Developing and assessing an online portfolio system

Using project-based education as a model, the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin is developing a user-friendly, pedagogical structured portfolio tool. While the concept of portfolios is not new, the challenge in this endeavor is to develop a system that is fun and easy to use for the students and provides opportunities for students to reflect on their engineering education goals and experiences. This work-in-progress paper will describe the development of the portfolio system including the issues that arose during the design of the prototype, comments from student focus groups, and plans to enhance the portfolio.