We shared an overarching process word in a previous post...curate! As an action verb, the word means "to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation."
Today's focus is on SELECTING content -- carefully choosing the best or most acceptable items to illustrate your competencies and skills. Not to be confused with showing only your best work, artifacts that clearly demonstrate your learning growth and development are often the most powerful. |
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If working along with our posts during this week, you've been busy gathering and preparing items you might use in your site. Today we focus on what you will use to present your experience through myeFolio.
It's best when your content aligns with the reason for preparing an ePortfolio. Three prominent ePortfolio models and major characteristics of each are listed for your reference:
The Learning Portfolio (commonly used by students)
- Captures your work in progress for reference
- Includes personal reflection and self-assessment
- Involves thinking and writing about your learning
- Emphasizes the portfolio as a process of learning
- Builds deeper understanding by sharing work with instructors and other learners
- Documents your growth across a semester and bridges to your future self
- Represents your exemplary work and skills
- Intentionally displays evidence of experience and achievement
- Emphasizes the portfolio as a product to be shared
- Submitted for end-of-term evaluation
- Provides evidence of capabilities to future employers
- Sometimes described as a multi-dimensional resume
- Used by instructors and educators
- Provides student work in a learning or showcase portfolio format
- Presents a collection of student work to demonstrate competencies and criteria
- Formatted to align evidence of achievements and reflection with defined standards
- Satisfies program or organizational certification or accreditation outcomes
- Frequently required for professional licensing or certification
The purpose of the model you decide to construct influences your selection of content. This over-simplification may provide a sense of the contrast:
LEARNING: Content shows mastery of learning within course requirements.In each scenario, the same artifact(s) could be selected and be equally appropriate although the context of details shared publicly often varies. In myeFolio, by simply managing item properties to select "what fields are visible," you can post the same artifact to a "learning" site as you would post to a "showcase" site with different results. In other words, you do not have to produce it twice. Content items are re-usable and myeFolio allows you to create multiple sites in the same account.
SHOWCASE: Content promotes your personal abilities in a career search.
Example: Assume that you collaborated with your peers on a research project and prepared a final report of your findings. Perhaps the report was recently published in a professional journal.
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Significant Questions when Selecting Artifacts
- Think about what you learned while completing or working on the artifact?
- Consider how the artifact reflects your strengths, interests, or future career goal?
- In retrospect, would you have done anything differently?
- Thinking about your eFolio site, where will you post the selected content?
Last month's final post introduced the Page Tree and how you might frame out site navigation through it. Those decisions can now help you select your content. The chart below shows some generic page options and suggests content you might post to each. In reverse, if no items currently exist for a page, you might decide to hide the page until you are ready to populate it.
| myeFolio Site Pages | |||||||
| Artifact/Item | Home | Personal Info | Education | Coursework | Employment | Photo Gallery | Web Links |
| Welcome | x | ||||||
| Courses Taken | x | ||||||
| Credential or Degree | x | ||||||
| Contact Info | x | ||||||
| Website URL | x | ||||||
| YouTube Video | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Study Abroad Images | x | ||||||
| Resume PDF File | ? | ? | |||||
| Written Report | x | ||||||
| Self Biography | x | ||||||
| Part Time Jobs | x | ||||||
Over time you will SELECT many of your collected items for posting to site pages. There are as many possibilities as there are people using myeFolio!
- Content often exists without supporting evidence and yet, some items when added as "related content" will fill in the details for a greater artifact.
- Additional items may demonstrate a need to add another page or sub-page to the site (more common as your experience expands over several months).
- Selections that are better shared within a defined context (such as your Resume) may cause you to create a separate site within your account. This provides a unique URL for use within other documents such as a cover letter or online application.
- Items that expose sensitive personal identity references should be avoided. Remember, your eFolio is available over the Internet! A great example of this would be your college transcript. If you must include it, examine it carefully and be sure to remove student ID numbers, addresses and social security numbers before uploading it to your account.
Several Content Presentation Ideas are posted at the myeFolio Features site. Check it out!
Take Action: Upload the digital content you have decided to use in your eFolio at this time. Create or acquire additional items in digital format. Technical help is visible in the lower right column "Help panel" as you click from field to field within content forms while working at the ADMIN side of your account. Other helpful guides are posted at myeFolio Resources for your reference.