The e-Portfolio here at UCF is a tool that can be used to supplement your scholarly pursuits and your professional pursuits. It is basically an online representation of you that a University, employer, or other entity can access to get a brief (or not so brief) idea of who you are and what you are about. You can also demonstrate some of your work and awards you may have received. It definitely is an asset to have.
Joseph on the e-Portfolio:
Joseph on the e-Portfolio:
On some of my resumes, I have put the address to my e-Portfolio from here at UCF. So far, I have mainly used it to be as online resume and a short biography about me, but I am definitely aware of how valuable it can be because a paper resume, or just an online resume, is quite impersonal, and your e-portfolio allows you to put a face to your resume. Some employers see hundreds of resumes, so anything you can do to make yours stand out is best. So, please take this opportunity to consider how you are going to make your e-Portfolio work for you and answer these questions at the end of Ada's post on this blog.
Ada on the e-Portfolio:
I'll admit, I haven't heavily utilized my e-Portfolio outside of my IDS classes. I felt it wasn't the best way to market my work in my field, so I have other portfolios I use when actually seeking work. The e-Portfolio did, however, give me a chance to review and organize my academic progress and accomplishments at UCF. My work in IDS included a lot of assessment of what I've done so far in my college career and outlining my plans for the future, and this is certainly all appropriate for an e-Portfolio; it does a good job of showing my personal and academic development. It can also demonstrate interdisciplinarity by highlighting projects I've done that incorporate my different disciplines, like game development or language processing. I will probably be more likely to utilize the e-Portfolio when I'm applying for a more programming-oriented job, because it will allow me to actually show a reviewer the work I've done (source code, executables, presentations). Right now, however, my basic resumé and my art portfolio (hosted on other sites) have been more useful to me for actually getting work than anything else.
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Questions for you:
What is the audience / purpose you're thinking of using?
How would you envision your e-Portfolio looking like? What would you like to stand out?
I hope to use my e-Portfolio for future employers or to enhance my application for pharmacy school. When it comes to getting addmitted to Pharm. school I think it will definitley be an assest for the board of admissions to be able to see my three areas of study and all the things that I have done within each of those areas. I also like your idea Joseph about putting the URL of my e-Portfolio on the bottom of my resume. I think it will definitely help me stand out in a pile of resumes and hopefully land me the job.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern about the e-Portfolio is that I will not have enough information and evidence under each category. As much as an asset it is, I also think that it looking sparse and not fully supported could hurt me if I use it. I hope that by the time I graduate I will have amply evidence to full up my e-Portfolio, but I doubt I will take full advantage of it until I feel like I have reached that point.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about having enough content. IIRC you're graduating next fall; I'm sure you'll have a lot more demonstrable/showcaseable work by that time. If you don't have enough, you might want to work on some special content specifically for your portfolio, to show what you know and what you can do. It sounds like the e-Portfolio might be really useful for you if it's properly developed.
I believe e-portfolio will demonstrate my interdisciplinarity by showcasing my work from varying areas of study. Unfortunately, I don’t have my work from previous years at UCF (its been since 2004 that I attended classes) so I will have to get a little creative with my showcase. In addition, I believe my e-portfolio will provide an arena for me to reval my personality and hopefully my characteristics that might make me attractive to a graduate program. As stated above my audience is potential graduate schools. I envision my e-portfolio looking clean and simple not a lot of colors or graphics – just a pleasant experience of getting to know me. I would like my characteristics of devotion and hard work to stand out.
ReplyDeleteAda,
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestion to Amy about creating special content specifically for the e-portfolio. I, like Amy am very concerned about not having enough evidence. I would be interested in hearing more about possibilities of special content.
I completely agree with you Sarah! Is there anyway you guys (Ada and Joseph) can share with us some examples of the types of evidence that you have in your e-Portfolios? I think that would help a lot. I have essays and papers from some school work that I have done in the past but in my main subject areas I don't have to write essays or anything, it is mainly just labs and lectures. So I'm not really sure what I would use for evidence.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough question (re: what kind of additional content to post)... it's a little easier for me, since I've spent time developing software, so I have deliverables like code, screenshots, executable files... and as far as technical writing or social sciences I can show papers I've written, so that's pretty straightforward.
ReplyDeleteHave you worked on any significant extracurricular projects, or maybe projects for classes that required a lot of research or critical thinking? Even if you don't have something you can post like a paper, you might be able to discuss projects you've worked on that have utilized your different skils, or things that were unique experiences for you...
Ada,
ReplyDeleteIt is a good suggestion to present work done in a class via a summary. Isn't there an assigment coming up where we write a little something about every class we've taken? Perhaps I could expand that to explain in more detail the skills and knowledge aquired in some of the classes. I think to highlight my experiences in that way would be a great solution!
Thanks for the idea! :o)
I think my e-Portfolio will demonstrate my interdisciplinarity through the showcase of my two areas of study and the amount of time I have put into both of them. My minor in health science will also be on display through my e-Portfolio which makes me happy because I do eventually want to get into the medical field and the classes I took for that minor really helped me along. The audience I am trying to target with my e-Portfolio will be comprised mostly of future employers or people reviewing my status for a graduate program. The purpose of this e-Portfolio is to display my life's achievements and the classes I have taken in a way that appeals to people that will eventually further me along in life. Overall I would love for not only my academics to stand out but for my morals and ethics in the workplace to shine through as well. I have held a job since I was sixteen years old and all of my employers throughout the years have taught me so much about life.
ReplyDeleteAsh, I really like how you said that you not only wanted your achievements and school work to be displayed but for your e-portfolio to also show off your morals! I think that is a fantastic idea and will definitely benefit you in many ways!
ReplyDeleteBasically what I have in my e-portfolio is my little biographical sketch and my resume. I haven't really used my e-portfolio to its potential, but I got started a little later than most. I just started this degree in summer and I am finishing it this fall, so I didn't really have much to put in there either.
ReplyDelete