Helpful Value or Annoying Duty: How Students Accept an Online Media Community as Portfolio and Examination Tool

The paper on hand discusses the introduction of an online media community in the bachelors program `Computer Science in Media´ at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrueck (Germany). Initial didactic goals of the implementation were to provide IT support for the existent project-based learning structures and to create the preconditions for online assessment. By now the so called `Media Gallery´ is a web based social software that has been developed as a publication and ePortfolio platform for the specific needs of that bachelors program. The introduction of the application was accompanied by an evaluation that was aimed at the question if students perceive the tool as an annoying instrument of control or as a helpful additional value. The main output of the evaluation is that students appreciate the media gallery predominantly as a very helpful tool, especially in regard of collecting and comparing projects, improving the quality of their projects and finding inspiration. The general didactical implications and the results of the evaluation are the main focus of this paper.