Higher Education Students’ Perception of the E-Portfolio as a Tool for Improving Their Employability: Weaknesses and Strengths

Abstract

This study analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the professional e-portfolio as a tool for preparing students in higher education to enter the labor market. It also examines students’ level of planning to enter professional employment, and the help that they receive with this task from the university. The research is quantitative and observes the students’ opinions before and after they create their own professional e-portfolio, as a case study. We used the analysis of means to determine the trend in the aspects analyzed over time, and the Student’s t-test and Cohen’s d to determine the effect size. We also performed correlation analysis between the different categories and subcategories proposed. The results show that the e-portfolio is a tool with strengths for labor market entry, while also revealing the weaknesses that students find in it. At the very least, the e-portfolio was useful to the students in planning their entry into the workforce. The correlations show high levels among the strengths but not among the weaknesses analyzed.

Keywords

• career planning
• electronic learning
• employability
• higher education