A portfolio assessment is an examination of student-selected samples of work experiences and documents related to outcomes being assessed, and it can address and support progress toward achieving academic goals, including student efficacy. Some advantages include: promoting student self-evaluation, reflection, and critical thinking, measuring performance based on genuine samples of student work, providing flexibility in how students accomplish their learning goals, and enabling measurement of multiple dimensions of student progress by including different types of data and materials in the assessment. Some disadvantages include: It's time consuming to gather all necessary data and work samples and results in a bulky and sometimes difficult to manage portfolio, and scoring portfolios involves the extensive use of subjective evaluation procedures and professional judgment, which limits reliability. Some examples include showcase portfolios, writing portfolios and process portfolios.
