An e-portfolio is an electronic format for learners to record their work, their achievements and their goals, to reflect on their learning, and to share and be supported. An electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web (also called Webfolio). Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. . It enables learners to represent the information in different formats and to take the information with them as they move between institutions.

An e-portfolio can be seen as a type of learning record that provides actual evidence of achievement. Learning records are closely related to the Learning Plan, an emerging tool that is being used to manage learning by individuals, teams, communities of interest, and organizations. To the extent that a Personal Learning Environment captures and displays a learning record, it also might be understood to be an electronic portfolio.

Students have been taught to create digital identities using presentation software or tools to create web pages. Such technologies, however, are not easily utilized by children or elderly people who lack web authoring skills or a hosted site. More recently the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in schools and universities has led to an increased activity in the creation of e-portfolios for a variety of reasons. Most of these e-portfolios, however, are retained within the VLE and are not easily accessed outside the VLE. This results in problems of exporting data and related interoperability issues. An alternative approach is to use a system externally hosted to any institution. This permits transition through the various stages of education and employments and even into retirement.

E-portfolios, like traditional portfolios, can facilitate students' reflection on their own learning, leading to more awareness of learning strategies and needs. Results of a comparative research between paper based portfolios and electronic portfolios in the same setting, suggest use of an electronic portfolio leads to better learning outcomes.

Electronic media choices have introduced an array of strategies for archiving, organizing, and reflecting on information about a student's learning. Using hypertext links, for example, students can present and explore multiple layers of accessible documentary information in a way that reinforces the notion of learning as a shared, interactive process, inviting both the portfolio author and audience progressively deeper and wider into the constructed process of learning. Also, because web portfolio projects, especially, often make much or all of the student's work publicly accessible online, the electronic portfolio heightens the "social action" and "interactivity" of learning. Sometimes, electronic portfolios are not posted as web pages but presented instead on conventional floppy disk, Zip disk, or CD-ROM. Such mediums also facilitate the shared dimension of learning in a way that is less cumbersome and more instant than hard-copy pages and folders.

Portfolio information may include various formats. Some of them include:

The idea of portfolios is far from new. They have been used for recording evidence and work for many years. However, the "e" in e-portfolios does add significantly to their utility, adding flexibility, ease of sharing, reuse of entries in different presentations for different contexts, portability and different views for different contexts.

Achieving Success with e-Portfolios

Traditionally, learners have found reflective learning quite difficult. It demands a high degree of commitment and effort from the learner. It is also very different from the "traditional" image of learning, with which most learners have grown up, whereby the teacher is the fount of knowledge and the learner’s job is to absorb this.

Three key factors for success are:

1. Clarity of purpose and institutional commitment: If e-portfolio use is seen as an “added extra”, many learners will find it hard to see its relevance and to find the motivation to use them effectively. E-Portfolios will support learning more effectively where they have a clear, integral role in the programme of study.