Step 6 - Building an Electronic Portfolio

Steps

Getting Started

Now that you have collected and sorted through your artifacts, it's time to get started on building your electronic portfolio.

Part I

The design of your portfolio depends on how you would like your portfolio to look. This involves indentifying the colors would you like to use, which pictures you would like to include, what links you would like, and if you would like to use interactive items such as dropdown menus or Flash. This also refers to your decisions in the organization of the items you place in your portfolio. Finally and most importantly, the design will involve developing the navigation between items in your portfolio.

You may want to visit other websites and look at how they are designed. Visiting other people's ePortfolios is a great place to start. To do so, open a search engine such as Google, and type in "My portfolio," "electronic portfolio," or "ePortfolio." While reviewing the wesbites you visit, ask yourself some questions:

Where is their navigation on their webpages?
What are some of the main navigation links in the portfolios you visit?
What colors do they use?
What do you like best about the websites you reviewed?
What do you like the least?

After visiting the websites, ask your self some questions:

What main links do you think you will need for your portfolio?
Where on your portfolio webpages do you want your navigation to be?
What colors do you like?
If you had to use three colors to use on your website, what would they be?

Part II

This part depends on where and how you are storing and building your portfolio. In Step 2. Planning you learned about the importance of deciding how you wanted to build your portfolio — whether you want to use a website building wizard, you want to build it using a website creating software, or hire a web designer. The building of your portfolio is determined by the choice you made.

Blackboard's Portfolio Wizard and My Content Area - You can use Blackboard's Wizard and My Content Area to easily create your ePortfolio without knowledge of html. Blackboard's portfolio creation Wizard will assist you in building your portfolio and you can store your portfolio on Blackboard while you attend Regent. You can choose to make a basic portfolio or create a more robust portfolio using the personal Portfolio option.
Create Your Portfolio on Your Own - Using website creating tools, you can create a wonderful portfolio that is customized to meet your every need. If you are building your portfolio yourself, you will need an HTML editor, and you may need access to an FTP application. Some website authoring software (HTML editors with all the bells and whisles) have built-in FTP applications. You will find more information and free downloads for some of these programs on the SPC Portfolio Resources page.
Non-University Creation and Hosting Website Providers - You can build and host (store) your portfolio on a website hosting service outside of Regent. There is a wide selction of services that will enable you to build your portfolio using a wizard and host your website. Prices, services, support and reliability will vary. More information on using non-university creation and hosting providers.
Hire a Web Designer - Another option would be to have a web designer create your portfolio providing you with a customized portfolio that meets your exact needs. Most web designers can create your website and assist you in hosting (storing your website) as well as performing all of your updates in the future. Be sure your web designer has a minimum of three to five years experience with building and maintaning websites.