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AAEEBL Digital Ethics Principles: version 1

Principle 8: Cross-Platform Compatibility

ePortfolio creators should be able to make and view ePortfolios across any device, browser, and operating system with equitable ease of use across devices.

ABSTRACT: ePortfolio platforms should operate across devices and operating systems from both the creator and viewer perspective. ePortfolio creators should have the technical knowledge to create ePortfolios that are readable across devices.

Strategies for applying this principle include...

Considering how all aspects of ePortfolio use function across platforms and mobile operating systems, including uploading, viewing, listening, downloading, embedding, and sharing.
Considering ease of use and whether the student will use an application or a web browser to access their ePortfolio on a mobile device.
Providing students with the technical support that they need to use the ePortfolio platform across devices.
Questioning whether or not other users, such as employers, would need to download an application to review or interact with the ePortfolio.

Scenarios:

Scenario #1:

You are a recent graduate on the job market and choose to include your ePortfolio link on your resume. You designed your ePortfolio to be viewed on a desktop computer but now imagine that your professional audience will be viewing the site on their mobile devices. You reach out to your former educator to see how you can begin revising the ePortfolio to be effective across platforms.

Your educator sends you to a support page on the platform provider’s website that walks you through design tips for tablet and smartphone viewing and shows you how you can preview the design on different screen sizes. You redesign your ePortfolio with these tips in mind. Then, you reach out to friends and ask them to practice viewing the site on their phones and tablets so that you can troubleshoot any additional errors. When you are sure that the design is functional and professional looking, you distribute the link to potential employers.

Scenario #2:

You are an educator who has asked your students to complete an ePortfolio as part of a capstone course. Students have already selected artifacts from their learning and co-curricular experiences to include in the ePortfolio but have not yet begun creating and filling the actual site. You distribute a survey to students to identify how comfortable they are using digital devices, if they have used the ePortfolio platform before, and how familiar they are with ePortfolios as a genre. You discover that while students use digital devices often for social media, few have created a website and none know what an ePortfolio is. On the first day exploring the platform, you observe students struggling to make minimal changes to the premade template.

You need to provide students with additional support in how to use the ePortfolio platform: (1) explicitly support the technical knowledge needed in the ePortfolio creation process in the course; (2) put students in contact with institutional, local, or public experts; (3) create classroom spaces for students to share peer knowledge and ask each other questions across a learning community. You should also discuss students’ unfamiliarity with ePortfolios with the program administrator and/or staff member to see how students can learn about ePortfolios before entering the capstone course.

Scenario #3:

You are an educator at a small, private college where the administration already has a contract with a particular ePortfolio platform. However, the platform can only be used in a limited capacity on a mobile device. Administration was not aware of this during the contract negotiation phase and now the contract is in place and binding. The small institution did not budget for an additional ePortfolio platform, and you must decide how to proceed. You can use the current platform and have students with iOS devices use the campus computers to access and edit their ePortfolios, or you can search for a different, free platform that is equally accessible across devices.

The portfolio program office updates its catalogue of portfolio criteria and includes the support of popular mobile device platforms so that they are not forgotten when a review of the current platform is conducted and other platforms are considered.

Resources:

1. Bose, D., & Pakala, K. (2015). Use of mobile learning strategies and devices for e-portfolio content creation in an engineering thermodynamics and fluid mechanics classes: Student perceptions. 2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.18260/p.24978
2. Chen, B., & deNoyelles, A. (2013). Exploring students’ mobile learning practices in higher education. EDUCAUSE Review.
3. Siegfried, B. (2011). Enhanced student technology support with cross-platform mobile apps. Proceedings of the 39th Annual ACM SIGUCCS Conference on User Services, 31–34. https://doi.org/10.1145/2070364.2070373

This document was created by the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force: Amy Cicchino (Auburn University), Megan Haskins (Auburn University), Megan Crowley-Watson (Edward Waters College), Elaine Gray (Appalachian State University), Morgan Gresham (University of South Florida), Kristina Hoeppner (Catalyst, New Zealand), Kevin Kelly (San Francisco State University), Megan Mize (Old Dominion University), Christine Slade (University of Queensland), Heather Stuart (Auburn University), and Sarah Zurhellen (Appalachian State University)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.