Getting Started
Creating A Learning Portfolio
Before beginning:
Before starting to create your portfolio, you should familiarize yourself with the tutorials and links provided on this website. These will help you better understand what a learning portfolio is and how it might be useful for you.
Step 1: Create your Pathbrite profile
Your profile will be the "face" of your learning portfolio and should give the audience an idea of who you are, as well as include some basic information about your education. This information includes your name, the colleges and universities you have attended, what degrees/programs you are pursuing, how far along you are in your education, a way to contact you, and any other basic information you decide is relevant.
Step 2: Record your ambitions
Many learning portfolios contain information on personal goals and aspirations. The Sample Portfolios demonstrate several different categories, such as educational goals and personal goals, but you may choose to organize yours however you wish. The process of developing those goals may take some time before you record them on your portfolio. Don't be afraid to make this an process of exploration that helps you discover your passions and your dreams -- the best ambitions are often specific and personal. Later on, you may choose to create a section that showcases your past goals and your accomplishments. If you choose this option, consider reflecting on the process of achieving your goals so that you can include the reflection in your portfolio as well.
Step 3: Getting to the core of your portfolio
One of the main purposes of a learning portfolio is to display the quality and extent of your education. One way to achieve this is to dedicate a section to your coursework or curricular education, using Artifacts as evidence. This section is likely to become the centerpiece of your portfolio -- make sure to organize it clearly and choose artifacts that will clearly demonstrate your achievements and values.
You do not necessarily need to include every possible artifact that you can, nor even artifacts from every class (unless a professor asks you to for a particular course). You may choose to go with a simpler, more general portfolio. How much you choose to include is subject to the type of portfolio you are trying to create.
Progression:
Ideally, your educational career should demonstrate progress from one level of knowledge and skill to a higher one. You can use your portfolio to show your improvement by posting several similar types of artifacts throughout your career. This allows you to reflect on the impact of your education and illustrates your progress over time.
Showcasing Your Best Works:
A showcase of your best work, as demonstrated in the Sample Portfolios, will allow the audience to quickly assess your capability. When creating a showcase, consider which artifacts best demonstrate the key aspects of your education. This type of showcase should not just be a file dump of every exam you scored high on in the end. An engineering student's showcase should differ from a nursing student's, or a student in education, psychology, biology, etc. Your showcase should accurately reflect you as an individual learner.
Step 4: Taking full stock of your education
Co-curricular experiences can enrich your classroom experience tremendously; however, it is often difficult for the University and for other audiences to assess that interaction between in-class and out-of-class learning activities. Your learning portfolio can help demonstrate how those experiences have benefited you as a learner. Co-curricular education includes activities such as internships, research projects, community service, participation in a club, study abroad, student government, or other similar experiences. You might choose to create a dedicated section for co-curricular experiences, or you can include them alongside your coursework. You will be Using Artifacts to demonstrate what you have gained from your co-curricular activities -- make sure to use relevant artifacts. This section can be made more substantial by using reflection, especially when other types of artifacts are sparse.
Step 5: Reflection
Reflecting on your experiences will allow you to take full advantage of the potential of your portfolio. Your learning portfolio can be used to draw connections between individual classes, help you understand the entirety of your educational experience, and allow you to explore and eventually represent yourself as an individual. Your learning portfolio represents a great learning opportunity -- it can be used to supplement your education rather than simply record what you have done.
Reflection can be included in many ways. You can reflect on individual assignments, on specific classes, on an academic year, on your general education, or on your co-curricular experiences. You may choose to examine your experiences as they happen, explain your decision-making processes, or describe a personal philosophy. Reflection can be done formally (guided reflection assignments) or informally (blogs, etc.).
Including reflection in your portfolio gives your audience a chance to understand you personally, in a way that other forms of assessment cannot. It is a unique method of communication with your audience, so you may use reflection pieces to include the context of your educational experiences.
[Optional] Step 6: Include your resume
Some students may choose to use their learning portfolios as an aid in a job application or apply to graduate school. If you plan to do so, you might consider providing a resume to view and download, especially if you already have a resume prepared. Don't forget to update your resume occasionally if you choose to include it!
Additional Recommendations:
Organization:
As a rule, you should try to keep your learning portfolio simple. Make it as easy as possible for your audience to find what they want and navigate around it. We have provided some examples of organization in our Sample Portfolios. If you prefer a more fluid organization scheme, however, you are welcome to use it (and if you are generous, let us know what you did differently!).
Review your learning portfolio:
This advice is important especially if you plan to publish it to use it for your career search or graduate school applications. Set aside some time to make sure everything is in order: try to find any grammar or spelling mistakes, check that all your links and file downloads are working, and look for any other improvements that can be made. You might want to have a classmate or professor critique your portfolio for things that you may have missed and give you ideas for improvement. You can also Contact Us if you would like suggestions or feedback as well.
A note:
If you have new ideas that you think may improve your Learning Portfolio, try it! If you think the idea is really good, please Contact Us and share your expertise. If we think it's a great idea, we may recommend other students do it as well. If you believe you have a great example of a learning portfolio, send us your link and we may use it as an example for other students to follow. Learning portfolios are relatively new to the University of Utah -- we want to continue to improve our program and learn from students' experiences.