A successful faculty development program for implementing a sociocultural ePortfolio assessment tool.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Assessment Methods

Background:

• Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are increasingly used for documenting student learning and competency.
• Assessing complex skills like patient-centeredness and social determinants of health is challenging with traditional methods.
• Faculty often lack expertise in modern educational assessment technologies like ePortfolios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a Sociocultural ePortfolio Assessment Tool in an undergraduate medical curriculum.
• To provide faculty development through workshops to enhance skills in using ePortfolios for assessment.
• To improve faculty ability in providing mentored feedback and stimulating student reflection.

Main Methods:

• Three faculty development workshops were conducted.
• Workshops focused on using a Web-based ePortfolio technology.
• Training included practicing mentored feedback and reflection using ePortfolios.
• Workshop design was based on successful programs reported in the literature.

Main Results:

• Faculty reported positive evaluations of the workshops.
• Participants gained comfort with the ePortfolio technology.
• Faculty developed skills in providing mentored reflections and structured evaluation of student content.
• Hands-on training was valued by faculty, regardless of their prior content expertise.

Conclusions:

• Faculty development workshops are essential for successful implementation of ePortfolio assessment tools.
• Training enhances faculty capacity to assess complex, non-traditional learning outcomes.
• This approach supports the integration of sociocultural aspects into medical education assessment.