Implementing a competency-based electronic portfolio in a graduate nursing program

Use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) has been advocated to demonstrate nursing student accomplishments as well as to document program and course outcomes. This use of e-portfolios incorporates information technology, thus aligning the educational process in professional degree programs to 21st-century teaching and learning scholarship. Here we describe a project to explore the feasibility of transitioning from documenting student competencies in hard-copy binders to e-portfolios. To make this transition in an efficient manner in our graduate nursing program, we used the Plan, Do, Study, Act quality-improvement model. An interdisciplinary team of nursing faculty and educational computing consultants developed a professional e-portfolio template and implemented a pilot program for 10 students enrolled in our nurse educator specialty. This program was executed by assessing university resources, evaluating the technological competence of both students and faculty, and through the interdisciplinary team members' commitment to provide ongoing support for the program.