Home > KSU E-Portfolio Initiative > Intro to E-Portfolio
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An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is a collection of artifacts and supporting materials that document your learning experiences and provide a way in which to assess your academic progress.
About Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is a desktop productivity tool for efficiently sharing information
online across a broad range of hardware platforms and software applications
regardless of versions and fonts. Acrobat allows the user to convert any
document created in any application to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF),
a standard for electronic distribution that faithfully preserves the look
and feel of the original file, complete with fonts, colors, images, and
layout. Adobe PDF files can be viewed and printed by anyone with the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader software.
Creating an E-Portfolio: Getting Started
In this introductory workshop to creating an electronic portfolio you will discover the basic concepts of designing and creating an e-portfolio. Topics include: overview of the e-portfolio process, explanation of Adobe Acrobat and the Portable Document Format (PDF), important design considerations, and understanding the e-portfolio workflow.
What is an e-portfolio?
". . . portfolios are highly regarded as effective learning tools which encourage students to demonstrate many kinds of talent by creating and collecting artifacts meant to represent effective thinking skills, positive value states and additional accomplishments (Hauser, 1994, p. 50).
Portfolios inspire learning through a rich, authentic, and valid assessment of student achievement (Calfee & Perfumo, 1993) . . . Such artifact collections 'holistically portray student journeys toward various competencies' (Hauser, 1994, p. 54)."
An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is a collection of artifacts and supporting materials that document your learning experiences and provide a way in which to assess your academic and/or professional progress. There are many reasons for creating an e-portfolio and many ways in which an e-portfolio may be used.
Advantages of an e-portfolio:
- Accessibility
- Portability
- Ease of Delivery
- Interactivity
- Creativity
- Technology
The e-portfolio process:
Before you begin the e-portfolio process it is important to first define your purpose and goals for the e-portfolio:
- Why are you creating an e-portfolio?
- Who is the intended (target) audience?
- What do you hope to accomplish by having an e-portfolio?
- What are your e-portfolio goals and expectations?
STEP 1: Collect
Before you begin the process of creating an electronic portfolio, it is important to have all of your artifacts and materials together in one folder. Make a list of all of the items you want to include in your e-portfolio and begin compiling all of your documents, certificates, awards, pictures, and multimedia materials (audio, video, digital images, etc.) into a single folder. Be sure to keep a checklist of the items you want to include in your e-portfolio but haven't yet acquired (i.e., pictures or video that you have yet to capture).
STEP 2: Create & Convert
This process will require the most attention to detail and take up the most time in the e-portfolio process. Once you have all of your artifacts and materials together and ready to include in the e-portfolio, you will create a storyboard for each page (or screen) of your e-portfolio. In the Basic Storyboarding Workshop you will learn how to effectively brainstorm and put your e-portfolio ideas (including layout and design, navigation, and content) onto paper. Then, using your storyboard as a guide, you will begin the process of converting your portfolio into an electronic or digital format. This process involves using Adobe Photoshop to scan images (photos, awards, certificates, and other images), which can then be placed into Microsoft PowerPoint to be included in your final e-portfolio. You will use PowerPoint to design and layout each screen of your e-portfolio (including text and images). Additionally, you will convert your other Microsoft Office documents into Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). You may also convert documents created in other applications into PDF format. Once this step is completed you should have a folder that contains several Adobe PDF files.
STEP 3: Combine
The third step of the e-portfolio process involves combining all of your PDF files from the previous step into a single PDF document. You will use Adobe Acrobat to combine all of your PDFs, as well as to add interactivity and links. Additionally, you may use Adobe Acrobat to add multimedia content, such as Quicktime movies or audio files, to your final e-portfolio. In the Adobe Acrobat Workshop you will learn Acrobat basics, including how to combine multiple PDF documents, adding interactivity and links, and setting document properties.
STEP 4: Copy
The final step of the e-portfolio process is copying your PDF file (and all linked multimedia files) onto a blank CD-ROM. You will use CD burning software (such as Toast Titanium) to burn your final e-portfolio onto a CD. Once this step is completed your e-portfolio is ready for distribution and you are finished! However, if you would like to be able to edit your e-portfolio, make changes, or add content later, it is recommended that you also burn a second copy of your portfolio that includes all of your original files (Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, the original PowerPOint file, other PowerPoint presentations, and all original multimedia content--Quicktime movies, sound files, Macromedia Flash files, HTML pages, etc.) This CD can then be used as a permanent archive or your work, which can be accessed and changed as necessary at any time. (The archive copy of your portfolio will contatin data only and will not be interactive.)
What is Adobe Acrobat? PDF?
The Adobe Website (www.adobe.com) provides the following description of the Portable Document Format (PDF):
Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) is the open de facto standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. Adobe PDF is a universal file format that preserves all of the fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by anyone with a free Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can convert any document to Adobe PDF, even scanned paper, using Adobe Acrobat software.
Adobe PDF is the ideal format for electronic document distribution because it transcends the problems commonly encountered in electronic file sharing. Anyone, anywhere can open a PDF file. All you need is the free Acrobat Reader. PDF files always display exactly as created, regardless of fonts, software, and operating systems. PDF files alwas print correctly on any printing device.
Adobe PDF also offers the following benefits:
- PDF files can be published and distributed anywhere: in print, attached to e-mail, on corporate servers, posted on Web sites, or on CD-ROM.
- The free Acrobat Reader is easy to download from our website and can be freely distributed by anyone. More than 110 million copies have been downloaded or pre-loaded onto PCs.
- Compact PDF files are smaller than their source files and download a page at a time for fast display on the web.
- Using Acrobat software, bookmarks, cross-document links, Web links, live forms, security options, sound, and video can be added to PDF files for enhanced online viewing (Adobe, 2000).
Other e-portfolio programs:
LaGuardia Community College: E-Portfolio Project
Indiana University: Purdue University Institutional E-Portfolio
Alverno College: Diagnostic Digital Portfolio for College Students
College Senior Portfolio: Kalamazoo College
Cascadia Community College: e-Portfolio Project
For more information:
