Electronic portfolios are becoming more and more popular every year, and it’s easy to see why. E-portfolios offer both students, teachers, and schools the opportunity to interact without having to wait for the mail, or having to use any paper to print out school transcripts. They also offer the unique opportunity for a teacher to see a student’s work and personality to best gauge how well a perspective student and academic institution might fit together.
Electronic portfolios, when composed by students, are basically a reflection of a student’s work over a period of time. They typically include the best examples of a student’s work, which allows them to show off their education, skill set, and knowledge of a given subject. Electronic portfolios also offer many unique perks, such as ease of storage. They are stored online on networks, meaning that they can be accessed from anywhere, sometimes with the permission of the file's creator. They also take up very little space. Perhaps, the best thing about electronic portfolios is that they support multimedia. Images, sounds, and even videos can be included in e-portfolios, which can help a student best utilize new technologies to display their abilities to potential schools or employers. Since portfolios can be edited, these images can be taken out and replaced in a matter of minutes, to reflect a students most resent work and making work samples exceedingly easy to alter and access.
What to Include
An electronic portfolio needs to have a title card, no exceptions. This title card needs to include the following information: name, age, grade level, school year, and teacher, if you are still in school. It should also have a recent photo of one’s self. It should be very easy to read without overly large, fancy text. It is important to make sure that overtime, any portfolio is updated and accurately reflects the intent of the portfolio. The information included in a portfolio by a high school students will be very different from one produced by a college graduate. It is crucial that updated information is maintained to accurately express the purpose of the portfolio, this will also benefit the producer because as time progresses, a electronic portfolio can grow and show a transformation of works and education from beginning to the most current, this may be seen by potential employers as a sign of dedication to a particular subject. An electronic portfolio should also include a table of contents that has links to the contents of the portfolio, this will organize the portfolio in a professional manner, speaking to the character of the portfolio's producer.
It’s also important to include examples of older works, as previously stated. These examples are important because it gives schools and instructor’s a chance to get to know a student through that work, so they’ll know what to expect in the future and what the student is capable of achieving. These examples don’t just necessarily have to be papers or reports. Images or videos can be included as well, especially if they are relevant. A student’s goals and instructor feedback should be included as well; references from teachers and professionals can greatly influence the opinion of others in the field when reviewing any portfolio. Lastly, there should be a self-reflection piece included in a portfolio to give the portfolio a more human feel and separate it from a presentation or resume.
How to Create One
Many universities offer the space and framework to construct an electronic portfolio at little or no cost to their students, typically as part of a career preparation course or within a career development department. These digital portfolios are often stored on their website. On the other hand, there is also software and web space that can be purchased to meet the needs of a variety of different scenarios. One may also consider using a popular job search service which also frequently provides users with electronic portfolio services. Both students and professionals need all of these things, as well as a computer that is capable of handling multimedia work.
First, create a template if you don’t already have one, in some cases this acts as a big giant “insert this here” instruction field. All you have to do is place graphics and videos where they belong. Make sure that you add text boxes and link to the next card in the portfolio. All of the important information should be entered into this portfolio. Make sure that when you are finished inputting the information, it looks clean. It is important to make sure that all materials are saved and error free before submitting. Text should be appropriately sized and images should be of the highest quality. It is also important to double check all links to make sure they work. Broken links or ugly text can ruin the feel of a portfolio and reflect negatively of the individual's capabilities, this is especially true in web or computer-based fields in which a portfolio not only acts as a method of showing a student's work, but also as a piece of work in itself, reflecting the student's ability to work with technology and/or design programs.
Examples
Additional Resources
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