What is ePEARL?

• ePEARL is a free, bilingual, web-based electronic portfolio software. Based on sound research evidence, coupled with feedback from the field, ePEARL has been designed to encourage self-regulation in learners within student-centred curricula.

ePEARL promotes:

• Goal Setting: Creating general learning goals for a term or year, as well as task goals for a specific artifact.
• Reflection on the process and finished product.
• Feedback from peers, parents and teachers on the portfolio as a whole or on a specific artifact.

View a video clip on the software

ePEARL guides users through the steps of planning, doing and reflecting on artifacts.

click to enlarge

The ePEARL Learning Process guides students through the creation process, allowing enough flexibility for truly creative work and just enough scaffolding to keep students on the right track. There is a text editor and an audio recorder for the creation of work. Readings, music pieces, or oral presentations may be recorded. The software also offers the ability to attach work created with other software, so it can accommodate any kind of digital work a student creates in class, including scanned images of paper-based work.

Before work is created, students are encouraged to set their goals for this work, and may attach learning logs, evaluation rubrics and study plans to keep track of their learning process as it takes place. After the creation of work, students are asked to reflect on their performance and strategies, and to use these to adjust their goals for the next work. The sharing of work with peers or teachers is supported so that students may solicit feedback on drafts of work.

click to enlarge

The Presentations folder within ePEARL is where students collect their selected artifacts. This collection process allows students to reflect on their work, its relationship to other work, and on their own advancements. Self-regulation is also supported when students create new goals for future work or modify learning behavior based on their reflections on a particular piece they have collected. Sharing with peers and parents is encouraged and teachers have automatic access to all of their students' ePEARLs so that they can view and provide feedback on students' Portfolios and work.

Levels 2/3:

• We now have a toolbox in the 'Doing' and Reflection sections, which allows multiple and flexible methods of input. The student may attach any number of files, and/or insert multiple text boxs, recordings, or hyperlinks.
  
• We combined the Work Space and the Portfolio into one environment. Students will be able to create new work or add new artifacts from the same screen.
• Also, students can link an artifact to three essential employment skills identified by the HRSDC.
• Finally, under the Share function there is now the ability to collaborate with others. This allows all students in a team to reflect on group work.

Level 3:

• We have eight new interfaces designed for older users accessible under "Themes" in the Personalize section and guided instruction is now available in both levels 2 and 3. Another feature now offered in Level 3 is the multiple page mode, which breaks down the self-regulated learning process so students can be guided through it step by step when they are creating or working on an artifact. This feature was previously available only in Level 2, but has been made available to older students at the request of ePEARL users.