Artifacts

Go to Complete List of Resources - Artifacts for the links found on this page plus many additional links about each of the sub-topics.

Also see:

Choose Appropriate Artifacts

The artifacts you choose are key to your portfolio.

A Few Tips:

  • Make sure each artifact is easy for the user to access and use.

  • Be clear about what is important or significant about the artifact, which is often done in the body of the page.

  • If you have a long document, video, or audio file, you probably want to include a link to it in your portfolio, but you may also offer the user a small example of the artifact, either in the description or a 'thumbnail' (small) image.

  • If you have personal or confidential information in an artifact, it is important to hide that from the user.

In addition to the requirements and suggestions about choosing appropriate artifacts for your portfolio in the [GLD] E-Portfolio Content Guide*, you want to consider other legal, ethical, and technical issues as you choose your artifacts. This is especially true of any items that involve children**. Following are some basic thoughts – not legal advice – about how you can use appropriate artifacts.

Privacy

You need to protect your privacy and the privacy of anyone represented in your portfolio. This includes anyone you write about and any material that may include their name, social security number, phone number, address, or any other information that identifies them. It also includes an identifiable image in a picture.

  • First, look critically at all the documents and images you are thinking about using in your portfolio. You may want to get a friend to look at them, too.

  • When possible, ask permission of the person (or his or her guardian). Describe the artifact you want to use in your GLD portfolio and how you are planning to use it. Then ask for their permission and follow their wishes.

  • When writing in your portfolio, do not include an individual’s name or use only the first name, initials, or other means to identify individuals (Amanda, Mr. G, Child 1, etc.)

  • Redact personal information by obscuring, blacking out or removing it from documents or images when necessary.

Copyright

Before you include an image or other material that someone else created, confirm that you have permission to use it. In many cases, the images you include in your portfolio will be ones you have taken or were taken of you by non-professional friends or colleagues. For this type of photograph, the bigger concern is privacy issues rather than copyright.

  • If you want to use an image from a web site, look for Terms of Use on the site or contact the artist or developer of the site directly. (Please be aware that if you explore sites that contain collections of images – or even doing what should be a simple online search for images – you might find images that you find offensive.)

  • If you want to use an image from a professional photographer or artist, ask permission of the person when possible. Describe the artifact, how you are planning to use it in your portfolio, ask for their permission, and follow their wishes.

  • If you use something that is not your own work, give credit to the person(s) who created it. This can be done in small letters in the caption of an image, in the text when you describe your artifact, or as a separate statement at the bottom of the page on which it is used or linked. If you have a number of items for which you want to give credit, consider creating a separate page in your site called “Credits”.

Technical Considerations

You want to make your site and any artifacts you attach to the site accessible and useable by others. This includes having images load quickly on your site and allowing users to be able to open a file or listen to a short multimedia clip. It also includes creating your site in a way that meets the standards to allow users with disabilities to access your portfolio and artifacts.

File limitations

Most of the information about the limitations of file size and formats you can use is related to the type of Google account you are using. The information we provide for the Graduation with Leadership Distinction portfolios assumes that you are using a free account and you do not have commercial products available to do fancy editing of multimedia.

Google Support has a list of Unsupported File types that can be found at https://support.google.com/sites/answer/153986?hl=en It is hard to find definitive, current information, so the following details may have changed:

Google Support says that the maximum attachment size is 20MB and the entire site quota is 100MB. They also say “Embedded documents, including Google documents, don't count against the Sites storage quota. However, items added as an attachment or to your file cabinet do count against your quota.” (from Google Help page, Storage and file limits at https://support.google.com/sites/answer/96770?hl=en&ref_topic=4566217)

When discussing adding images to your site, Google Support says, “Google Sites doesn't currently support uploading animated GIFs. However, you can use animated GIFs if they are hosted on another site and you add them through the Web address (URL) tab. In addition, you may upload most other types of image files, but if they are not JPG or PNG format, they will be converted to either JPG or PNG” (from Add images to your site https://support.google.com/sites/answer/92123? )

Accessibility for users with disabilities

The information about accessibility/usability rules that apply to users with disabilities can seem overwhelming. They are based on the federal law, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act http://www.section508.gov/section508-laws . The standards are coordinated by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org/WAI/. For a simple list of standards with descriptions, see the Section 508 Checklist, from WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) at http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist . WebAIM has many, many resources about this topic, written in clear language to help everyone create accessible materials.

