E-Portfolio Workshop

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Workshop Title and Description

Creating an Electronic Portfolio: Developing a Professional Presence on the Web

Electronic Portfolios (e-Portfolios) are dynamic, developmental spaces representing your professional "self" on the Web. They are becoming standard practice for academics, students, and professionals and typically include examples of skills and achievements, as well as a reflective blog element. This hands-on workshop is designed to help attendees become comfortable publishing on the Web.

Definition of Terms

Publishing Platform - A publishing platform that, among other things, can be used for an e-Portfolio and/or a blog. The platform is portable; you can zip up your content and take it with you. It also support multimedia. Penn State uses MoveableType for its publishing platform.

e-Portfolio - A dynamic developmental space representing yourself on the Web. e_portfolios are generally comprised of examples of skill and achievement, contact information, as well as a reflective blog. Dynamic e-Portfolios are becoming standard practice for academics, students, and professionals.

Blogs - A blog is a type of Web site, usually centered on an individual who posts regular entries, in text and/or multimedia format, for others to read and comment on.(define public & private blogs)

Workshop Preparation

Prior to attending this workshop, please complete the following:

Bring relevant samples, notes, ideas to the workshop.

Workshop Prerequisites

A Penn State Personal Web space account (if you have not already activated your Personal Web space, apply at https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace/ three days prior to the date of this workshop); Familiarity with The Blogs at Penn State (http://blogs.psu.edu/)

Workshop Objectives

For more information about the e-Portfolio initiative at Penn State, visit http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/wiki/E-Portfolio_Initiative

During the Workshop

Opening

  1. Explain the concept of personal publishing including why it is important for instructors, students, and staff (ePortfolio, blog, class assignments)
  2. Define Personal Publishing Platform (PPP), e-Portfolio, and blog in the context of how they are used at Penn State. (see Definition of Terms above)
  3. Provide examples of: an e-Portfolio, a public blog, a private blog
  4. Discuss what each can be used for: e-Porfolio uses> show related interests, use blog to show thinking in the field, show connections/interactions with others in the field, post presentations/papers to show active involvement in the field, "crafting digital identity" - Glenn McGuigan
  5. Ask attendees what they are hoping to use their personal publishing space for (this should be done prior to the workshop)
  6. Ask about attendee experience level w/personal publishing, e-Portfolios, and writing, reading, and commenting on blogs. (this should be done prior to the workshop)

Activities

Based on #5 and #6 above walk attendees through the process.

  1. Create space for either portfolio (using the Professional Template) or a blog (regular or Professional Template): login to portfolio.psu.edu; System Overview; Create a new blog; Template Set > Professional website; don't check Protected or it won't be visible to anyone - this cannot be undone
  2. Change the banner (@banner, uncheck Create a new entry)
  3. Add Pages (tag @topnav; explain how to change a page title; explain how to hide pages/unpublish)
  4. Explain purpose of Tags and Categories (go to http://blogs.psu.edu > Blog Search > Tag Aggregation)
  5. Explain difference between Pages and Entries
  6. Add Entry (explain how to delete default MT entry > Manage > Entries > select the default MT entry > Delete)
  7. Explain how to embed video from YouTube and Flickr (copy embed code > switch to HTML Mode > paste > go back to WYSIWYG Mode)
  8. Write a reflective blog post (based on materials they brought with them in preparation).
  9. Publish
  10. Search and comment on another participants blog (Explain how to change comment settings > Preferences > Comments > Immediately approve > Trusted commenters only; Email Notification is a personal choice - can turn off; also Manage > Comments > Approve > Publish; More Actions > Trust Commenter(s))
  11. Add additional material to the e-portfolio or blog (about, contact, multimedia)
  12. Discuss ways to keep a portfolio vibrant (being well-rounded; finding things to write about; advertising your portfolio/blog using pings, Twitter, Facebook; subscribing to and commenting on others' blogs; additional resources, including the e-Portfolio and blog spaces; encouraging failure.)

