E-PORTFOLIOS @ TEACHER TRAINING: AN EVALUATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

In recent years e-portfolios have received a great deal of attention in the educational discourse and it is associated with individualization of the learning process, competence-oriented assessment and institutional personnel development. Since the beginning of the academic year 2008/09 students of the Catholic College of Education Linz had the opportunity to create and write their own e-portfolio in the context of the teacher training. Here the e-portfolio serves as an instrument for professional development in teaching by reflecting one's own learning process and by illustrating the way of competence development as well as an instrument for professional feedback. The objective of this research is to evaluate motivational and technological factors towards using e-portfolios among students. Furthermore e-portfolios shall be developed as a tool and a method in teacher education. Authors will address the following research questions: -How is the e-portfolio assessed by students (attitudes, benefits, relevance, usability, motivation, acceptance, etc.)? -What factors do acceptance and motivation towards working with e-portfolios depend upon? -Does the frequency of feedback influence acceptance and motivation? Theoretical basis for the research is an adapted version of model of motivation and acceptance with technology for working with e-portfolios by students in teacher training. It will be validated and adapted through an empirical-quantitative study based on hypothetical principles. In a second step, the resulting model is undergoing a partial least square (PLS) calculation - an analysis in order to estimate and interpret interrelations and causal effects and to optimize the model of our research.