I believe that ePortfolios are a great way to collate and showcase students’ work and creativity. ePortfolios allow for the practicing of digital literacy, network formation, organization, and scholarship. They become a valuable archive of our work as we progress through our academic lives and into the workforce.

WordPress being so flexible, provides a great platform for building ePortfolios from scratch without all of the rigidity that comes with software designed specifically for building ePortfolios. However, because a new WordPress site begins as an empty shell, I am working on fleshing out some design templates to help students get their portfolios off the ground. Students also find inspiration by looking at other’s ePortfolios online, so its good to have a few examples of developed ePortfolios to showcase.

In this session with professional writing students we talked through the mechanics of setting up a WordPress ePortfolio, some design recommendations, how to source Creative Commons content to accompany their works, and a discussion on embedded content.  Naturally these last two items resulted in a conversation around digital copyright.  It always strikes me how little awareness students have around copyright and copyleft practices.  I am a firm believer that basic copyright and alternative copyright literacies should be built into the curriculum.

Supporting Student ePortfolios using WordPress
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