ABSTRACT
Some of the methods that have been used recently to study learners’ experiences of e-learning – such as narratives, logs and personal re¸ections – have a longer history as tools for researching and supporting personal development. For several years, Julie Hughes has been using these and other participative techniques to explore e-portfolio-based learning. E-portfolios, described here as a ‘domain’, a ‘genre’, and a ‘set of practices’ rather than a single technology, have signicantly shi¡ed the locus of attention towards learners’ own sense-making practices, because their content and the processes of their production are managed by learners. Hughes argues that a collaborative pedagogy supports the risk-taking required for personal development, and she builds on learners’ own re¸ections to make her case for e-portfolio-based learning as identity work, on both a professional and a personal level.
