Towards a Conceptual Framework of AI-Enabled Digital Portfolio-Based Curriculum and Assessment Design

This article conceptualizes the use of digital portfolios in higher education and the opportunities and challenges these bring in the era of GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence). It proposes the 4P framework: Purpose, Product, Process, and People, to enhance portfolio-based learning and assessment as learning through the integration of AI. The framework offers key pedagogic design considerations for meaningful engagement with portfolios that support reflective, digital, and critical skills development in creative and connected ways across disciplines, professional areas, and academic levels. Digital portfolios are positioned as increasingly relevant tools for defining, developing, and facilitating student-led learning that is purposeful, stimulating, and enriching, while responding to the opportunities and risks presented by AI. The 4Ps framework supports educators in designing flexible, inclusive, and authentic learning experiences that extend beyond the curriculum, and into lifelong and life-wide learning. It provides a conceptual foundation for integrating AI into portfolios in ways that promote agency and action, helping students feel connected to others and the world. Portfolios can serve as a bridge between reflection and action, with AI streamlining documentation processes to allow more time for deeper thinking. AI-enabled portfolios also offer opportunities to collectivize learning through the creation of public, shareable resources that contribute to wider societal conversations. The paper argues that AI is inescapably important in the development of frameworks for digital portfolios that are authentic in assessment and support regenerative approaches to learning and teaching. The 4Ps framework offers a practical and conceptual tool for navigating the evolving curriculum and assessment landscape in higher education.