title: Qualitative study of the impact of an authentic electronic portfolio in undergraduate medical education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Portfolios are increasingly used in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Four medical schools have collaborated with an established NHS electronic portfolio provider to develop and implement an authentic professional electronic portfolio for undergraduate students. We hypothesized that using an authentic portfolio would have significant advantages for students, particularly in familiarizing them with the tool many will continue to use for years after graduation. This paper describes the early evaluation of this undergraduate portfolio at two participating medical schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  To gather data, a questionnaire survey with extensive free text comments was used at School 1, and three focus groups were held at School 2. This paper reports thematic analysis of students' opinions expressed in the free text comments and focus groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five main themes, common across both schools were identified. These concerned the purpose, use and acceptability of the portfolio, advantages of and barriers to the use of the portfolio, and the impacts on both learning and professional identity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An authentic portfolio mitigated some of the negative aspects of using a portfolio, and had a positive effect on students' perception of themselves as becoming past of the profession. However, significant barriers to portfolio use remained, including a lack of understanding of the purpose of a portfolio and a perceived damaging effect on feedback.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, University College London Medical School, London, UK. r.belcher@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rosie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Belcher
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. a.jones@bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, University College London Medical School, London, UK. laura-jane.smith@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Laura-Jane
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. t.r.vincent@bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, University College London Medical School, London, UK. s.naidu@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sindhu Bhaarrati
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Naidu
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. j.c.montgomery@bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. i.haq@bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Inam
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Haq
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, University College London Medical School, London, UK. deborah.gill@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D004282:Documentation; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D011361:Professional Competence; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*