Closing

  1. Have participants write their action plan (what they plan to do with their eportfolio moving forward) and the kind(s) of support they anticipate needing
  2. Evaluation of workshop

Essential Elements of Faculty Professional Development

(Keep these in mind when developing the workshop)

  1. Recognition of faculty's needs, concerns, goals - (needs assessment and objective setting) Contact each faculty participant prior to the workshop and ask them to share a short explanation of their interest in the use of ePortfolios, whether it is for their personal/professional use, or for their students' use, what they hope to learn during the workshop, and what they want to be able to do after the workshop. This will impact the scope of each workshop.
  2. Individualized plan for each faculty participant - This should not be a one-size-fits-all. Their needs assessment begins to build their individualized plan which will be further refined in their action plan (see 10 below).
  3. Use of faculty experience - Share ideas, successes, concerns - benefit from insights and experiences of their peers
  4. Learning environment in which faculty feel supported, respected, and accepted
  5. Active participation - No sitting back and passively listening :-)
  6. Reflection - How will the use of ePortfolios change what you currently do? This could be part of the follow up after the workshop, or incorporated into the ending of the workshop as they bring their work to some closure and define their action plan.
  7. Collaborative inquiry - Collaboration between the participants and with the facilitators
  8. Observation of other faculty's ePortfolios (and students' ePortfolios)
  9. Authentic context in which to experiment and apply skills
  10. Action plan - Leaving the workshop, participants have a plan to move forward. This informs the next essential element of ongoing support - we'll know what additional workshops, training opportunities, or other types of support might be needed in the future.
  11. Ongoing support - especially in support of their action plans, perhaps even following up with the participants in a month or so and asking what they've been able to do and whether they have questions or needs related to the ePortfolio.

Questions asked during 10/16/09 Workshop at Harrisburg

Q: When creating a new site, should I choose Protected or not? Response: If you choose to protect your site, it will not be visible to anyone. This cannot be undone. Simply considering a portfolio's purpose, it should not be protected but public.

Q: How do I change the banner? (is it Create > Upload File?) Use the tag @banner, and uncheck "Create a new entry" - Publish the site to see this change.

Q: When do I simply Save the changes I've made and when do I need to Publish? Response: After you have initially created your portfolio, you typically only need to save. However, if you don't see your changes after saving, go back and also publish.

Q: How do I add a new page? Response: Create > Page > add Title > tag it with @topnav > Save

Q: How do I change a page's name (title)? Response: Manage > Pages> select the page you want to change > change the title > Save

Q: How can I hide a page until I'm ready for it to be seen? Can I unpublish a page (or entry) after it has been published? Response: To hide Pages, select Manage > Pages > select the page you want to hide > choose the action Unpublish > Save

Q: What's the difference between Create Page and Create Entry? Response: Pages are represented by the different tabs across the top of your portfolio site (Home, Blog, About, Contact, etc.). Entries are the postings you do on the blog.

Q: How can I delete the default MT entry? Response: Manage > Entry> select the entry > Delete

Q: What is the purpose of tags? Response: While this will depend on your audience and whether you have a personal or public purpose, generally the two main purposes of tags are to find content (entries) and also for aggregation. (Go to blogs.psu.edu, select Blog Search, and type a search term into the Tag Search field)

Q: Is there a way to protect an entry from being copied and plagiarized? Response: Not really.

Q: How can we manage comments so it's easier for blogging buddies to comment on each other's entries? Response: To approve comments made to your blog, go to Manage > Comments > Approve > Publish. To change who can make comments, select More Actions > Trust Commenter(s). You can change the preferences for comments at Preferences > Comments. Here you might choose Immediately approve > Trusted commenters only. The email notification is a personal choice - you can have it turned on or off.

Q: How do you change your personal website to your portfolio site? Response: Go to work.psu.edu, login, and go to Add/Change Other Directory Information. Replace the www.personal.psu.edu URL with your portfolio URL.

Q: How do I add a Creative Commons license to my portfolio? Response: Design > Widgets > Create widget template > paste in embed code from a Creative Commons license

Additional Resources Shared in Workshop

http://wordle.net - for creating a banner image

http://tinyurl.com - for creating a shorter link to your portfolio site to share with others or use on your business card

http://creativecommons.org - for creating a Creative Commons license for your portfolio

https://www.work.psu.edu/ - to increase PASS storage; to change URL for directory information

http://blogs.psu.edu - go to News for video tutorials; go to Blog Search for Tag Aggregation - Show content from beyond PSU (YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, Twitter)

http://portfolio.psu.edu - Resources > Creative Commons

http://www.youtube.com - for videos to embed

http://www.flickr.com - for images to embed

Retrieved from "http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/wiki/E-Portfolio_Workshop"
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