ePortfolios: Facilitating and Documenting English Language Development in Blended Learning Workshops

ePortfolios are a high-impact educational practice that helps students synthesize and reflect on their learning. They are a process and a product that both generates and documents learning. This qualitative study examined how students enrolled in in-person and remote synchronous English language workshops in an English as a Foreign Language context improved their proficiency and acquired core competencies. The workshops and ePortfolio aimed to facilitate the development of English language proficiency and employer-valued, lifelong learning skills. The study was guided by three areas of research: high-impact practices, the theory of transactional distance, and the theory of self-regulated learning. Analysis of students' reflections resulted in the following themes: structure (workshops, resources, practice); dialogue (interaction, feedback, encouragement); strategies (goal setting, reflection, processes, application); competencies (English proficiency, autonomy, self-direction, critical thinking); and affective factors (confidence, personal achievement, pride), providing support for integration of the theories in the proposed model.