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Abstract
The goal of this study is to examine students and facultys experiences with using an e-portfolio system in clinical clerkship and to propose recommendations for designing and implementing clerkship e-portfolio systems that can enhance users clerkship experiences. This research focused on (1) identifying positive and negative experiences of students and faculty in using the e-portfolio system for clinical clerkship, (2) analyzing key themes obtained from the identified positive and negative experiences, and (3) to propose recommendations for successful design and implementation of clerkship e-portfolio systems.The target population of this study consisted of a total of 108 third-year medical school students and 255 clerkship professors who had experienced the clerkship e-portfolio system during the clinical clerkship. Nine students and nine professors participated in the individual interviews. Also, 97 students completed a follow-up student online survey and 62 clerkship professors also completed a follow-up faculty online survey. The analysis results of the interview data revealed various positive and negative experiences of students and clerkship faculty in using the clerkship e-portfolio system. For students, the experiences included the following observations: convenience in use, writing up clerkship reports out of a sense of obligation, burdensome workload of paperwork, insufficient faculty feedback, lack of understanding of the value of the e-portfolio, lack of using tablets, lack of knowledge of assessment criteria, and issues in Internet and hardware infrastructure. For faculty, the analysis of their experience have yielded the following observations: sufficient storage space, no loss of clerkship data, lack of time for accomplishing e-portfolio works, and senior facultys technological challenges. Sixteen key themes that significantly affected students clerkship and facultys mentoring experiences were identified by analyzing the identified experiences in using the clerkship e-portfolio. Based on the analysis, 12 recommendations for designing and implementing improved e-portfolio systems for clinical learning environments were proposed.Finally, further issues were discussed regarding the limited role of the e-portfolio system in promoting students reflection cycle and the facultys incomplete adoption of the clerkship e-portfolio.