Introduction:
Higher education constantly seeks innovative methodologies to enhance student engagement, foster meaningful learning, and support complete development. In this context, e-portfolios have emerged as a valuable tool, allowing students to document their acquired competencies, reflect on their learning processes, and improve their academic outcomes. Previous studies conducted by our team have shown that e-portfolios positively impact students' situational motivation, self-efficacy, and academic engagement.

Aim:
This study aims to deepen our understanding of the role of self-regulation—a key variable in independent learning—in the relationship between e-portfolios and academic performance. Self-regulation is defined as the ability to direct one’s learning process consciously and strategically, encompassing goal-setting, progress monitoring, and study strategies.

Methods:
This longitudinal project followed 45 first- and second-year psychology students at the University of Zaragoza over two academic years (2022–2023 and 2023–2024). Data were collected at five time points (T1: Sep'22, T2: Jan'23, T3: Sep'23, T4: Jan'24, T5: June'24) in three courses: Developmental Psychology I, Developmental Psychology II and Education Psychology. The evaluation tools included The Academic Situational Self-Efficacy Scale (EAPESA, Palenzuela, 1983), the adapted Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students (UWES-S, Schaufeli, Bakker & Salanova, 2006) and the Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Pichardo-Martínez et al., 2014). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and repeated measures ANOVA were performed to analyze the relationship between the variables across the five time points.

Results:
The results revealed statistically significant, positive, and high correlations between perceived self-efficacy and self-regulation and between academic engagement and self-regulation. Furthermore, perceived self-efficacy showed significant improvements from baseline (T1) to later time points (T3-T5).

Conclusion:
These findings highlight the potential of e-portfolios to enhance perceived self-efficacy and academic engagement, mediated by self-regulation. However, questions remain about which personal variables most strongly influence perceived self-efficacy gains through e-portfolio use. Future research could explore interventions integrating value-based learning strategies within e-portfolios to further develop self-regulation skills and foster sustainable learning outcomes.

Keywords: E-Portfolios, Self-Regulation, Academic Engagement, Higher Education, Perceived Self-Efficacy.