DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
You have invested a lot of time in putting together your portfolio and preparing for the interview process. Employment portfolios are a necessity in today's job hunt, but if you really want an employer to notice you, develop an electronic portfolio. You may ask, what are electronic or digital portfolios? The links below will introduce you to them.
Regis University Electronic Portfolio Project - e-Portfolio basics
DePaul: The Career Center - Showcase Your Work in an Online Career Portfolio
THE TASK
Create a digital portfolio to introduce yourself and showcase your achievements. When creating your portfolio, think about your audience. Who will be viewing it? What impression are you wanting to make? What are best practices for making a digital portfolio stand out?
3 Digital Portfolio Best Practices: How to Make A Portfolio that Pops
THE PROCESS & RESOURCES
Each of you will individually create a digital portfolio using one of the Platforms for Creating E-Portfolios listed. Video tutorials, articles, and student examples are provided. One of the most user friendly and heavily recommended sites to use as a beginner is Weebly, and Steps to Creating A Weebly e-Portfolio are listed in the next section. Consider the artifacts you will be sharing with your portfolio. Would another platform meet your needs better?
STEPS TO CREATING A WEEBLY E-PORTFOLIO
The first step to creating a Weebly digital portfolio is to create a free account. Creating A Weebly Account Tutorial will assist you with this first step and also with choosing a design, or theme, for your e-portfolio. After you select a theme and subdomain name, Weebly offers you a short tutorial. It is a good idea to watch this tutorial and take notes.
The next step is creating pages for your portfolio. For assistance with creating pages and tips on making the portfolio employment focused, watch Tutorial on How to Create Pages in a Weebly Account. After creating pages, one of the easiest pieces of the portfolio building process to complete consists of uploading your artifacts, which are certificates, pictures, or other evidence of your achievements. Using Elements and Uploading Artifacts provides specific instructions on how to upload your artifacts.
In order to upload your resume to Weebly, several steps are required. Your resume is most likely saved as a Microsoft Word document. You could upload this document to Weebly, but it will appear as a link and requires more effort from the employer to access it. As a Microsoft Word document, others could also open the document and make changes to it for their own purposes. The best way to secure your resume is to save it as a PDF document. Change Your Resume from a MS Word to PDF Document demonstrates how to complete this step.
After changing your Microsoft Word resume into a PDF document, the next process is to convert your PDF into a JPG file. This is the final step in preparing your resume for the e-portfolio. Convert PDF Resume to JPG provides step-by-step instructions on how to achieve this goal.
One of the most challenging pieces of the portfolio to develop is a welcome statement on the home page. This statement consists of three paragraphs, and in order to ensure proper grammar and spelling, it is a good idea to initially develop these paragraphs in a Microsoft Word document. The first paragraph introduces yourself to the reader, and the second paragraph highlights your skills and qualifications. It does not repeat your resume; it is a summary. The third paragraph shares your goals, aspirations, and plans for the future. This could be the career field you are pursuing or plans on continuing your education to enter a field. Customizing Your Home Page on Weebly will guide your through this process of creating the Home page of your digital portfolio.
During the program, you created projects displaying your development of 21st century skills. It is ideal to share evidence of your knowledge and competency of the skills required to be career ready in your digital portfolio. Create a new page and name it to reflect a summary of the contents (ex. "21st Century Skills"). For each project you created, write a brief summary of the skills practiced as the project was being developed. Use the P21 Framework Definitions to help you with the summary.
To evaluate your e-portfolio, print the Employment E-Portfolio Rubric. After evaluating yourself and making any necessary changes, publish and share the portfolio with other students on Edmodo for peer feedback.
The next step is creating pages for your portfolio. For assistance with creating pages and tips on making the portfolio employment focused, watch Tutorial on How to Create Pages in a Weebly Account. After creating pages, one of the easiest pieces of the portfolio building process to complete consists of uploading your artifacts, which are certificates, pictures, or other evidence of your achievements. Using Elements and Uploading Artifacts provides specific instructions on how to upload your artifacts.
In order to upload your resume to Weebly, several steps are required. Your resume is most likely saved as a Microsoft Word document. You could upload this document to Weebly, but it will appear as a link and requires more effort from the employer to access it. As a Microsoft Word document, others could also open the document and make changes to it for their own purposes. The best way to secure your resume is to save it as a PDF document. Change Your Resume from a MS Word to PDF Document demonstrates how to complete this step.
