What I learned from reviewing my peers' ePortfolios.
The peer review process is incredibly valuable when you are creating anything from a blog post or lesson activity all the way to creating a web based ePortfolio. I think of the old adage "the more the merrier" when asking for feedback on the things I create. While it is obvious that receiving feedback directly is incredibly beneficial to improving a design or idea, giving feedback is also incredibly valuable. I learned so much from reviewing ePortfolios of my peers in my EDLD 5303 course at Lamar University, which I outline in greater detail.
Photo Credit: WIX Media
Every ePortfolio serves the same basic function: to make deep connections between the content and ideas you are learning about in formal professional development or educational settings to daily life and teaching practices and to document all of the learning of skills and knowledge that you have done. It is a digital record of the best of what you can do and a working showcase of what you have done and created. Knowing this about ePortfolios, it is easy to understand that each ePortfolio will be unique and deeply personal to the person that created it.
ePortfolio: Design Elements
While reviewing ePortfolios my peers have created, I noticed that they all varied in design. It felt like I was getting a small glimpse of the person that created the ePortfolio. I saw some very simple ePortfolios and some that had beautifully created bold, bright color palettes that made me feel light-hearted and happy. I noticed that each design of the website showed me a lot about the person that created it and I could see the passion coming through not only in the ePortfolio, but in their innovation plans. Typically, the bright, colorful and happy ePortfolios were created by elementary teachers and I thought that was so neat to see that kind of personality shine through.
ePortfolio: Organization
ePortfolio organization was hard for me starting out because I didn't have the clearest view of everything I would need to incorporate as I moved through the course and how that would fit into my overall design theming and ideas I had. I knew I wanted a very simple site, without looking unfinished. I included the topics in a navigation bar at the top as was suggested to me within the EDLD program, but I was not clearly defining where information should be found.
While reviewing other ePortfolios I noticed that many of my peers chose to group their work in some major grouping. By grouping their work it made it really easy to follow along their progression in their courses and on their innovation plan implementation. I could follow the story line easily. Each ePortfolio was organized slightly differently, but the main idea was clear and everything could fit within a few bullet points under each one. I chose to just organize my work by course because it is the easiest way to put my story line together so far. It is possible that as I create more and utilize my ePortfolio more I will see other major groups such as type of project that I can use to more easily document my EDLD journey, but I think I've made the best choice for myself and my audience at this stage of my learning.
ePortfolio: Page Navigation
I got some really great organizational ideas from my peers. While I had been struggling to come up with a way to make my 5303 page flow better and be visually appealing to my viewers, my peers had been creating navigation pathways that were really interesting. The use of linking from way page to another with buttons, links built within text, and even using pictures as the buttons between blog posts, assignments, and even just interesting articles or other information was inspiring. I was using buttons to group my work for this course, but it looked very rudimentary and not very professional or even appealing.
I have now reworked my coursework and organized it in a much more appealing way that can be more easily followed by viewers of my ePortfolio. I was able to be inspired by these other organizational structures within ePortfolio pages while also keeping with my theme and my overall vision for my ePortfolio. While, I admire the bold colors and pretty visuals on each page, I much prefer a more timeless simple design, so I am hoping that shines through in my page and ePortfolio as a whole.
ePortfolio Review: Final Thoughts
Reviewing other ePortfolios has taught me a great deal in the creation of my ePortfolio as I reflected on my own work after seeing other examples. The freedom of complete ownership of my learning journey made it hard for me to truly visualize my work as a final product. I had a general idea of what I wanted the vibe or overall style of my ePortfolio, but I had a disconnect between my final product and how to place my work into my ePortfolio without allowing all of my assignments to become disjointed in the view of my visitors on my ePortfolio.
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