Background
Digital portfolios have become an essential tool for demonstrating a individual’s holistic learning journey. They blend reflections, storytelling, and evidence of capabilities, both in the content and design of the portfolios. The challenge lies in guiding participants to think critically and creatively about how they showcase their identities, abilities, and personal brand to a target audience. The goal is to help participants present themselves in a way that authentically reflects who they are while appealing to the audiences they wish to reach.
My approach
In collaboration with two colleagues, I helped structure a two-year program designed to guide participants through this process. The units covered topics like understanding one's digital identity, exploring target audiences and user personas, making aesthetic and functional design choices, developing content voice and tone, and iterating on portfolio prototypes with cyclical feedback. During the first year of the program’s launch, participants began expressing interest in receiving credit for their work. In response, I adapted the program to create a credit track, meeting regularly with individual participants to tailor the web design and development aspects to their specific interests.
Currently, I am developing a third year of the program with a close colleague, combining the Digital Portfolio course with a future thinking class. This new approach allows us to draw from our varying perspectives, teaching participants to explore their values and identities while focusing on skills like summarization, synthesis, and writing. These skills are critical not just for their digital portfolios but also for college essays, cover letters, and other future applications.
Challenges & Solutions
One major challenge was the limited time allocated in the weekly schedule compared to what was needed to meet program goals. At times, I had to advocate for additional time, persuading my supervisor that more was necessary for quality portfolios. I also had to revise lesson plans—sometimes mid-lesson—to better address participant needs and questions. Another challenge was the unintentional overlap and redundancy between the Digital Portfolio class and other parts of the curriculum. As participants raised concerns, I collaborated with colleagues to identify where these overlaps were happening and worked together to either eliminate them or make them intentional components of the learning experience.
Impact & results
Over the past four years, I have formally assessed around 60 participants' work, helping them identify their growth and learning throughout the program. About a dozen participants have specifically shared that they appreciated the structured approach, clear expectations, and workflows, which stood out in a curriculum where they take charge of their learning, a methodology that requires a lot of individual decision-making. Although I haven't formally collected data on the portfolios' long-term impact, a few former participants have reached out to share that their portfolios played a significant role in gaining jobs, university acceptances, and internships.
Reflections
This program has been a key experience in shaping my approach to designing learning experiences. It highlighted how much I enjoy creating training programs and the importance of building a team with diverse skills and a shared understanding of purpose. I’ve learned to integrate user voices at critical points in the design process, and the value of listening, adapting, and being open to change to achieve better outcomes and align with the overarching goals.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to my colleagues for their collaboration, offering different perspectives that helped shape the program, and to the participants for their engagement and feedback, which has been invaluable in refining and improving the curriculum.