Why build an electronic portfolio?

• Electronic portfolios are typically designed as web pages and are posted to an internet location or burned onto a CD-ROM to be used as a tool to SUPPLEMENT the hard-copy version of your portfolio.
• An electronic portfolio demonstrates to employers that you are technically savvy, and gives employers the opportunity to receive further information about you either before or after an interview to help narrow their selection pool.
• For individuals with computer-related degrees, creating an electronic portfolio is an opportunity for you to showcase some examples of relevant technical work you have completed.
• For individuals who pursue a career in the arts, an electronic portfolio is an ideal way to showcase photos and videos of your art medium.

Using the electronic portfolio during an interview

Career Services advises using a PAPER portfolio rather than an electronic portfolio during the interview, as using an electronic portfolio in an interview setting is often ineffective. Setup is required, and technical problems may arise, which may either give a poor impression or interrupt the flow of a positive dialogue with an interviewer.

"THE RULE": never use an electronic portfolio during an interview unless you are unable to demonstrate your work effectively by using a paper portfolio i.e. (videos of theatre productions, videos of classroom teaching, examples of computer programming, web page design, etc...)

If you plan to use your electronic portfolio during an interview, ensure that you practice using it beforehand, and bring your own laptop. Be VERY selective with content that is demonstrated, like a short video clip, or some of your favorite artifacts which demonstrate your work.

Portfolios for School Districts

A Professional Portfolio Handout for Education Majors[ 1Mb] is available to guide you through preparing a portfolio for interviewing with school districts. This is different than a portfolio required for certification.

Your resource for information on portfolios required for certification the Technology Leadership Cadre (TLC) Web Site. The TLC is located in the UWRF Education building and devotes much of its resources toward helping educators to develop multimedia portfolios. The TLC is an invaluable resource for educators to receive information on developed standards for both printed and electronic education major portfolios.

User-friendly tools for creating electronic portfolios

Use any of the tools below to build an electronic portfolio without the need to learn web site development. You may spend your energies, instead, on adding content to your portfolio.
	Chalk & Wire: Software required by UWRF College of Education for development of portfolios for certification. Note: Unlimited space currently available to users. $110 / 4 years, $12/yr after 4 years Purchase a subscription at the UWRF Bookstore
	LiveText: Software required by UWRF College of Business for development of student portfolios. For CBE student use only. $67 / 4 years, account acive until 1-year after graduation
	Minnesota's E-Folio: Free for Minnesota residents. Intuitive portfolio system that is easy to use. Note: 20Mb of space available to users. FREE for MN Residents

Campus Web Space for UWRF Students & Free Web Hosting

All students have access to campus web space on their personal "W:" drive, and may build their web pages to reside in their "PersonalPages" folder on their "W:" drive. Their home page should be named "welcome.htm", and they may view that home page by visiting "www.UWRF.edu/~w0000000" (zeros representing your campus ID). Tech-savvy students may use Dreamweaver and Fireworks in campus labs as tools for building their electronic portfolio by creating web pages from scratch.

CAMPUS WEB SPACE EXPIRATION: Three months after graduation, students' web space at UWRF expires. It's recommended that students who compose electronic portfolios on their UWRF web space transfer their portfolio to a CD-ROM or onto non-UWRF web space. When you subscribe for service, most Internet Service Providers offer free space where you may keep your portfolio.

FREE WEB HOSTING: Services like Yahoo Geocities offer web hosting space for portfolios FREE OF CHARGE, or at a nominal fee for upgraded services, and are a helpful solution for students wishing to migrate their web pages from their campus location to off-campus.

Electronic portfolio document / artifact formats

While developing your web portfolio, it is important that you provide your documents / artifacts in an acceptable format which others may easily view. If your document format is not one of the below formats, then it is likely that an individual viewing your portfolio may not be able to view the document. All documents will have an extension at the end of their name identifying their format, as shown below.

• Adobe PDF: .pdf extension - Standard/"Portable" document format. Most documents may be converted to this format and will retain their look and feel. See below.
• MS Word: .doc extension - Fair warning that others viewing your MS Word document may not see exactly what you see, as they may have different fonts, or a different version of MS Word installed on their computer.
• MS PowerPoint: .ppt extension - Fair warning that others viewing your MS Word document may not see exactly what you see, as they may have different fonts, or a different version of MS PowerPoint installed on their computer.
• Image GIF: .gif extension - Lower-quality images with few colors.
• Image JPG: .jpg extension - Higher quality images with many colors, like personal photos or scanned documents.
• Sound Document: .wav extension
• Microsoft Movie: .mov extension
• Quicktime Movie: .qxd extension
• Web Page Format: .htm/.html extension - Standard web page format.

* If an electronic or hardcopy document is not originally one of these formats, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you convert it to .pdf format (standard 8.5 x 11 pages), or .jpg, and .gif formats (photos, posters, awards, etc...).

Common Problem Formats Include: Paper documents, MS Publisher, Adobe Pagemaker/Indesign/Illustrator, Quartk, WordPerfect, MS Works, Bitmap Image (.bmp).

Creating a .PDF File: NOTE: The full version of Adobe Acrobat is required to convert documents to .pdf format. It is installed on all UWRF computer labs. Other free .pdf conversion tools may be found by googling "free pdf converter".

Electronic Documents to .PDF

1. Open your electronic document.
2. Go to File pulldown + Print
3. In the list of printers, select "Adobe PDF" as your printer, then click "ok".
4. The next prompt will ask you where to save the .pdf file. Choose a location you will remember. Click "Save".

Hardcopy Documents to .PDF - Use the Digital Sender in the Career Services computer lab.

Use the Career Services Lab document sender to QUICKLY convert your color or black and white hardcopy documents to electronic .PDF documents emailed to yourself. Ideal for turning one or multiple page paper and other artifacts into electronic documents. An instruction manual is available in the Career Services Lab.

Sample portfolios