Department of Horticultural Sciences

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Creating Your ePortfolio

What is an eportfolio?
An eportfolio is a “micro” Web site which serves as an online resume.  The purpose of an eportfolio is to allow potential employers convenient access to information that may increase your probability for getting that job or internship offer, and to elevate the amount of the offer.  It is a place where you can factually “toot your own horn” by displaying your resume, links to courses which you have taken, significant projects you have completed, awards and other accomplishments, and other aspects of your professional and/or personal life that you feel employers need to know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio
http://careercenter.tamu.edu/

What is included?
That’s your call.  At a minimum, your eportfolio should include a comprehensive resume.  This resume should be appropriately formatted for both on screen display and for printing.  The resume should contain your campus and permanent addresses, your academic background (major, anticipated graduation date), your work experience, organizations and activities in which you participated (mention the type of involvement and emphasize leadership positions), honors and awards, and perhaps a goal or objective statement.  Beyond the resume, the eportfolio might include samples of your work through writing or projects, a link to courses you have taken (not to all, but to those targeted to your career area), other work experiences you have had, links to organizations with which you have been involved and a description of your involvement (particularly leadership positions), and some carefully chosen material from your personal life (notice I said CAREFULLY chosen… not Facebook kind of stuff!).
http://aggies-for-hire.tamu.edu/
http://careercenter.tamu.edu/

Examples of enhancements
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/students/489/iltis/portfolio.html
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/students/489/burns/Portfolio/portfolio.html
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/students/489/beasley/portfolio/index.html
http://webtutor.tamu.edu/students/489/rose/homepage.html

How do I construct the eportfolio?
All students have access to Web space at Texas A&M University on people.tamu.edu.
http://people.tamu.edu/
Go to the Aggie Computing Gateway and activate your NetID if you have not already done so.
http://gateway.tamu.edu/

Then go to the main page of people.tamu.edu, and click on the link to “Web Space Setup”, log in, click on the link to “setup my Webpage”, and then click the “enable” button.  Be sure to copy your Web page link from the acknowledgement page once your site is enabled.

From one of the Open Access Lab computers, use Dreamweaver or FrontPage to design your Web site, placing your files in the “public_html” directory in the “U” drive on the computer.  As you gain experience in working with the computer, you will also be able to FTP files into your site.  Consult the CIS documentation for more detailed information.
https://hdc.tamu.edu/reference/documentation/?section_id=413

We have created an illustrated step-by-step tutorial to help you create the first Web page in your eportfolio. This project should be a "work in progress" and you should constantly keep it updated. You never know when someone might see it!

We've also created an archive of portfolio "starter pages" that can be used with Dreamweaver to help you with your design. Simply download the zip archive from the link below the illustration you like, unzip the files into your Web directory (public_html directory on the U drive), and modify the files to your needs.

Revised by Dan Lineberger, 2 October 2009