After changing your Microsoft Word resume into a PDF document, the next process is to convert your PDF into a JPG file. This is the final step in preparing your resume for the e-portfolio. Convert PDF Resume to JPG provides step-by-step instructions on how to achieve this goal.
One of the most challenging pieces of the portfolio to develop is a welcome statement on the home page. This statement consists of three paragraphs, and in order to ensure proper grammar and spelling, it is a good idea to initially develop these paragraphs in a Microsoft Word document. The first paragraph introduces yourself to the reader, and the second paragraph highlights your skills and qualifications. It does not repeat your resume; it is a summary. The third paragraph shares your goals, aspirations, and plans for the future. This could be the career field you are pursuing or plans on continuing your education to enter a field. Customizing Your Home Page on Weebly will guide your through this process of creating the Home page of your digital portfolio.
During the program, you created projects displaying your development of 21st century skills. It is ideal to share evidence of your knowledge and competency of the skills required to be career ready in your digital portfolio. Create a new page and name it to reflect a summary of the contents (ex. "21st Century Skills"). For each project you created, write a brief summary of the skills practiced as the project was being developed. Use the P21 Framework Definitions to help you with the summary.
To evaluate your e-portfolio, print the Employment E-Portfolio Rubric. After evaluating yourself and making any necessary changes, publish and share the portfolio with other students on Edmodo for peer feedback.
employment_eportfolio_rubric.docx | |
File Size: | 686 kb |
File Type: | docx |
PLATFORMS FOR CREATING DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
Weebly
Charleston SPOKES Student Examples Katherine Dunlap - Pamela Purdy - Dusten Sexton - Belinda Dale-Cunningham - Alisha Lopez - Douglas Smith - Melinda Patterson - Opie Kelly - Barbara Bettinger - Nikki Cobb (In Progress) - Lindsey Martin
Hancock County SPOKES Mary Ball - Denny Evans
Ohio County SPOKES Wendy Nelson
Wetzel County SPOKES Jackie D'Amico
Charleston SPOKES Student Examples Katherine Dunlap - Pamela Purdy - Dusten Sexton - Belinda Dale-Cunningham - Alisha Lopez - Douglas Smith - Melinda Patterson - Opie Kelly - Barbara Bettinger - Nikki Cobb (In Progress) - Lindsey Martin
Hancock County SPOKES Mary Ball - Denny Evans
Ohio County SPOKES Wendy Nelson
Wetzel County SPOKES Jackie D'Amico
Wix
How to Build A Website with Wix
Wix Review: Pros and Cons of the Website Builder has a slow paced tutorial in the beginning.
How to Build A Website with Wix
Wix Review: Pros and Cons of the Website Builder has a slow paced tutorial in the beginning.
Google Sites
How to Create A Professional Digital Portfolio
Mary Fran's Getting Started with Google Sites
Electronic Portfolios with Google Apps
How to Create A Professional Digital Portfolio
Mary Fran's Getting Started with Google Sites
Electronic Portfolios with Google Apps
USING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO MARKET E-PORTFOLIOS
After creating your digital portfolio, it is important to consider how you will market it to your audience. Adding your digital portfolio website address to your social media account profile is an easy way to distribute it to the online community. Examine the following types of social media used in networking, and read 10 Smart Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search.
Twitter
Twitter Tutorial.
Getting Started with Twitter: How to Tweet, ReTweet, & Follow
How to Interact on Twitter
Twitter Tutorial.
Getting Started with Twitter: How to Tweet, ReTweet, & Follow
How to Interact on Twitter
CONCLUSION
Congratulations! You have just created a digital portfolio, a progressive way to share your experiences and qualifications. The next step in the process is to create a QR Code. QR codes can be scanned with applications on smartphones and tablets to instantly direct someone to your e-portfolio. Common apps to scan QR codes are QuickScan, QRcode Scanner, Scan, and RedLaser. QR Code Generator, Kaywa, or QRstuff can be used to create your QR code, and the code can be saved, copied, or printed for your business card.
Employment Portfolio WebQuest by Rebecca Metzger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.