E-Portfolios

Chalk & Wire Pledges Continued E-Portfolio Access

• By Rhea Kelly
• 09/21/15

Chalk & Wire today introduced a Career Access pledge, providing students who have used the current version of the company's e-portfolio authoring tool with access to their e-portfolios post-graduation at no cost.

As of Oct. 31, 2015, students with expired e-portfolio accounts who have left their schools will be able to:

• Download their files;
• Download PDF versions of any e-portfolio with all links working;
• Download HTML Web site versions of any e-portfolio for local use or placement on other Web sites;
• Edit current e-portfolios and create new ones;
• Automatically link e-portfolios to e-mail and social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter;
• Securely share e-portfolios with anyone for comment and review; and
• Utilize Chalk & Wire's mobile device display capability.

Students involved in formal studies post-graduation will be able to upload new files and artifacts for up to two years (depending on the proposal, more time may be granted; some restrictions may apply).

In addition, higher ed institutions will be able to use Chalk & Wire's tools to send custom surveys and forms to students to gather data about post-school experiences; set up collaborative workspaces for students, faculty, staff and external parties such as employers, organizations and other institutions; conduct research on institutional effectiveness; and more.

In a press release, Chalk & Wire cited four core principles behind its Career Access pledge:

• Students have the right to access their university work and files indefinitely as they own them. Institutions already have access to this data without restriction and so should students.
• The need to demonstrate competency and the ability to learn does not end with graduation – it's a lifelong requirement.
• Institutions want to follow their students off campus to research student experiences to help guide decisions that will affect future learners. This applies equally to alumni who completed degrees and those who did not.
• Schools and employers need a bridge to support their dialogue through the people they have in common: students.

"It's our hope that this offer will ignite a conversation between institutions, their students and others that to date has been sporadic and unnatural at best," Chalk & Wire CEO Geoff Irvine said. "We want to use this initiative to create partnerships between Chalk & Wire's research group and the organizations we serve to expand our initiatives to aid student success. Such research will shed light on the variables that enhance student success beyond formal education and will also build a two-way bridge with students who have ended their time in formal studies."