Introduction

E-PORTFOLIO – DESIGN and PROCESS

Evidence Selection

As my final semester approached, I began to think more deliberately about the culminating work of my degree – the e-portfolio and began the process of selecting and organizing its contents. On a message pad, I devoted one page to each competency. At the top of the page, I wrote the exact language of the competency; in a column on the left, using information available through the School of Information website, I noted the courses I’d taken associated with each competency, and in a column on the right, I began to make notes about which assignments of mine best evidenced each competency. This was a kind of brainstorming process where I relied on my memory and reflection of the assignments. Once I’d identified three to four assignments for each competency, I downloaded my entire Submissions folder from Canvas so that I could review the contents of the assignments. During this process, I also created a folder on my desktop titled e-portfolio and inside that folder, created a folder for each competency. After reviewing the content of the assignments I wanted to include to determine they did in fact satisfy the competency, I began to move the assignment files to their appropriate competency folders.

WordPress

I elected to create a WordPress site for my portfolio rather than make use of Canvas early on because I wanted more control over the appearance of my portfolio in addition to wanting it to live on the Web rather than in a learning management system. Upon selecting the theme and color palette, I created my banner and navigation menu inclusive of the drop-down menu of Competencies. After I’d created my WordPress site, I began the process of converting assignment files such that they could be embedded in the site. This process primarily consisted of converting documents and presentations that had lived in other iterations i.e. Word documents, Google documents, Power Point slides, etc. into PDF files. Additionally, I downloaded Voice Thread comment posts from Voice Thread so that I could convert and upload them as audio files directly to WordPress. Once the assignments were properly formatted, I entered the competency language at the top of each page, drafted my structure as Introduction, Evidence, Conclusion and then began to upload each piece of evidence for each competency. I did all of this prior to writing so that I could reference assignments as needed directly from the site rather than refer back to a folder on my desktop.

Writing

I tend to write long and I knew this culminating assignment was unlikely to be the exception to this practice as I’d want to include as many ideas, insights, and pieces of evidence as I deemed appropriate to satisfying the competency. The writing process involved revisiting assignments that I had not included as evidence and allowing ideas to spark from those earlier pieces of writing as well as revisiting textbooks that were essential to my core coursework e.g. Information Services Today and/or were instructive of how I thought through information science and information behavior e.g. David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous. In most instances, I outlined the ideas in each competency statement in the same way that I outline essays to identify quotes to include as well as plan how to contextualize my evidence. I primarily wrote directly in WordPress working on several competencies concurrently. In a few cases wherein I was having trouble organizing my thoughts, I found it useful to record myself thinking out loud in considering the competency and my evidence as that’s a technique I acquired from creating Voice Thread audio posts to assist with writer’s block. In a handful of competencies, I conducted new additional research to help me in contextualizing my evidence.

The process of compiling evidence, original text, quotes and citations, and hyperlinks was iterative and I found myself switching out evidence when I landed on a new insight regarding a certain competency. It was also important to me to make the portfolio as cohesive as I could as that was the way I’d approached much of my coursework in following through on intentions or concepts I’d encountered in one class and picking them up or expanding upon them in a new context in a different class. I saw my time in this program and the work I produced as a result through a holistic lens and I wanted my portfolio to reflect that.