LIS 610 e-Portfolio Assignment

Description and purpose:

Today, in addition to being familiar with locating, evaluating, and using resources on the Web, librarians are often expected to be able to create access to their libraries' resources in an electronic environment. This can be through the Internet (available to the public) or an Intranet (available only to members of the organization). In this assignment you will create an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) for yourself. Accessible via the World Wide Web, your e-portfolio will not only provide samples of your work but also demonstrate to potential employers your skills in Web page authoring. It will also give you a chance to reflect on your accomplishments in the program and organize your thoughts about the knowledge, skills, and experience you bring to an institution as you set out on your career in library and information science. Such reflection will aid you in communicating your strengths to prospective employers in job interviews.

Definition:

A portfolio is primarily a collection of an individual's work compiled over time. For example, a graphic artist might compile a selection of works that she feels represent her talents in order to present these to prospective employers. An e-portfolio presents the individual's works in electronic format. Files can be in HTML (HyperText Markup Language), pdf (portable document format), or other formats readily viewable in the Web environment.

To learn more about what e-portfolios are and how they are used, read the article by George Lorenzo and John Ittelson entitled "An overview of e-Portfolios."

Requirements:

Each student is required to create an electronic portfolio, upload it to his or her UHUNIX personal directory, and open it to the public for viewing. The portfolio should include a welcome page, a page listing courses you have taken in the LIS Program (with links to course syllabi if available), as well as pages with class projects or papers that you feel demonstrate your abilities and accomplishments. If you have created Web pages for other courses be sure to include links to those. Also, if you have created Web pages for your current or previous employers or for professional organizations you may include links to those. A professional e-portfolio usually includes a curriculum vitae but be careful about including personal information that could make you vulnerable to identity theft. Photographs of yourself or that illustrate hobbies or other activities that you feel will increase your value to a prospective employer may also be included but are not required.

When your e-portfolio is ready for viewing, e-mail your instructor with the URL of your e-portfolio. Your instructor will then place a link to your e-portfolio on the course Website.

Instructions:

If you do not have knowledge of or experience in creating Web pages, I would strongly recommend that you attend the Web-authoring workshops offered by the LIS Web Team. Information about LIS Web Team workshops is available online at http://www.hawaii.edu/slis/webteam/tutorials/workshops/index.htm.

The basic steps for creating your e-portfolio are the following:

1. Decide on the materials you wish to include in your e-portfolio.
2. Decide on an organizational scheme for the materials you have to chosen to include.
3. Decide on an overall design for your portfolio—layout, color scheme, and choice and placement of graphics. (Be careful with graphics. Don't overload your pages with photographs or other graphics—they can create a cluttered look and greatly increase the time a page takes to load. Avoid animated graphics as they tend to irritate the viewer. Be sure to follow copyright laws.)
4. Begin authoring the various Web pages to contain the materials. Start with your welcome page. Then move to the pages for the various categories you have decided upon. You can do this work offline using a text editor such as Notepad, hand-coding the HTML (best way). You can use a word processor such as Microsoft Word, saving your work as a Web page. Or you can use Web-authoring software such as Dreamweaver if you have access to it.
5. Spell check and carefully proofread your pages.
6. Using the telnet utility of SSH (an encryption program—UHUNIX does not allow unencrypted logins) create an eportfolio subdirectory within your public_html directory on UHUNIX. Open your eportfolio subdirectory for pubic viewing. (Use the "change mode" command to do this.)
7. Using the file-transfer utility of SSH, upload all your HTML and pdf documents and your photographs and other graphics to your eportfolio subdirectory.
8. Allow the pubic to view your HTML documents and graphics by changing the permissions to the files. (The "change mode" command does this: chmod 755 *.* will open all the files in subdirectory for public viewing.)
9. Check to see that all of your links work and your Web pages look as you wish them to look. (If there are any problems you can edit your pages online using the pico editor available on UHUNIX.)
10. When you are satisfied with your e-portfolio in terms of content, look, and functionality, e-mail your instructor with the URL of your e-portfolio.

Evaluation criteria:

First of all, your e-portfolio should have a professional appearance. It should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Your portfolio should be visually uncluttered and well-organized. It should be easily navigated. Links should be clearly marked and work. Headings should be descriptive. Graphics should be appropriate for the content of the page. Remember, as soon as your e-portfolio is open for viewing on the Web prospective employers will be able to see it.

Important last step:

Take a moment to enjoy what you have created!

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