Create. Share. Engage.

Marie 'Bernie' Fisher, SFHEA, AFHERDSA, BA/BSc, Grad Dipl Ed, MA, MA (Hons), is a PhD candidate at the University of New England in Australia. She's been creating portfolios and supporting students create their own for many years in and outside of academia. As a member of the ePortfolios Australia Organising Committee, she's been involved in community engagement and support.

In this episode, Bernie takes us on her portfolio journey and shares what is important to her in her portfolio practice, what some of her methods and ways are to reflect meaningfully, and how she supports others with reflection.

Resources

• AAEEBL
• HERDSA
• Eportfolio Forum, 12-13 November 2025
• PARE sessions
• Shut Up & Write!
• Fisher, M. (2024, August 13). Look in the mirror and what do you see [Presentation]. AAEEBL Annual Meeting.
• Bernie's publications
• Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford Brookes University.
• Mezirow, J., & Taylor, E. W. (Eds.). (2009). Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education. Jossey-Bass.
  
  

Related episodes

• Allison Miller: The portfolio is a process
• Bob Reuter: Externalise your thinking with portfolios

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Suzanne Schibeci is the Work-Integrated Learning Partner at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, supporting students, faculty, and employers with the administration and running of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences.

In this episode, Sue shares how she's using portfolios to help her students reflect on their WIL experiences that take them outside of the university. She talks about what works for her and what some challenges are.

Resources

• AAEEBL Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Task Force
• Eportfolio Forum 2025: Revolution, Evolution, Resolution
• STAR method by Michael Pell
• Schibeci, S. (2025). Enabling students to identify and develop employability skills during work-integrated learning experiences. AAEEBL ePortfolio Review, Summer/Fall, 30–34.

Related episodes

• Mike Altieri: Use reflection bot Riff for deeper and more meaningful portfolio reflection
• Leticia Britos Cavagnaro: Make learning visible
• Mark Brady: Journal regularly for profound insight

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Prof. Dr. paed. Dipl.-Math. Mike Altieri is a professor of Media Didactics in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Media, and Computer Science at Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden (OTH Amberg-Weiden) in Bavaria in Germany. He teaches in the Master's programme in Educational Technology and leads the research project Dreiklang.

Projekt Dreiklang is funded by Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre and contributes to the improvements in using portfolios in Germany in higher education.

In this interview Mike shares how he uses the artificial intelligence reflection bot Riff with his students to encourage deeper and more meaningful reflection in their portfolios and how he incorporates his students' work in their portfolios into his lectures.

Resources

• Mike's OTH web page
• Sign-up for free access to the Dreiklang ePortfolio starter kit (some information is in English)
• Publications by the Dreiklang project team
• Map of institutions using portfolios in Germany (and beyond). This map is in the early stages. Get in touch with Mike if you want to be listed.
• Blog post introducing Riff: 'Reflecting with AI: A Tool to Develop Human Intelligence'
  Recordings of the AAEEBL AI webinar series, including recording 'Supporting reflection through an AI powered reflection bot'

Related episodes

• Christina Stollner & Romy Hösl: Portfolio support for educators and learners
• Dr Leticia Britos Cavagnaro: Make learning visible
• Prof Dr Paul Libbrecht and Prof Dr Wolfgang Müller: Support your portfolio learning with AI

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Prof Dr David Hicks is a Professor of History and Social Science Education at Virginia Tech in the U.S.A. He's been teaching with portfolios for over 20 years supporting teacher candidates on their journey to become professionals.

In this episode he talks about how he and his team integrate portfolios into a capstone course in the teacher training programme at Virginia Tech (VT), what scaffolds they employ, and how the supports in place help students create portfolios that emphasise reflection. The basis of his portfolio work is folio thinking and the ePortfolio development framework that he and his team have developed over the course of time.

Resources

• Hicks, D., Allen, A., & Evers, S. (2025). Folio thinking in teacher education: A case study on the evolution of reflective ePortfolio assignments. AePR ePortfolio Review, Winter / Spring 2025, 19–29.
• Parkes, K. A., Dredger, K., & Hicks, D. (2013). ePortfolio as a measure of reflective practice. International Journal of ePortfolio, 3(2), 99–115.
• Penny Light, T., Chen, H. L., & Ittelson, J. C. (2011). Documenting learning with ePortfolios: A guide for college instructors. Jossey-Bass.

