Dr. Carol Siri Johnson, Humanities, NJIT

Course Syllabi
	STS 101 & 316
	ENG 340
	ENG 352-FTF (001)
	ENG 352-DL (451)
	PTC 605
Tutorials & Resources
	Tech. Comm. Videos
	Tech. Comm. Resources
	Design Basics
Research
	History of TC
	Assessment
	Misc.
Conferences
Resume
Publications
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Online ePortfolio System Experiment Results

In this experiment, instructors of technical communication gave their students the option to choose one of the portfolio types listed below. The purpose was to see which one worked best to display student work for our annual assessment. Students then completed a survey on their experiences. Also, during our yearly portfolio reading, instructors completed an extra score-sheet for each portfolio. Usually we use a scoresheet that has one variable on the portfolio, seven variables on the student writing, and a holistic (overall) score; this time we scored the types of portfolio as well. Although we have not yet processed this data, we have decided to continue using the simple HTML webpage portfolio system, created by the student and residing on the university servers. This seems to be the most flexible, attractive and inexpensive solution. More results will be reported later.

Creating an Online Portfolio for English 352 - Technical Writing - Spring 2009 Experiment

The purpose of this assignment is to produce an online portfolio (website) containing your major technical writing work for this semester. It should contain links to your major assignments as well as photos and videos, your resume, and any other assignments you wish to include. The documents can be in Word, PDF or HTML. What you need to "hand in" for this assignment is a URL - the web address where we can find your work. Your portfolio needs to be accessible for one month after the end of the semester so that the technical writing instructors can do our yearly assessment.

Portfolio Formats

In the spring of 2009, we are piloting five methods of creating portfolios. They are:

Portfolio Type	How to Create	Description	Complexity
Drupal – content management system and application framework	Teachers and students have different functions - teachers MUST create assignments for the students to upload the work for the portfolio. Students MUST choose their section (click on "Register"). IF YOU DO NOT SIGN ON WITH YOUR NJIT ID, you will not see the sections to register. Any videos that the online class makes with Camtasia Relay will appear here too (https://carbon.njit.edu/portfolio/allVideos).	Drupal is an increatingly important web management systems and a marketable skill you can list on your resume. Many professional websites are created using it. We attempted to quickly build our own system but learned that it required a web designer dedicated to that project only.	Complex - the site is still under development - we are creating it as we use it.
NJIT Blog – made with WordPress	Go to https://blogs.njit.edu/ and sign in with your UCID and password. If you want to create separate pages, create your own "categories." It will not upload Word documents so you will have to make Word documents into blog pages (basic html) or make it into a .pdf. There are free programs to make documents into .pdfs online.	Standard blog layout with irritating popups. It is open to the internet so it can easily be found by search engines. Blog may be permanant. Prof Johnson's Sample	Moderate. The WordPress interface is non-intuitive but usable. The popups are irritating.
Mahara – open source ePortfolio software	Go to http://demo.mahara.org/ and register. You can then modify your portfolio and upload documents. Next you create a "View," which is an assembly of documents/videos etc., by dragging and dropping. However, since it is a closed system, you also have to go to "My Views" and then "Edit View Access" to select "Public." Be sure to put your full name and "NJIT" somewhere on your page so we can find you via the search engine. See Student Instructions and Professor Instructions.	Full ePortfolio system, no web design necessary. However, system is slow. Viewers must have login and search for each portfolio, so it is not open to the internet and search engines will not find it.	Moderate. The program is non-intuitive but the results are visually pleasing.
Epsilen - ePortfolio system open to the internet with business and networking attributes	Go to the Epsilen Registration page. During the registration process, select "public portfolios." It sends out an interesting weekly report of groups you may be interested in and how many viewers you have had.	Full ePortfolio system, no web design necessary. It will create public portfolios (you must select this option during the registration process). The portfolio may be permanant.	Moderate – a LOT of functinality, can be overwhelming. Some of the left navigation options are complex to configure.
NJIT AFS Web Servers	See directions.	Regular web hosting site on the NJIT servers – can develop full, complex website. The portfolio will last a year or so after you graduate.	Complex – you must use different programs to design and upload your portfolio. This is how we've been doing it since 2004.

By teaching you how to create this online portfolio, we are teaching you how to create and control your web "identity." Did you ever look yourself up on Google? If you use one of the open systems, Google will be able to find you. When our English 352 assessment is over, you can update your portfolio in any way you choose - highlight your resume, add examples of your other work, etc. - you can make it into a job-search site.