Developing Electronic Institutional Portfolios for Program and Institutional Assessment

Abstract

This article summarizes the lessons learned by the institutions participating in the Urban Universities Portfolio Project regarding the functional and technological requirements for creating and sustaining Web-based institutional portfolios. It draws extensively from a "functional needs analysis" conducted by project research and technical staff with an external consultant, EduTech, Inc. While the analysis was originally intended to be a technology needs assessment, it became clear during the development of the request for proposals from potential consultants that technology, per se, was not the major issue. The most pressing issues were those of aligning technology resources with analytical, evaluative, academic, and design capacities in ways that most colleges and universities have never done before.