Connect with Virginia Tech School of Education in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• X

Related episodes

• Rita Zuba Prokopetz: Building a learning community
• Debra Hoven: The value of self-reflection and peer feedback
• Bob Reuter: Externalise your thinking with portfolios

Click through to the show notes for the transcript.

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Lindsay Richardson is the Educational Technology Manager in the Teaching and Learning Services Department at Carleton University. She is also an Adjunct Professor and Contract Instructor in the Department of Psychology at the university.

Lindsay has been using portfolios in large introductory psychology courses with 200 to 450 students. Students create 'success portfolios' which they also grade themselves based on a rubric. In this interview, Lindsay talks about why she introduced portfolios into her courses and how she is navigating the use of generative AI.

Resources

• Dr Lindsay Richardson and Dr Ashley Thompson's podcast 'Agile Ed': Exploring learner-centred education fuelled by curiosity and critical thinking
• Students as Partners Programme
• cuPortfolio, Carleton University's instance of Mahara
• Ungrading and alternative assessments, a resource from York University

Related episode: Cathy Elliott: Have fun, be flexible, and encourage feedback in your portfolio

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

In this episode, Mahara project lead Kristina Hoeppner, MA, takes a brief look back at 15 years on the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. She pulls out a few instances of portfolio use. This is only a tiny selection and by no means a full representation of what is happening in the portfolio community as you can see from the many stories that we share on this podcast.

Resources

• Learning management system Moodle
• MoodleMoot Global 2025
• Library management system Koha
• KohaCon 2025
• Bret Eynon, Laura Gambino (2018): Catalyst in action: Case studies of High-Impact ePortfolio practice
• Recording of Mahara Hui Online on 10 June 2025 on the Mahara YouTube channel
• Morgan Gresham, Megan, Mize, Sarah Zurhellen (2023). High-impact practices and third spaces: Connecting across disciplines. Across the Disciplines, 20(3–4), 157–176.
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force and Digital Ethics in ePortfolios principles
• AAEEBL YouTube channel
• ePortfolios Australia and upcoming Eportfolio Forum
• Chris Cormack (2025): Data sovereignty in Aotearoa: Navigating how to protect our digital taonga
• Presentation 'Portfolios: Integral to your programmatic assessment approach'
• Janine Quiding, Miriam Laidlaw, Tabitha Parker, Kristina Hoeppner (2020): Portfolios come full circle in the world of work
• Janine Quiding, Miriam Laidlaw, Tabitha Parker (2022): PDRP at Waitematā

Related episodes

• Andrea Ghoneim: Learn transversal skills through portfolios
• Lisa Donaldson: From 0 to 6,000 in six weeks
• Christina Stollner & Romy Hösl: Portfolio support for educators and learners
• DiKuLe: Planning and decision making guide for portfolios
• Chahira Nouira: Use a portfolio to give students space and time to reflect
• Mahara 25.04 and how a feature makes it into Mahara

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Cordula Schwiderski, MA, Hannah Brodel, MA, Martina Osterrieder, and Dr Martin Sticht work at Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg in Germany. Hannah, Martina, and Martin are members of the DiKuLe project, and Cordula works in the eFolio team, which was established through the project.

DiKuLe - Digitale Kulturen der Lehre entwickeln (develop digital cultures in academic teaching) is a project funded by Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre.

The part of the project the four are involved in looks at improving portfolio practices. To do that, they have created a planning and decision making guide as one output of the project. This guide combines the technical and learning design aspects necessary for successfully planning, preparing, and implementing portfolios in academic courses.

Connect with

• Cordula
• Hannah
• Martina
• Martin
• DiKuLe on LinkedIn

Resources

• Planungs- und Entscheidungshilfe zum Einsatz von E-Portfolios in der Lehre (incl. editable file)
• Planning and decision making guide for the use of ePortfolios in academic teaching
• DiKuLe Symposium
• Online workshop 'Strategic course design with ePortfolios: A practical guide' with Hannah Brodel and Martina Osterrieder
• Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. In Higher Education 32, S. 347–364.
• eFolio offering at the University of Bamberg

Related episodes

• Christina Stollner & Romy Hösl: Portfolio support for educators and learners
• Margarete Imhof, Franziska Ohl, Sebastian Laube: Feedback as driver for learning with portfolios

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Christina Stollner, MA, and Romy Hösl, MA, work at Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden (OTH Amberg-Weiden) in Bavaria in Germany. There they are members of the 'Dreiklang' project, which aims to make it easier for lecturers and students to work with portfolios by offering a triad of support: theory, communication, and examples for the direct application of portfolios in various contexts in higher education.

