write an eportfolio assignment

For your final project in COMC , you will create and present an ePortfolio. This is an important assignment worth 18% of your final grade. You will work on this ePortfolio throughout the semester. Due dates, necessary artifacts to be included and evaluation rubric information to follow in the coming weeks. For now, to help you get started, please read through the preliminary details.

The following information was adapted from https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/resources-eportfolios-purpose-composition

ePortfolios: Purpose and Composition

An ePortfolio is a digital space that holds evidence of educational and/or professional achievements. A well-designed ePortfolio is useful to showcase who you are, and it can also be used as employment documentation during job searches or promotion procedures. How you construct your ePortfolio, and what you include in it, depends on the audience you are trying to reach and the purpose you are trying to achieve.

Your ePortfolio will demonstrate who you are through artifacts, résumé, personal and academic achievements, and other accomplishments.

Helpful hint: Supporting evidence of your achievements (certificates, newspaper clippings, photographs, reports, writing samples, transcripts, etc.) can and should be included in your ePortfolio. These kinds of tangible proof of completed work are called artifacts. You should start keeping track of accomplishments and projects as early as possible - for example, you could keep copies of papers, evaluations, or photographs related to projects you have completed.

In addition to artifacts that showcase specific achievements or projects, you should also include a PDF copy of your résumé or CV. This makes it easy for a potential employer to access all of your information in one place. Remember, too, to include links to your social media accounts, so long as their contents are professional and relevant. 

How to Use ePortfolios

There are four primary kinds of ePortfolios, each with its own purpose and audience (though there may be overlap between them):

· Academic - designed primarily for in-course/program use

· Admission - designed primarily for admission into a graduate or post-graduate program

· Work Search - designed primarily for employers when seeking employment or promotion.

· Career - designed primarily for promotion processes or general career development

Helpful hint: ePortfolios can also be personal in nature. You can consider using an ePortfolio to create and track a personal development plan or to simply hold and reflect on key projects and achievements over time. As with any written/visual document, you should consider the audience and purpose when making decisions about structure, style, and content.

While it is crucial to write about concrete technical skills related to your experiences, it is equally important to write about the transferable (soft) skills acquired when completing a project. Employers want to know about what you can do in both focused and expanded ways.

e.g., concrete skills used to design a more efficient wheelchair (wiring, structure, stability) can be discussed when describing the process or methodology of a project. In addition to these “hard skills,” you should also write about the skills you have acquired that can be applied to different projects (research, communication, teamwork, etc.).

ELEMENTS YOU NEED TO START THINKING ABOUT

How to Construct Your ePortfolio

ePortfolios have a number of visual and textual components that you have to integrate in order to design an effective representation of your work. Consider the following key steps in ePortfolio design.

1. Based on intended purpose and potential audience, select the type of ePortfolio you are creating

2. Choose a platform

3. Choose a template, if available

4. Strategize which artifacts to use, keeping in mind issues such as intellectual property and confidentiality requirements

5. Gather artifacts

6. Draft a map that outlines how you will organize your information

7. Draft reflections for specific projects and accomplishments (this is a good method to help audience understand why you are including certain items in your ePortfolio)

8. Add written reflections to highlighted projects

9. Take time to review, revise, and proofread your ePortfolio

1. Ensure that visuals are high quality, professional, and engaging

2. Read reflections to be sure that you highlight key competencies

3. Proofread for sentence structure, word choice, and punctuation

ePortfolio Platforms

A number of paid and unpaid ePortfolio platforms are available for you to choose from. Here are some commonly-used free ones for you to consider:

· Wix

· Weebly

· WordPress