Getting Started
During your course you will be required to create a number of portfolios for assessment.
You will also be required to develop a Professional Portfolio that demonstrates how you have adressed the Graduate Standrads for the Australian Professional Standards. This portfolio wil be used in your interview at the end of your course. The resources here will assit you in developing this portfolio.
You will also be required to develop a Professional Portfolio that demonstrates how you have adressed the Graduate Standrads for the Australian Professional Standards. This portfolio wil be used in your interview at the end of your course. The resources here will assit you in developing this portfolio.
A step-by-step guide to creating your ePortfolio
Establish the purpose for the eportfolio
Before you begin to develop your eportfolio you need to be clear about its purpose. This will help you determine what you will collect in the way of evidence, where it will be housed and how it will be organised.
Identify the key components of your eportfolio
Depending on the purpose of your eportfolio you may consider including some or all of the following elements:
Identify the platform you are going to use to present / showcase your ePortfolio
It is important that whatever platform you use it is easy to manage and can easily be updated and accessed when you need it. More and more students are choosing a web-based eportfolio because of the ease of access. See Tools section.
Determine how you are going to organise your information
Regardless of what platform you are using you need to make sure that your information is organised in a way that it is easy to find. Prospective employers want to get to the important information quickly. They do not want to spend time clicking through your resource to find what they need. Therefore the following elements need to be considered carefully:
Navigation
Sequencing and organising information.
Make sure you put the most important information in the place where people will naturally gravitate to start their exploration of your eportfolio. For example if the tabs for your sections run across the top of your website order it so that the most important elements are on the left hand side and work your way across to least important – this is the way we naturally read and where we logically start. If the tabs go down the side have the most important things at the top and work down.
Layering of your information
Don’t have all of the information on one page (especially if you have to scroll down the page). Use hyperlinks where possible to go to different resources. This way the reader is not overwhelmed by a lot of information he may not want to read but can select a link if he wishes to get more detail.
Determine the look and feel of your ePortfolio
It is important that your eportfolio captures who you are therefore your choice of backgrounds, colour, font etc. is important. Equally important, however, is the fact that this is a professional eportfolio so you need to consider what a future employer would be looking for. Therefore balance a professional appearance with any personal design features that you may want to include.
Quality
It is important that your eportfolio has a professional appearance therefore it is essential that it is edited to a high standard (which means spelling, grammar, layout etc. are to the highest standards). It is easy to miss typos when you reread your work so get someone else to proof-read your work for you.
Maintain Integrity and Data Privacy
It is essential that if you are using photographs with other people (or children) you must get written permission to use those photos (an option is to blur out faces so that they are not recognisable).
If you have work samples, policies or other documents that you have collected from schools on your practicums etc. you must get permission to put them in your ePortfolio. Make sure that there are no names of students etc. (these need to be removed). Check with the school as to whether they are happy for their documents to be in a public forum.
Protecting your ePortfolio
You will need to make the decision as to whether you want to have your ePortfolio public or private. Most websites and blogs have permission settings that allow you to restrict who can access the site or provide you with the option of password protection. If you do not want anyone to look at your assignments and other work you can password protect your documents, powerpoints PDFs etc. When people go to open these documents it will ask for a password. (You can then give the future employee the password if they wish to look at your assignments).
Establish the purpose for the eportfolio
Before you begin to develop your eportfolio you need to be clear about its purpose. This will help you determine what you will collect in the way of evidence, where it will be housed and how it will be organised.
- Is it a working portfolio for you to store all of your information, work samples, lesson plans etc. so that you have them organised and at your fingertips when you need them?
- Is it a place to record your journey as your progress through your teacher training course.
- Is it a showcase that you will use for future employment?
- Is it a platform for you to collect evidence demonstrating how you have achieved (or are achieving the Graduate Standards from the National Professional Standards for Teachers?
Identify the key components of your eportfolio
Depending on the purpose of your eportfolio you may consider including some or all of the following elements:
- Profile (a brief description about you, your background etc. Remember there may be elements here that showcase your skills and abilities – Scout Leader, School Captain, volunteer, etc.)
- Curriculum Vitae
- Teaching Philosophy
- Awards and Certificates
- Professional development / Training Courses that you have completed (First Aid, etc.)
- Work samples / lesson plans / programs that you have developed.
- Assignments from units you have completed (especially if they address one of the National Professional Standards)
- Practicum Reports
- References and testimonials
- Statements against the National Professional Standards for Teachers.
- Evidence of your professional learning networks (this could be links to websites, wikis, blogs etc that you have created.
Identify the platform you are going to use to present / showcase your ePortfolio
It is important that whatever platform you use it is easy to manage and can easily be updated and accessed when you need it. More and more students are choosing a web-based eportfolio because of the ease of access. See Tools section.
Determine how you are going to organise your information
Regardless of what platform you are using you need to make sure that your information is organised in a way that it is easy to find. Prospective employers want to get to the important information quickly. They do not want to spend time clicking through your resource to find what they need. Therefore the following elements need to be considered carefully:
Navigation
- Make sure it is easy to find your way around you eportfolio and that you can always get back HOME.
- Label all key components carefully and make sure the names acurately represent the information that is in each section.
Sequencing and organising information.
Make sure you put the most important information in the place where people will naturally gravitate to start their exploration of your eportfolio. For example if the tabs for your sections run across the top of your website order it so that the most important elements are on the left hand side and work your way across to least important – this is the way we naturally read and where we logically start. If the tabs go down the side have the most important things at the top and work down.
Layering of your information
Don’t have all of the information on one page (especially if you have to scroll down the page). Use hyperlinks where possible to go to different resources. This way the reader is not overwhelmed by a lot of information he may not want to read but can select a link if he wishes to get more detail.
Determine the look and feel of your ePortfolio
It is important that your eportfolio captures who you are therefore your choice of backgrounds, colour, font etc. is important. Equally important, however, is the fact that this is a professional eportfolio so you need to consider what a future employer would be looking for. Therefore balance a professional appearance with any personal design features that you may want to include.
Quality
It is important that your eportfolio has a professional appearance therefore it is essential that it is edited to a high standard (which means spelling, grammar, layout etc. are to the highest standards). It is easy to miss typos when you reread your work so get someone else to proof-read your work for you.
Maintain Integrity and Data Privacy
It is essential that if you are using photographs with other people (or children) you must get written permission to use those photos (an option is to blur out faces so that they are not recognisable).
If you have work samples, policies or other documents that you have collected from schools on your practicums etc. you must get permission to put them in your ePortfolio. Make sure that there are no names of students etc. (these need to be removed). Check with the school as to whether they are happy for their documents to be in a public forum.
Protecting your ePortfolio
You will need to make the decision as to whether you want to have your ePortfolio public or private. Most websites and blogs have permission settings that allow you to restrict who can access the site or provide you with the option of password protection. If you do not want anyone to look at your assignments and other work you can password protect your documents, powerpoints PDFs etc. When people go to open these documents it will ask for a password. (You can then give the future employee the password if they wish to look at your assignments).