Close Reading: Engaging and Empowering History Students Through Document Analysis on ePortfolio

This article examines the intersection of the scholarship on ePortfolio and history pedagogy through an analysis of the success of the integration of Digication’s Conversations feature into history courses at Bronx Community College (BCC). History professors at BCC have used the feature, which allows people to highlight and comment on text and respond to comments, to have students contribute to group analyses of primary source documents. This exercise combines the active learning, reflection, metacognition, and integrative learning recommended in both bodies of scholarship. The article includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of student success in hybrid courses that include Conversations, with the results suggesting ePortfolio use can intensify the development of historical thinking.