Over the past ten years, hundreds of colleges and universities around the world have begun utilizing electronic student portfolios to advance learning, teaching, and assessment. Theory and practice in the field are changing rapidly, even as new technologies emerge and the landscape of higher education shifts. In 2008, six hundred educators from seventy universities came to LaGuardia Community College for an international conference entitled “Making Connections: ePortfolios, Integrative Learning and Assessment.” In one key session, national experts such as Trent Batson and Helen Barret joined LaGuardia faculty leaders for a roundtable on "The Future of ePortfolio," exploring the challenges and opportunities offered by a new era.

What happens if we shift the focus of our teaching and learning innovations from a single classroom to an entire institution? What new kinds of questions and possibilities emerge? Can an entire college break boundaries, moving from a focus on “what teachers teach” to a focus on “what students learn?” Can we think differently about student learning if we create structures that enable thousands of students to use new media tools to examine their learning across courses, disciplines, and semesters? Bret Eynon explores these questions as he analyzes the college-wide ePortfolio initiative at LaGuardia Community College. Studying individual portfolios and focus group interviews, he also examines quantitative outcomes data on engagement and retention to better consider ePortfolio’s impact on student learning.