The resources they have already created and that they will continue to create until the end of their project, are all available under the Creative Commons license BY 4.0.

Projekt Dreiklang is funded by Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre and contributes to the improvements in using portfolios in Germany in higher education.

Connect with

• Christina on LinkedIn
• Romy on LinkedIn

Resources

• Projekt Dreiklang
• OTH's Master's programme in Educational Technology
• Sign-up for free access to the starter kit (some information is in English)
• Reflection bot Riff
• Recordings of the AAEEBL AI webinar series, including recording 'Supporting reflection through an AI powered reflection bot'
• AISOP project

Related episodes

• Dr Leticia Britos Cavagnaro: Make learning visible
• Prof Dr Paul Libbrecht and Prof Dr Wolfgang Müller: Support your portfolio learning with AI

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Professor Dr Michael Sankey from Charles Darwin University in Australia has been involved in the ePortfolio practice for more than 25 years. He started out writing HTML pages, then used various portfolio platforms throughout his university career, and transitioned to a non-institution owned site now that he is retired.

In this conversation Michael emphasises the role of the portfolio to support emerging professionals. He advocates for institution-operated portfolio platforms to provide a space where employers looking at student portfolios can be assured that they are dealing with real students. Michael also makes the case for programmatic assessment as the next evolution in assessment and the key role that the portfolio plays in it.

Connect with Michael

• LinkedIn
• Bluesky
• Instagram

Resources

• Michael's website
• ePortfolios Australia
• Keynote at the Eportfolio Forum 2024: 'Making visible the "human" side of learning and celebrating one’s achievements through ePortfolio practice
• University of Sydney's two-lane approach to artificial intelligence in assessment tasks
  • What to do about assessments if we can’t out-design or out-run AI?
  • Program level assessment design and the two-lane approach
  • Artificial intelligence and academic integrity: A conversation between Prof Dr Danny Liu and Prof Dr Stephen Marshall
• Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University; resources on programmatic assessment:
  • Nieminen, J. H., & Boud, D. (2024). Placing authenticity at the heart of student self-assessment: an integrative review. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(3), 640–662.
  • Tree, D., Harvey, A., & Rand-Weaver, M. (2025) Integrated Programme Assessment: 10 years on. (2025). Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 4(1).
  • CRADLE Seminar Series 2025 #1: Programmatic Assessment. Insights from Theory and Practice with Dr Liesbeth Baartman

Related episodes

• Kate Mitchell: Deliberate and programmatic design
• Mark Glynn: Take a programmatic approach to assessment with portfolios

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

In this episode, podcast host Kristina Hoeppner, MA, who is the Mahara Project Lead and Product Manager, shares how a feature makes into the application, using a couple of recent examples from Mahara 25.04 that will be released by the end of April 2025.

Mahara 25.04 will have a number of great new features available that enhance portfolio practice and also help teaching and support staff in their roles.

Connect with Kristina

• LinkedIn
• Mastodon
• Send a message via the Mahara community website

Resources

• Tree swing story
  • Cartoon
  • History of the cartoon
• Origin of the CPD plugin
• Wireframes as result of the usability review
• Mock-ups for Mahara 26.04
• Mahara roadmap
• Announcement of the Mahara 25.04 preview
• Presentation 'Who creates open source software?'
• Upcoming Mahara events
• Events by AAEEBL
• Recording of the 'New features in Mahara 25.04' webinar

Related episodes

• Monash University
  • Dr Ingrid D'Souza: Creativity and lifelong portfolios
  • Assoc Prof Dr Zala Volcic: Develop community, relationships, and compassion
  • Jamie Robinson, MEd: Portfolio boot camp for educators
• Programmatic design and assessment
  • Kate Mitchell, MEd: Deliberate and programmatic design
  • Dr Mark Glynn, PFHEA: Take a programmatic approach to assessment with portfolios

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward