Thinking Skills by Design: Using a Capstone ePortfolio to Promote Reflection, Critical Thinking, and Curriculum Integration

A capstone ePortfolio is a digital space where students can gather and integrate their learning experiences from their undergraduate careers into a meaningful whole, demonstrate their growth as learners, and connect their learning to the world. The process of creating a capstone ePortfolio equips students with the digital composition skills necessary for creating a professional career ePortfolio, helping them to showcase their strengths for future employment and for graduate or professional school applications. This project piloted an undergraduate capstone ePortfolio program designed to be the culminating experience for juniors upon completion of the general education program (i.e., core curriculum). Pilot program results, based on a group of 18 students from a variety of academic and demographic backgrounds, suggest that the capstone ePortfolio program can serve as a vehicle for promoting reflection, critical thinking, digital literacy and composition, and integration of curricular experiences. This article presents the results of a mixed-method assessment of the pilot and discusses how these results will be used to frame the semester-long capstone ePortfolio program for the undergraduate general education program at a large AAU research institution.