Professor Dr Michael Sankey from Charles Darwin University in Australia has been involved in the ePortfolio practice for more than 25 years. He started out writing HTML pages, then used various portfolio platforms throughout his university career, and transitioned to a non-institution owned site now that he is retired.

In this conversation Michael emphasises the role of the portfolio to support emerging professionals. He advocates for institution-operated portfolio platforms to provide a space where employers looking at student portfolios can be assured that they are dealing with real students. Michael also makes the case for programmatic assessment as the next evolution in assessment and the key role that the portfolio plays in it.

Connect with Michael

• LinkedIn
• Bluesky
• Instagram

Resources

• Michael's website
• ePortfolios Australia
• Keynote at the Eportfolio Forum 2024: 'Making visible the "human" side of learning and celebrating one’s achievements through ePortfolio practice
• University of Sydney's two-lane approach to artificial intelligence in assessment tasks
  • What to do about assessments if we can’t out-design or out-run AI?
  • Program level assessment design and the two-lane approach
  • Artificial intelligence and academic integrity: A conversation between Prof Dr Danny Liu and Prof Dr Stephen Marshall
• Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University; resources on programmatic assessment:
  • Nieminen, J. H., & Boud, D. (2024). Placing authenticity at the heart of student self-assessment: an integrative review. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(3), 640–662.
  • Tree, D., Harvey, A., & Rand-Weaver, M. (2025) Integrated Programme Assessment: 10 years on. (2025). Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 4(1).
  • CRADLE Seminar Series 2025 #1: Programmatic Assessment. Insights from Theory and Practice with Dr Liesbeth Baartman

Related episodes

• Kate Mitchell: Deliberate and programmatic design
• Mark Glynn: Take a programmatic approach to assessment with portfolios

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward