ARTH 260 Pilot

YouTube Video Created by Heather Stuart, 2013

What can you do with an ePortfolio?

Showcase your work to different audiences, for different purposes:

• Your instructor — to provide evidence of what you've learned, get feedback, and show your progress over time.
• A potential employer — to demonstrate your skills, knowledge and abilities.
• Graduate school application — to show the quality of your previous academic work.
• Your family, your friends — to share work that you are proud of.
• You — to reflect on all you've accomplished, and celebrate.

Where are all those "artifacts" going to come from?

Mostly, from assignments in class.

You will want to collect your files and keep them available for later use in your ePortfolio (regardless of what ePortfolio application you end up using), so:

• Sign in to your SOU.edu account.
• Create your SOU Google site to store your files so you can get to them (from any where you have an Internet connection and sign in with your SOU account). You will have access to your account for as much as a year after you graduate.
• As you go through the term, upload all of the files, graphics and documents that you may want to use in your ePortfolio later.
• You may have to download the file from your filing cabinet to your computer in order to use it in your ePortfolio later.

Here's how to find a rich source of images:

• Do a Google Images search for some type of image, say "Flowers."
• Click on "Search Tools."
• From the pull-down menu, "Usage Rights," choose "Labelled for noncommercial use."
• From this filtered group, you can choose images by size, color, type.
• Search on a term that is meaningful to you, and see if you can find some images that appeal to you — choose THREE images.
• Right-click on each image, and choose "Save Image As" - save the images to your desktop with the names lastnamepix1.jpg, lastnamepix2.jpg, and lastnamepix3.jpg.
• Go back to your Google site, and upload the images into your filing cabinet from your desktop. You will be able to download them again later from anywhere, if you are connected to the Internet and logged in to your sou.edu Google account.

By the way, here's some great advice on thinking about your "brand" for your website.

Get Started!

• We need to know who is involved in the pilot, so we can give you help and support. Please fill out the ePortfolio Exploration Project Contact Form
• For this class we are using WordPress. Today, you will create a test ePortfolio on the WordPress.com server. Later on in the term, you will create your ePortfolio on the SOU WordPress server.
• Sign up your WordPress account and get started. Some things to remember:
  • Tip for generating password: think about a pet you had, and how you would describe it. So, let's say this is what I think of: big barker! Turn that into a password with the following rules:
    • the letter "i" turns into the number 1
    • the letter "e" turns into the number 3
    • capitalize the last letter
    • use a special character (no spaces)

The password becomes b1gbark3R!

• Use free services. You will be creating your final ePortfolio on eportfolio.sou.edu/yourname, so there's no reason to pay for anything — choose the free web address, free blog address, and basic plan.
• Don't stress. This is just a test ePortfolio, so don't worry too much about how it looks. At this point, only you, your instructor, and anyone you choose will be able to see it.

For right now, just use the default template.

Next steps - how do you learn?

• For learners who want to explore on their own — go for it! WordPress has some great help, so if you run into a problem, just do a Google search, look on Learn WordPress.com) or the WordPress support page.
• For learners who want to go through a tutorial on their own, follow the directions below.
• For learners who would like a walk-through, we'll go through step-by-step.

If you get lost, just enter the following into your Google URL:

https://yourblogname.wordpress.com/wp-admin