Reflective Practice for Digital Literacy in Online Work and Learning �Is there potential for ePortfolio and collective practice to build AI resilience?

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Introduction

How can we build a learning culture and community for online students, researchers and remote workers?

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The Challenges

• Work and learning online can be isolating and does not have the informal peer learning that happens in an office around digital innovations.

• The need to upskill in technology is front of mind for professionals (Spurava 2023). Degrees cannot provide training for tools, Gen AI that are in development.

• Workplaces encourage the sharing of self-directed learning to increase the impact but supporting this is fraught. For example, the challenging of promoting activity in Communities of Practice.

• Life-long learning and small experimenting can be disjointed in contrast to the structure of undergraduate studying.

• Digital upskilling is reactive, can be technology rather than pedagogy first.

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Provocation

Is there strength in connecting and sharing our ePortfolio practice, our reflections on ethics and experimentations with new technology? They are used for developing workplace learning communities (Walker et al., 2013).

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Methods

This poster provides questions that have grown from reflections on studying, teaching and working and supporting academics online. These questions will become a literature review and guide micro-action research in my portfolio design.

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Features of ePortfolios that support Digital Literacy

• Linking theory with experience and technical limitations.
• The format can be a playground for technical experimentation.
• Analysis in ePortfolios can support critical digital literacy (Nhlumayo, 2025).
• Documenting journey rather than completed asset.

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�Justification and How could ePortfolio sharing look like across the career stages?

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Early Careers

• Build on the transition pedagogy used in career readiness (Kift, 2015).
• Extend the support found in studying, apply the Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios (AAEEBL, 2022).
• Peer support is impactful (Brock and Huber, 2017). Support ePortfolio with graduate programs.
• Reflective practice can occur on social media (Kassens, 2014).
• It provides an activity independent to supervisors which is a key skill required in some industries.

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Early adopters

• Takes humility to acknowledge how little we know. Share progress and the journey of testing out tech, ideas and discussing shifting identities due to AI.

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Building connection in the third space

The third space can be isolating, Whitechurch (2025). Could reflective communities of practice connect with the common learning journey of the unknowns of new technology?

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The TEE Framework for Reflection for Early Careers

The University of Wollongong promote the framework for WIL students to move past writing down observations but reconciling Theory, Expectations and Experience (Fraser, 2022).

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Bio and Positionality

Claire Bowmer, a learning designer works in the third space between technical and education design in universities and in training within industry. This paper is inspired by the journeys she has been on with academics moving tech systems and adopting innovation. She has first hand experience of the challenges of facilitating Communities of Practice She enrolled in a Masters of Education to learn about latest digital tech and learnt so much more. She has just experience ePortfolio’s as a student again in studies with UTAS in sustainable practice.

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References

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Brock, M. E., & Huber, H. B. (2017). Are peer support arrangements an evidence-based practice? A systematic review. The Journal of Special Education, 51(3), 150–163.

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Fraser, M. et al. (2022). Designing a framework to improve critical reflection writing in teacher education using action research, Education Action Research, DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2022.2038226

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Kift, Sally. (2015). A decade of Transition Pedagogy: A quantum leap in conceptualising the first year experience. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, Vol 2, pp 51-86.. 51-86.

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Kassens, A. L. (2014). Tweeting your way to improved #writing, #reflection, and #community. The Journal of Economic Education, 45(2), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2014.889937

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Nhlumayo, Buhle. (2025). The Role of ePortfolios in Developing Digital Literacy Skills for Students in Higher Education. Digital Resilience of ePortfolios During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for the Future (pp.610-619 ) Mount Royal University Library

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Spurava, G., & Kotilainen, S. (2023). Digital literacy as a pathway to professional development in the algorithm-driven world. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 18(1), 48–59. https://doi.org/10.18261/njdl.18.1.5

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The Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning [AAEEBL]. (2022). Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios, version 3. https://aaeebl.org/digital-ethics-principles-in-ePortfolios/support/

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Walker, R., Cooke, M., Henderson, A., & Creedy, D. K. (2013). Using a critical reflection process to create an effective learning community in the workplace. Nurse Education Today, 33(5), 504–511.

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Whitchurch, C. (2025). Achieving inclusion: University staff working in third space between academic and professional spheres of activity. Social Inclusion, 14. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.9596

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