Digital Portfolios

Digital portfolios are a powerful tool that enable both preservice teachers and registered teachers to document professional growth over time and to show how they meet the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APSTs).

A digital portfolio can host authentic evidence of knowledge and practice through a collection of carefully selected or composed professional experiences and thoughts threaded with reflection, evidence, and self-assessment. The evidence may include images, documents, annotations, videos, audio files and multimedia.

The Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) has created digital portfolio templates that are aligned to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). These can be used by preservice teachers and registered teachers to evidence their knowledge, practice, and development at all career bands.

A range of templates have been created to offer users a choice and are available for use on both Windows and iOS devices. The templates differ in the design and structure, with some prepopulated with the APSTs and others created as Evidence Sets.

Once downloaded, users can edit and modify the templates. All templates provide a viable solution to enable anyone, anywhere, anytime to create and easily share a digital portfolio. All templates allow users to share evidence with a wider audience including mentors, supervising teachers, university staff or school leaders, assisting in capturing the collaborative and collegial dimensions of teachers’ work.

Users can easily upload their evidence items according to the Standard and descriptor that it best aligns or if using the Evidence Set option, descriptors can be identified within the Set.

Video footage and audio files can be embedded, or links can be inserted and annotations added to provide context can be a combination of video, audio or text.

Standards Focus

These templates are prepopulated with the Seven Standards, including all 37 descriptors from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Users can choose to upload evidence items according to specific descriptors and alignment to other descriptors can be included within annotations as well as identified within an Evidence Map or table. Evidence Items can be hyperlinked to other descriptors within the portfolio template.

Evidence Focus

These templates have been designed to provide users with the option to group evidence items according to a general theme. These templates include the headings as Evidence Sets. An Evidence Set includes evidence items related to a general theme. For example, Managing Behaviour; Curriculum Planning; Assessment. Evidence Maps can be used to identify alignment to descriptors within the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Supporting resources

The evidence map is a downloadable resource that may assist users in mapping their evidence against the standards.

The map can easily be embedded into your digital portfolio.

Important!

Please note, Apple have recently announced the discontinuation of the iTunes U platform at the end of 2021. If you intend to use the templates within this timeframe all functionality will continue to be available for you to create and share evidence of practice. The QCT is currently in the process of creating new templates that can be used with other applications; however, these are still in development. If you would like to proceed with the current iTunes U template, or if you have any questions, please send your request to

Further information about the discontinuation of iTunes U is available on the Apple website at https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/itunesu/welcome/web.