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The use of e‐portfolios in recognition of prior learning (RPL) processes in workplace and professional practice contexts has attracted little attention in the literature due to its emergent nature. This study seeks to explore the growing incidence of e‐portfolio‐based RPL (e‐RPL) and professional recognition (e‐PR) processes in Australia and the implications this has for recognising workplace learning.

The paper utilises an exploratory study and involves a content analysis of a selected sample of data sources. The sample includes the abstracts and papers presented at the 2009 VET E‐portfolios Showcase and the 2010 ePortfolios Australia conference and the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF) funded E‐portfolio implementation trials 2009 and 2010.

The paper finds an array of e‐RPL and e‐PR operationalised across multiple fields/disciplines and contexts. The incidence of e‐PR is more dominant than that of e‐RPL. The findings result in the development of a framework that provides the conceptual scaffolding for recognition systems in the workplace.

The study is limited to Australian based data sources. Further analysis could be expanded to international contexts to increase the data and evidence on e‐RPL and e‐PR processes and the implications these have for recognising workplace. The framework developed from the study provides a conceptual launch pad into future lines of inquiry which can critically explore the underlying pedagogies and knowledge paradigms which have dominated in formal learning systems.

The paper includes implications for the correct matching of practices and tasks to appropriate types of e‐portfolio based RPL and PR along a continuum of formal to informal learning and varying degrees of learner control.

This paper presents an analytical framework for exploring e‐RPL and e‐PR as distinct processes of recognition through a synthesis of RPL and e‐portfolio research and theoretical constructs. The framework includes a typology of e‐RPL and e‐PR based on Smith and Tillema's typology of portfolios and Cameron's models of RPL. The framework will assist in analysing recognition processes undertaken in workplace contexts.

Since the early 1980s, a paradigm shift, caused by the work undertaken in the field of cognitive psychology, has occurred. This shift is known as the move from teacher-centered instruction to learner-centered or learning-centered instruction, and emphasizes the importance of building new knowledge on previous ones, interacting with peers, making meaningful and reflective learning and being engaged in his own path to foster learning. This new vision of teaching has created a need for new learning and assessment instruments that are better adapted to these pedagogical realities. In this context, the electronic portfolio or e-portfolio is one of the most versatile and effective tools that have been proposed for this purpose. More specifically, the interest in e-portfolios has grown considerably with the emergence of the competency-based approach and portfolio-based competency assessments. The purpose of this paper is to describe a semantic-based representation of e-portfolios, defined on the basis of official e-portfolio standards and specifications. Moreover, a comparative study of several well-known e-portfolio solutions has been carried out based on different facets, such as functional features, technical and organizational features. The objective is to identify those features that are mostly supported by e-portfolio solution providers and accordingly to gain a fairly accurate idea of the common structure of e-portfolios. In addition, the authors take advantage of an already implemented ontological model describing competency-related characteristics of learners and learning objects and combine it with the e-portfolio ontology, with a view to support a more reliable and authentic competency assessment.

The proposed e-portfolio ontology was built following the ontology development methodology Methontology (Fernandez et al., 1997). In addition, it was constructed using the Protégé ontology environment (Protégé, 2007) and was implemented in OWL (Web Ontology Language) (Antoniou and Harmelen, 2004).

The proposed e-portfolio ontology provides humans with a shared vocabulary that enables capturing the most important elements in e-portfolios and serves as the basis for the semantic interoperability for machines.

The main advantage of the e-portfolio ontology lies in its ability to provide a common and semantically enriched representation of e-portfolio artifacts, thus facilitating the interoperability and exchange of competency evidences between different learning systems and platforms. In addition, capturing the semantics of e-portfolios helps to make them utilizable by intelligent applications.