of changes in the curriculum and intercalated BSc towards computer knowledge. During March to November 1995 a questionnaire was distributed in lectures, seminars and tutorials to all Edinburgh University medical students. Overall, 65% of students returned the questionnaire, divided equally between both genders. Only 2% of students had not used a computer in the previous year. The most frequent application used was E-mail and the most frequent site, the Greenfield suite micro lab, within the medical school. The average score for self-perceived computer knowledge on a scale of 0-10 was 4.19. This score was significantly higher for the students who own a computer and who have an intercalated BSc honours degree as well as the pre-clinical students compared to the clinical students. There is also a strong correlation between computer use and doing a second year special option module. With regards to attitude towards computers, 86% of students agreed that computer skills will be beneficial to them in their future career and 62% of all students wanted a structured course in computer use as part of the MB ChB course. There has been a general increase in computer literacy amongst the medical students in Edinburgh. This is specially so for the pre-clinical students who have had the brunt of the changes in the curriculum. The tendency for both the lower knowledge and use by the clinical students can, in part, be due to the accessibility of computers to these students.