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E-Portfolios

Overview
Uploading and Managing Documents with Google Docs
Sharing Folders with WebDisk
Portfolio Presentation Page Authoring

Overview

Electronic portfolios, or e-portfolios, are an online collection of documents organized and presented with a particular intent and viewer in mind: an instructor, a counselor, a potential employer, etc. They have become increasingly popular as a way for students to collect, synthesize, and reflect on their work in a particular course, their major coursework, or even all of the courses taken at their institution of higher education. There are lots of fancy portfolio applications out there, but basically all you need to build an e-portfolio are the following:
  1. A document management system, i.e., some means of uploading and storing your work online. In other words, you need a place to put to put the documents you're sharing in your e-portfolio. You may already be doing this with WebDisk, but it's a bit clunky: a nice recent option is a Google Site.  Details on both below.
  2. Online authoring capability so you can prepare a page that presents your portfolio to a particular audience. In other words, you need a way to build a webpage with links pointing to the files mentioned above.
If you haven't noticed who's taking over the online world, it's Google, and for good reason: there are alot of cool things you can do for free with a Google account. Here's some basic information about getting a Gmail account and other Google goodies. The below assumes you have established a Gmail account; contact us if you need help.

Document Management via Google Docs

If you want to use Google Docs to manage your documents, here's how you can do it.  An even better way is to create your own Google Site: this way, you can readily share all your documents, and there are lots of cool layout and functionality options.  Here are the help pages for Google Sites: we won't provide a step-by-step below but you can pretty well figure it out yourself.
  1. Go to Google Docs and log in with your Google account.
  2. Click Upload, browse for the file on your computer (word document, spreadsheet, PDF, etc.), and click Upload File.
  3. You will be shown a web-version view of the document. Don't worry if it looks a little different than your original; once re-downloaded the file should appear as intended.
  4. Click Share and Get the Link to Share and select Allow Anyone with the Link to View (No Sign-In Required).
  5. Copy the link displayed and click Save & Close.
  6. This link can be pasted into your e-portfolio, anyone will now be able to download the file.

Document Management via WebDisk

If you want to stick with good old WebDisk for document management, here's what you need to do.  Note: students commonly have problems publicly sharing WebDisk documents!  If you use WebDisk, make sure your documents are shared correctly by having a friend check using another computer.
  1. Go to Webdisk and log in.
  2. Click the New Folder button on the right, name your folder and click Next. DO NOT CLICK Finish.
  3. You will be brought to the Choose Users page; just click Next.
  4. On the Verify Permissions page, set the Public Group to Viewer (Screenshot) then click Finish.
  5. Upload the files you want to share publicly into this folder. Remember: all shared files should be in a web-ready format, such as .pdf or .html (an easy way to convert a .doc to .pdf is Doc2PDF).
  6. In the Document Manager, right-click on the folder or file and click Copy Link Location.
  7. Paste this link into your e-portfolio; anyone will now be able to download the file.

Portfolio Presentation Page Authoring

Here again, let's assume you are using Google Docs to author your presentation page.  Note that if you're developing a whole Google Site, your presentation page is just the home page to your site (or your portfolio page, if your site serves multiple functions).
  • Go to Google Docs and choose New > Document. This is where you'll author your presentation page, add text, links to your documents, embed images, and whatever else you wish to present your portfolio.
  • To create a link to a document, select Link, then paste the link from step 5 above into the URL field. Enter the title of your link into the Text field (generally, the title of your paper).
  • To create a link to a Moodle forum posting, navigate to the appropriate Moodle forum and select Display Replies in Threaded Form from the drop-down menu near the top. Click on your post and use this URL for the link.
  • You should make sure to include the following on your presentation page:
    1. Summary information about you (including email contact!), your course, semester/year, major, college, etc.
    2. Introductory text summarizing what your portfolio demonstrates about you, e.g. concepts/skills you have learned, particular areas of interest you have explored, your current status on a research project, etc. Your instructor may have particular expectations about this text that s/he will convey to you. Sometimes your portfolio will be organized into several sections, each with its own introductory text.
    3. An organized set of links to all (web-ready and publicly readable) documents you wish to present in this view. It's always best to group documents in some manner, and to briefly summarize each with a phrase so the viewer can get an idea of it before looking at the whole thing.
  • When you are finished authoring your page, click Share > Publish as Web Page. Google Docs will create a link which you can give to others to view your e-portfolio. NOTE: The permanent link you want to share is different from the URL shown in your browser, so don't just copy what you see there! Also, select Automatically Republish when Changes are Made so you can be sure that the page will reflect your most recent changes.
Handy design tip: the best e-portfolio presentation page includes all the above without requiring the user to scroll up and down too much. This may force you to be selective in what you present and concise with your text, but more is not necessarily better! If your instructor requires a certain number of portfolio elements, though, you'll need to include all.


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