Using e-portfolios to provide regular feedback on final year statistics projects

1. Introduction An e-portfolio is, in effect, just a collection of information or documents which is presented in an online format. The use of e-portfolios for personal development planning and the development of skills for lifelong learning has been studied in depth (for example, [1] and [2]). However, we have found over the last six years that they are also useful as a tool for light-touch supervision of undergraduate final year statistics dissertations. They afford the ‘supervisor’, or module convenor/leader, the opportunity to monitor students from a distance, at a time convenient to their other commitments. Where a facility is available for adding comments to the e-portfolio, students can receive some light-touch supervision to keep them on track. This flexibility and convenience both mean that one member of staff can be in charge of several student projects, more so than in a traditional one-to-one supervised setting. The use of e-portfolio tools in our final year statistics project is described below, together with details of the benefits that they afford. Since their use has been particularly positive because of the format of our project, this is described first.