Some things you can easily do in your portfolio to start to address these standards are the following:

  • Make your text easy to read. Use language that is appropriate to the audience, choose a clear font style, and use headings and subheadings when necessary to organize the text.

  • Do not use color as the only means of providing information or a link. Assume your user cannot distinguish colors and make sure the information he or she needs is also available and meaningful without the color. For example, don't use statements like, "The words in green are verbs" or "Click on the blue circle below".

  • Include alternative text (description) to pictures and any other non-text objects on the page. Assume your user cannot see and interpret the image. In additiono, if the information is important, such as a graph, it is important to talk about content of the graph in the body of the page.

  • Make sure your links tell the users where they are going or what will be opening. This is especially important if you make a link open in a new window or tab, which is usually accomplished by saying "opens in new window or tab" in parenthesis at the end of the link. This tells the user that he or she is opening a new window/tab and will not be able to use the Back button to return to your site.

* E-Portfolio: The final requirement for GLD http://www.sc.edu/uscconnect/leadership/portfolio.shtml - See the link for the e-portfolio content guide (PDF) for the most current version.

** Many public schools (and related agencies) in the United States have policies for taking pictures of children in their school. In some cases, especially locations that frequently have student interns and volunteers from universities, have already sought permission by parents in specific classes. Check with the administration of a school or other agency to see if they have a policy.

Ideas if your artifact file is too large to attach

Note: The example is for a large PowerPoint presentation, but the ideas could be applied to other types of files.

The file size limit on an attachment is 20MB.

I’ve asked around and none of my colleagues know of a way to compress a PowerPoint presentation. We have just a couple of suggestions if you need to share the entire presentation and keep it in that format.

1. PowerPoint files are usually large because they contain a large number of pictures and/or the picture files are large. You could reduce the number of pictures you use or you can compress the individual image files (using a graphic tool like Photoshop) before adding them to the presentation. (If it includes audio or video clips, keep those files separate from the presentation. You can share those separately and refer to them in the PowerPoint.)

2. You could break the presentation into a few smaller PowerPoint presentations and upload each one separately.

Another idea is to convert the presentation to the Google Slides format (the presentation tool in Google.) You can then link to that from within Google Sites and it does not count that toward your total attachment limit. Here are some articles about making a Google presentation and linking to in in your site:

a. Insert a Google Presentation https://sites.google.com/site/amslerclassroom/insert-a-presentation

b. When Your Attachment is Too Big to Upload into Google Sites https://gaillegrand.com/2013/11/04/when-your-attachment-is-too-big-to-upload-into-google-sites/

c. How To Convert PowerPoint File To Google Slides Format http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/articles/how-to-convert-powerpoint-files-to-google-slides-format/

The other option - which you would need your instructor’s permission to do – is to do a summary of the presentation with screen shots of slides, an outline of the presentation, and/or a printout of slides on 3, 6 or 9 slides per page. (I’ve seen this summary ides used in portfolios where the purpose is simply to summarize the assignments in a program, not when the purpose is to act as a repository of the completed assignments as artifacts. I don’t know if this is the case in your class or not.)

Finally, we do not have Microsoft Office 365 accounts like students, so I cannot test this. Assuming you created your presentation in Office 365 or you can upload it to that environment, there may be a way to share your presentation in the Office 365 environment and link to it in the Google Sites portfolio.

Add Images

Add Links and Files

Add Links to Audio and Video Clips (Multimedia)

Help Desk: Google Sites: https://sites.google.com/site/helpdesksites/

Artifacts: https://sites.google.com/site/helpdesksites/artifacts