Collective Approaches to ePortfolio Adoption: Barriers and Opportunities in a Large Canadian University

University programs that prepare graduates for professional fields are adopting ePortfolios to achieve program learning goals and promote lifelong learning. However, various structural and cultural barriers exist to implementing ePortfolios, particularly in large universities. Members of a community of practice (CoP) that participate in collaborative inquiry into the adoption of ePortfolios, using and producing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in their “collective working,” create shared knowledge and pooled resources for assessing adoption challenges and developing strategies to overcome them. In this reflective practice inquiry, two academics who provide leadership and instruction in education and medical science programs in a large Canadian university consider the learning and administrative value of using ePortfolios in blended undergraduate and online graduate programs, as well as the challenges that face their implementation. The inquiry provides a literature review, force field analysis, and reflective dialogue to identify key barriers and opportunities to adopting ePortfolios in programs that provide job-ready and job-embedded learners. Inquiry findings propose that CoPs and SoTL are mutually beneficial for how they foster opportunities for program leaders to build experience and evidence-based cases for the institutional and program-based support ePortfolio implementation and assessment.