Biosystems engineering students’ experiences and perceptions of selfreflection and e-portfolios

Abstract

Biosystems engineering students at the University of Manitoba participated in a voluntary workshop series as an extracurricular professional development opportunity. The five-workshop series was designed to engage students in reflection and self-reflection as a foundation for the development of e-portfolios to document their learning over time. Following the workshop series, focus group interviews were held with voluntary participants to explore their perceptions and experiences with self-reflection relative to e-portfolios. Themes that emerged from the focus group data related to i) the value of self-reflection as an activity, ii) the value of e-portfolios for career success, iii) observations of the biosystems engineering curriculum and iv) concerns about the status of the biosystems engineering discipline in the engineering community. The motivations to consider an e-portfolio were immediately focused on job-finding, and within that, on clarifying biosystems engineering both to themselves, to other students outside of biosystems engineering, and employers.