Portfolios have been shown to help students transfer skills from one project to the next and/or from one learning context to another. Further, digital public-facing portfolios have been shown to motivate and engage students (Vetter et al., 2019).  

A Personal Portfolio Website is a great way to teach students the importance of presenting themselves and their work professionally in a digital environment. The website also functions as a class portfolio, which provides students with the opportunity to reflect upon growth, and showcase texts that they are most proud of. It might also include non-coursework such as resumes/CVs, visuals, audio productions, etc. 

Additionally, the personal portfolio website gives students the following opportunities:

• Learn about and practice multiple literacies

• Practice “real-world” and transferable skills

• Express creativity and professionalism 

• Showcase various texts of your choice

• Reflect upon growth and learning

Students can create a website using freeware such as Weebly, Wix, or Google Sites or an instructor can increase their technical literacy skills by asking them to code their website from scratch. 

Instructors should consider the following when implementing a personal digital portfolio into their classes: 

• Do you want students to collect all of their work over the course of the semester or just a few exemplarily pieces?

• Do you want students to revise their work before adding it to the portfolio? If so, how would you like students to demonstrate their revision?

• Do you want students to reflect on their growth and/or learning over the course of the semester? If so, what type of format should be used (e.g., an essay, an audio blog, a vlog, etc.)?

• Do you have standards for how the website should look or do students have creative freedom?

• Do you want students to include any other professional items? If so, what are they?

Student Examples (used with the student's permission): 

• Electrical Engineering Student from Auburn University

Technologies and Resources

• Website creator (Weebly, Wix, Google Sites, Wordpress)

• Coding Program (Bootstrap)

• Open Access images

Outside Resources

• Teaching with ePortfolios by Sweetland Center for Writing