A Nation-wide ePortfolio: Reflections on Ambitions and Experiences in the Netherlands

Abstract

In the Netherlands 2008 stands out as a year of significant boosts for nation wide adoption of e-portfolios. In that year the Netherlands Institute for Normalisation (NEN) published the first version of a National Technical Agreement (NTA 2035) for the exchange of e-portfolios using an application profile based on (among others) the IMS ePortfolio specification. In that same year two important government advisory committees on employment and the labour market recommended nationwide adoption of e-portfolios as an instrument to assess and stimulate personal professional development and to increase mobility. This presentation reflects on the current state of affairs from three different perspectives: a recent study investigating means to accelerate adoption of the NTA 2035, the Service Centre for Lifelong Learning Limburg project which aims to deploy the NTA, and current provision of software supporting the NTA.