Creating Your myeFolio Site

"How long will this take?"  or,
"Can I get this done in time?"

Referring to the completion of one's eFolio and often associated with a course or program requirement, it's not surprising that our support team frequently hears these questions from students as the closing weeks of a semester are approaching. If you've been asking these questions, we have good news for you.

The first part of our answer is "Yes!" The second part is "Get started today!"

During the first week of May we will disrupt our bi-weekly blog pattern by posting a new topic each day. If you're a student, asking similar questions, these are designed to jump-start your work. Follow along. (FYI: Local course requirements will ultimately impact your choices.)

Where do you begin? What comes first?
  • For some, determining the look or structure of the site makes it easier to choose content.
  • For others, knowing what they plan to post in the site determines the look and structure. 
Let's think of beginning your first eFolio site (your learning, your experience, your story) as being similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle without the box cover. Don't panic...you've got this!

The starting point and primary subject of today's post is the site page tree. Sometimes referred to as site navigation, determining the page tree helps you to frame up your site structure.
Thinking back to the jigsaw puzzle concept, this would be similar to finding the edge pieces as a strategy for assembling the puzzle's border.
picture of puzzle border pieces
Pages are the sections of your eFolio site where you will post your content. The page tree establishes the clickable links (navigation) used by viewers to browse your content.

Page tree shows six pages (Home, Personal Info, Education, Coursework, Photo Gallery, and Web Links)
Each new myeFolio account provides six pages as a page tree for the initial site. (Refer to the image at the left.)

You can manage the page tree by changing page labels, adjusting the page sequence, deleting all of the pages (except "Home") or adding more pages.
The choice is yours!
  • You own the site -- as you adjust the page tree labels and sequence, make it work for you. 
  • In some cases your instructor will identify specific pages you should include.
  • Unique sign-up codes often align page tree settings to match program expectations.
Once your "page tree" is established, it serves as your initial site plan. That frees you up to turn your focus toward selecting the items you will post on each page. If you've already identified much of the content you plan to add to your site, answer the following question as a page tree cross-check:
"Will your pages accurately point viewers to the content you have in mind?"
As you can see, establishing the page tree is important preparation as you create your site. For example, the initial page tree does not address work experience...if you have already logged significant employment, you'll want to add a page to share that part of your story.
  • If you're just beginning to create your eFolio for coursework requirements, and the completion deadline is not staring you in the face, you'll enjoy the process much more.
  • If it's 15 days until the end of the semester and you have not yet started, you'll need to "get at it" but we believe it is possible for you to meet the deadline.

Take Action: Assuming you have signed up for your myeFolio account, your first task is to accept or revise your page tree. Remember, you're not locked in. You can change or add more pages as your site develops. Step-by-Step help is available online at Maintain Site Pages.

Tip: Consider setting the status of your site to "private" while you are in the early stages of developing it. That way you're the only person who can preview it online.

Think Ahead: Use your page tree as a guide to start thinking about what items you want to put on each page.

Next Step: Collect your content. This rarely happens all at once but in our next post we'll share some helpful starting points.

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