ePortfolio Guidelines

The ePortfolio is a comprehensive, competency based assessment of learning in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program. This electronic document is based on literature that proposes an ePortfolio offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to integrate knowledge amassed during the course of study and apply this learning to direct care of patient populations*. Standardized templates have been created for use by the DNP students free of charge and are located at blogs.nursing.osu.edu

The ePortfolio serves three distinct purposes in the curricula for DNP education:

  1. Individual Assessment: The ePortfolio provides a standardized template for students to display artifacts of learning, demonstrate progression within the curricula including practicum immersion and provide reflection on learned activities. Annually, the ePortfolios are assessed by the DNP/PhD subcommittee to determine individual student progression, degree goal achievement and to ensure the program is providing resources the student needs to succeed.
  2. Program Assessment: The ePortfolios provide data for collective evaluation of overall program effectiveness and program outcome evaluation to ensure the curricula builds student competence, knowledge remains relevant to best-practice and curricula aligns with regulatory initiatives (DNP essentials, ).
  3. Accreditation Review: The ePortfolios provide a structured presentation platform for accreditation and administrative auditing of the The ePortfolio may also be used as a presentation platform for prospective employers.

Student responsibilities

  • Utilize the ePortfolio system for intended academic purposes only.
  • Students are responsible for all content creation and maintenance on their ePortfolio.
  • Use the standardized theme and template. Do not change the themes, logos or page layouts.
  • Determine what personal information is posted in your ePortfolio and set appropriate privacy settings because information can be viewed by all individuals authorized to access your account.
  • Maintain integrity of account by not sharing passwords or contracting outside consultants to modify, maintain or complete your ePortfolio.
  • Contact con-informationtechnology@osu.edu with questions about account function, privacy setting or if you think your password has been compromised.

Data retention policy

  • ePortfolio data will be retained on the server for a minimum of 10 years after graduation.
  • To ensure integrity, data is automatically backed up to both a local and remote secure server each day.

Access

The software and infrastructure of the ePortfolio system is owned and maintained by the Ohio State College of Nursing. All data entered into the ePortfolio template is owned by the student. To protect privacy and comply with FERPA rules, access to the information is restricted to the student and other authorized users. In order to facilitate tracking clinical hours and compliance with accreditation bodies, certain people will automatically be granted authority to access your ePortfolio. The following people will have access to the ePortfolio:

  • The student
  • The student’s primary advisor
  • The appropriate DNP subcommittee for annual review
  • Instructional faculty of the DNP clinical courses to track compliance and experience hours Access will only be for the semester in which the course is taken (Leadership, Health Policy, Quality improvement, Immersion)
  • Instructional faculty of any pre-immersion clinical courses to track compliance and experience hours logs
  • Legally authorized system administrators in pursuit of accreditation reviews, legal actions or compliance requirements as designated by the College of Nursing Dean

Additional accounts may be created upon request of the student. This includes access by other students, family, faculty and potential employers. Please contact con-informationtechnology@osu.edu to request additional access accounts.

After graduation

Students will continue to have regular access to the eportfolio with current credentials for 6 months after graduation. If longer access is desired, please contact con-informationtechnology@osu.edu. At any time, the student may make of copy of their eportfolio and transfer it to a free WordPress account. The eportfolios can also be exported to a file for long-term storage.

Note that free accounts do not have built-in security features to protect personal data. Students are highly encouraged to speak to an IT specialist before transferring data to an outside service.

*Smolowitz, J., & Honing, J. (2008). DNP portfolio: The scholarly project for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Clinical Scholars Review, 1 (1), 18-22. DOI: 10.1891/1939- 2095.1.1.18