Xml and ePortfolios

Abstract

For students in many professional programs, their written work remains the chief means for them to convey their understanding and application of material presented in the classroom. Within their papers are applications of learning objectives or competencies. However, when students are asked to aggregate their acquisition of competencies, or if the school would like to know which competencies students are acquiring, then we are immediately confronted with the fact that the data within these papers is locked up in proprietary data formats, e.g., .doc. This article describes our proof-of-concept research wherein we asked students to “tag” their work with specific competencies via XML and retrieved that data using a database management system.