Get ahead with the CSP ePortfolio

The CSP’s ePortfolio is a personal digital portfolio which will enable you to get ahead while studying and when it comes to applying for jobs. Start building your ePortfolio today; it’s a one-stop shop where you can add placement reflections, create a physio-specific CV, and make notes to aid your revision. 

How can the ePortfolio support your learning as a physio student? 

Physiotherapy students have so much information to take in – about your modules, university systems, virtual learning environments and placements. The ePortfolio enables you to make sense of these new experiences by providing a platform to record your learning and draw out key lessons to inform your future practice.  

The ePortfolio is a platform to log evidence of your experience and achievements while studying and on placement. On placement, you’ll be learning every single day, asking yourself: what went well, what didn’t go so well and what additional learning could I do to manage that situation in the future? So as a student, and once qualified, you need to be reflecting and noting these down.  

You can use the plans function of the ePortfolio to map out tasks and structure your revision. You can add dates and comments to ensure you’re meeting your deadlines.

There are also action plans to enable you to visualise your work. These can be helpful to compile resources for a project, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and track the steps you’ll be taking to complete it.  

The ePortfolio provides continuing professional development templates which you can use to analyse your reflections and identify the skills you gained or the obstacles you overcame. Evaluating your learning will also help you to highlight areas for improvement so that you can get ahead. It is useful to have your reflections in one place for job applications and interview preparation. 

You will be able to easily access examples of when you have excelled at patient care, honed a skill, or received excellent feedback. The ePortfolio has a section to keep a copy of your CV, with helpful, physio-specific prompts. 

You may use our ePortfolio as part of your course or alongside. By default, your portfolio is private and viewable only to you. But you also have the option of sharing elements of it with others, like your tutors. Once you register as a physiotherapist, you will be required to keep an ongoing log of your learning and many chartered physiotherapists do this using our ePortfolio. 

Whether you’ve started thinking about your future career or not, it’s important to focus on what will help you to achieve top marks and do the best that you can. 

A lecturer’s viewpoint

Clare Gibson, senior lecturer of MSc clinical anatomy and BSc physiotherapy course lead at St Mary’s University says: ‘I encourage my students to start logging their learning in the first few weeks of the course. This is an essential habit for any physiotherapy student. Once you graduate and register as a physiotherapist, you will be required to keep an ongoing record of your CPD. 

‘This practice also helps students to excel in the course. Keeping a portfolio of your work is helpful when it comes to revision. It’s a good idea to have all your notes together when you start the process of finding a job, as you will have a bank of best practice examples ready to discuss at interview.  

‘Students can use the CSP’s ePortfolio to upload their reflections, store feedback from placements, and build their CV.’

Students’ experiences

Jack Rose, a student at the University of Hertfordshire, says: ‘The ePortfolio provides a nice, easy way to digest information and also then be able to present it to other people and share it. 

‘I recorded quite a few different reflections in different formats because that’s what the portfolio system was able to provide, and it was nice to be able to share it with my tutors and show what the different ways of thinking were in terms of reflective practice.’

Evi Prodromou, who is also studying at the University of Hertfordshire, agrees. She says: ‘The ePortfolio is good to put all my placement reflections on, so it builds a profile so that when I do graduate, I have my ePortfolio ready to send out to jobs that I want to apply for.’