COU8101 Counselling ePortfolio Project: Student Perspectives

Course and cohort

COU8101 Counselling Skills and Applications  |  109 postgraduate students.

Context

Counselling accreditation requirements emphasise that students engage in progressive monitoring and evaluation of their work, on becoming reflective practitioners, engaging in professional/personal development, and having a portfolio of work in placement. With the introduction of program-wide portfolio strategy to help enhance students’ employability (based on the School of Psychology and Counselling’s Academic Action Vision Plan 2020), COU8101 Counselling Skills and Applications was identified as the logical course to pilot the integration of an eportfolio.

Description of course design

The School of Psychology and Counselling’s Academic Plan First Year experience lists the culmination of a portfolio of competencies from their studies as an employability goal. Teaching staff were looking for an online portfolio platform solution to suit counselling students enrolled in the program, some of whom in the past have struggled with technological complexity. For Semester 1, 2021, COU8101 students will be invited to trial the creation and maintenance of an eportfolio using the CampusPress platform.

COU8101 students use an online counselling lab to practice the skills they learn each week, and for Semester 1 they will be encouraged to use an eportfolio to reflect on their learnings, their skill application and development, receive feedback from their class colleagues, and to store documentary evidence (e.g., de-identified SRS and other “client” feedback, completed skills checklists, completed assignments). It is anticipated that some students could potentially use the content published in their eportfolio as evidence to support future job applications.

This pilot seeks to identify ways in which the eportfolio enhances student engagement as per Redmond et al’s (2018) Online Engagement Framework elements, including:

• Enhanced sense of integration of learning (e.g. personal learning goals with course learning goals) (Emotional and cognitive engagement)
• Enhanced social engagement via student and staff comments on student performance, and inclusion of professional recommendations and endorsements of student competencies (Social engagement)
• Enhanced professional identity and confidence for employability (Behavioural and motivational engagement)
• Enhancement of self-directed learning (Emotional engagement)
• Enhanced reflective learning opportunities (Cognitive and emotional engagement)
• Student perception of enhanced self-awareness (Cognitive and emotional engagement)
• Recognition of learning progress over time (Cognitive engagement)
• Enhanced engagement with other students on shared activities (Collaborative engagement)
• Enhanced means of students getting to know each other (Collaborative engagement)
• Recognition of the value of e-portfolios in establishing a CV and employability more generally (Behavioural engagement)