Tips for Creating E-Portfolios
- FEYZA SUNÇA
- Dec 28, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 28, 2022
An increasing number of students use e-portfolios to create and grow their digital identity. Digital portfolios gained more popularity especially after the pandemic when students had to go online for education. This resulted in a boost of technology device usage. Digital knowledge switches from nice-to-have to must-have. The increase of technology used in classrooms also contributed to the process. Now, students all over the world try to create a digital identity and presence through various means of technology and e-portfolios are regarded as one of the most powerful tools for this.
What is an E-Portfolio?
The word "E-portfolio" is the abbreviation of "electronic portfolio". It is also called digital portfolio, online portfolio, as well. An e-portfolio is a collection of your work, your educational background, things you have done, things you want to achieve, personal background and your contact information. You may consider your e-portfolio as your showcase. You make your case and let the audience know more about you.
No Coding Knowledge Needed
The idea of creating an e-portfolio may seem a little bit challenging at first sight. You may think that you should have some coding and design knowledge, some extra tools and stuff but with pre-formatted websites such as Wix, Google Sites and Weebly, you can easily use templates and built-in tools to create your e-portfolio in hours.
Good News: It's Totally Free!
Another good thing, maybe the best thing about these websites is that they are all free of charge. You do not need to pay a penny or give your credit card details. You do not have to worry about any transactions. Moreover, you can use tons of tools and add-ons the websites provide including galleries, blogs, contact pages and much more!
Where to Start?
It may be a good idea to organize first what you want to present. A short list will be useful. After listing important topics, you may group the relevant ones so that you can create submenus. The main topics make up your menu items which are your pages. For instance, if you want to have a separate "about me" page, then you should add it. Or if you have related topics, you can put them below a menu item as sub-items. For example your menu item is "my work" and you want to categorize the work you do, then you can add "research papers" and "conferences" as sub-items in a collapsing menu. After you finish, your menu will be ready.
Design: The simpler the better
Even though you do not have any design taste, there are some general rules to follow for digital media. First of all, do not use all capital letters. That is rude and unacceptable for web design. Try to choose simple, clear font types. Higgledy-piggledy fonts will make it very difficult for your audience to read and they will leave your e-portfolio immediately. Make it clear, reader-friendly and normal size. Using more than 2 or 3 different font types will be a bad idea for the overall design. Keep it balanced. Using absurd and too many tones of colors will end up bad. Avoid it. Try to use soft, pastel colors that do not disturb the eyes of the audience. Always keep in mind that the simpler the better.
Content means a lot!
While the design of your e-portfolio is important, content is also a big deal, maybe bigger than the design. You should never forget that your audience is there to know you better. So, your content should be presented accordingly. It may be a nice idea to prepare your content beforehand. You can make use of a text processing tool to organize your texts. An image folder for the images would be handy while creating the e-portfolio as it will take too much time to search for images while creating your pages. If you are not sure which images will fit well, you can save extra photos just in case you want to switch. If you have any videos on Youtube or any other website, copying the links will help you to save time. Likewise, copying your social media links will be useful.
Go Online!
After you finish every page, then you are ready to publish your e-portfolio and go online? Actually, not yet. Before you go live, you should double-check all your pages. You should especially check spelling, contact information, form fields (if any), the links in case of any broken links, images, menus and all other stuff. If you are sure everything is fine, then you can press the publish button and you are on air! It would be a good idea to send your e-portfolio link to a friend or family and ask them to check the pages, in case something has slipped your notice.
Watch and Enjoy
Congrats! Now you have your own e-portfolio! Take your time to navigate through the pages you created and feel proud of yourself. You have done a great job!
Update Regularly
Now that you go online, it does not mean that you finished everything. Your e-portfolio needs to be updated every now and then. It is important to keep your e-portfolio up-to-date. If anything changes, go back and update or edit it. It is your space now and it needs to be well-maintained. Also, if you have a message area, contact form or blog page, you should monitor audience
comments, replies, questions or messages
and reply them as soon as possible to stay in
the game.
One Last Thing!
Last but not least...
Do not forget to add your e-portfolio link to your resume, social media networks, email signatures and everywhere possible. Also, send your e-portfolio link to your friends and colleagues to inform them that you are online. A kind accompanying note will be nice. It will increase your traffic and you can attract more audiences over time.
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