ePortfolios

Introduction to ePortfolios

Your ePortfolio will be a unique presentation of your educational career.

The ePortfolio is a unique tool that will allow you to merge your personal and professional goals, putting your education into a larger context.

You will need to collect materials from your classes. You do this by creating a virtual archive (an online file cabinet) of materials or samples that you can use in your ePortfolio.

Next, you will want to think about your educational past, present and future. You will want to reflect on the meaningfullness of the work that you have selected to display.

ePortfolio Contents

Be thinking about:

How can you use class projects such as papers and presentations to show what you are learning?

Do you want to use images? Sound? Video? Explore and experiment how you want to represent yourself, your work, and your experience as you create your ePortfolio.

ePortfolio Process – Step 1

You’ll build an ePortfolio using a two part process:

• The first step in creating an ePortfolio will be collecting your work. Do this by saving files (digital documents) in two folders called "My Files" and "My Courses" in the ePortfolio section of the Blackboard environment. These folders serve as your online file cabinet. You can save any files that you would like for later use.

• My Files: These files are personal and private. No one but you can look inside them.

• My Courses: These files can be used to share materials with your instructors.

ePortfolio Process - Step 2

The next step is actually creating your ePortfolio website. On your web page, in addition to your classwork, you can also share your interests and activities beyond the classroom, including pages on music, movies, family and work. Your ePortfolio have at least these 8 sections:

• Welcome (a brief welcoming statement to people viewing your ePortfolio)

• Educational Goals (a reflection on your educational and career goals)

• Resume (an electronic version of your resume which can be interactive with hyperlinks)

• References (List three to five people who have agreed to talk about your strengths, abilities, and experience. Include full contact information. )

• About Me (a biography)• Classes and Projects (selected coursework and reflections)• Links (annotated web sites you suggest to your visitors) • Contact (your email information so that people can get in touch

with you)

ePortfolio Section Add-ons

Everyone’s electronic portfolio is unique because our experiences and goals are different. The scope of your electronic portfolio is limited only by your imagination. Consider including (optional):

• Surveys: Include a survey to ask your audience for their opinion of your work.

• Awards and honors: Scan certificates of awards, honors and scholarship letters.

• Additional education: List conferences, seminars, workshops and any other professional development. Add courses, degrees, certifications, and licenses.

• Volunteer and extracurricular activities: List your activities or illustrate through a photo. Students, consider music, sports and plays.

• Letters of recommendation and testimonials: Include praise you’ve received from employers, customers, professors, and colleagues.

• Military records, awards, and badges: Include when applicable.

ePortfolio Benefits

The ePortfolio offers students: • A place to collect and save your coursework ;• A chance to showcase your accomplishments and

your best school work to family and friends.• A tool for creating digital resumes to send to

employers;• An opportunity to use creativity to represent

yourself and your education;• A portal that helps you connect your educational

goals with your personal experiences;• An electronic resource you can use to apply for

transfer and financial aid at a 4 year school; • A chance to reflect on your education, to make

connections between where you are and where you want to be.

ePortfolio Design Checklist

Be creative but choose colors, backgrounds, graphics and fonts that show your work at its best. For example, if it is hard to read your text because it is light text on a light background then people will not spend too much time reading about who you are and what you have accomplished.

Also, we encourage you not to use overly bright background colors or images, as it will be hard to read any text. Remember, you want to present your professional and academic information here and you want to project a professional image.

• FONT• PROOFREADING AND SPELL CHECKING• LINKS• AUDIENCE• COLOR SCHEME• GRAPHICS (size / textual explanations)