An examination of critical success factors in the implementation of ePortfolios in universities

Many Australian university teachers have been experimenting with the use of ePortfolio applications as a learning tool for students in recent years. The typical characteristics of an ePortfolio include a learner-centred approach, formative assessment, and collaborative sharing. These characteristics enable a highly individualised elearning environment. However, few teachers conduct early assessments to determine if their students, syllabi, and learning environments suit the implementation of ePortfolios. This paper presents an overview of the critical success factors in elearning and mlearning from existing literature and offers a set of critical success factors which could be used by teachers to determine if the use of ePortfolios is appropriate for their class settings. The identification of these factors is based on investigations of previous successes and failures of ePortfolio projects and other elearning systems and tools in learning environments. While previous research focused primarily on pedagogical approaches, technology, or aspects of the learning environment, this work-in-progress attempts to adopt a broader perspective, taking into consideration other factors such as social network strategies, usability studies, and factors in human–computer interaction design. It is argued that a preliminary assessment of the critical success factors would help the teacher to decide whether to use ePortfolios, and minimise the chances of failure or rejection by students. The identification of the critical success factors would lead to a comprehensive model for the implementation of ePortfolios in universities.