The Graduate Professional Portfolio as “synergy tool”: navigating the complex role of portfolios in future-focused design education

Abstract

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. 1. Introduction Design education today faces a wide range of competing demands from stakeholders, including students, academics, employers and professional and accrediting bodies. As a fundamental part of developing a new Bachelor of Design curriculum at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, there was a need to examine such expectations and societal needs more closely, with the acknowledgement that courses will be of little value if graduating students are unable to gain the skills, knowledge and capabilities deemed necessary to practice as designers in the future. Development of the new future-focused degree commenced in late 2017, with delivery to the first new cohort commencing in February 2019. The degree offers specialisation in seven

A conceptual model of students' reflective practice for the development of employability competences, supported by an online learning platform

“…The use of journal writing and formative feedback enhances the quality of reflection (Bruno and Dell'Aversana, 2017). In addition, an e-portfolio can be used as a formative assessment tool, allowing reflection in relation to learning goals and the planning of professional development, as a learning tool or as a tool to scaffold complex tasks such as collaboration or creating employment portfolios (Roberts et al, 2016;Harrington and Luo, 2016;Jwaifell, 2013;Meth et al, 2020). The online platform should also facilitate the sharing of reflections on activities published on the platform.…”

“…Although a lot of literature on employability provides arguments that institutions must change to better prepare students for the workplace, it is not yet clear what kind of (online) learning experiences are most effective for the development of employability competences (Peet, 2016). E-portfolios are acclaimed to encourage both reflective and active learning (Simatele, 2015) as well as showcasing reflective practices via an OLP to provide potential employers insights in graduates' employability skills (Meth et al, 2020;Peet, 2016). However, empirical evidence on how both purposes, learning and showcasing to potential employers, can be combined, is limited.…”

“…In addition, an e-portfolio can be used as a formative assessment tool, allowing reflection in relation to learning goals and the planning of professional development, as a learning tool or as a tool to scaffold complex tasks such as collaboration or creating employment portfolios (Roberts et al. , 2016; Harrington and Luo, 2016; Jwaifell, 2013; Meth et al. , 2020).…”