Helen Barrett

How to create an electronic portfolio with WordPress

©2007, Helen C. Barrett, Ph.D.

Here are the basic steps for using WordPress to construct an interactive electronic portfolio. Note that WordPress is primarily a blog, so the first page is organized in reverse chronological order. However, the latest version of WordPress also allows pages to be set up and show as tabs at the top of the page. In this example, “home” is the blog (which I am not using on this server); “welcome!” is a page that I set up explaining the focus of this site; “my portfolio” is a set of pages and sub-pages that contain my portfolio; and “how to” is this page.

1. Purpose. Decide on the purpose for the portfolio. What are you trying to show with this portfolio? Are there outcomes, goals, or standards that are being demonstrated with this portfolio? In this example, we will use an electronic portfolio to provide formative feedback on student work.
   • Identify how you are going to organize the portfolio. Will it be around the outcomes, goals or standards that you identified in this first step?
   • Set up a “parent” page that will serve as the opening page/Introduction to the portfolio
   • Set up a template for students, if appropriate.
2. Collection/Selection. What artifacts will you include in your portfolio?
   • Create a digital archive of work. Offline, this archive would be on a hard drive, flash drive, iPod or local area network server; online, these files can be stored anywhere on the Internet, as long as each document has a unique URL.
   • Use a simple table to list the artifacts, and assign (classify) each one to the outcome/goal/standard that the artifact will demonstrate. See Dr. Barrett’s WikiSpaces portfolio for an example (Artifacts).
   • Once these categories are identified, set up sub pages for each major category you have identified.
   • Add the artifacts (through hyperlinks) to the appropriate sub-pages in the portfolio.
3. Reflection. Reflection is the heart and soul of a portfolio. Reflection provides the rationale for why these artifacts represent achievement of a particular outcome, goal or standard.
   • Write a brief reflection on each artifact (what is the context in which this artifact was developed? Why was it included in the portfolio?).
   • You might also write a reflection on each grouping of artifacts (by outcome/goal/standard).
   • The Introduction page should contain an overview of the portfolio. It serves as a “letter to the reader” and provides an explanation of the overall goals of the portfolio.
4. Connection/Interaction/Dialogue. This stage provides an opportunity for interaction and feedback on the work posted in the portfolio. This is where the power of Web 2.0 interactive tools becomes apparent.
   • Teachers and peers can use the feedback features of the software, such as comments, to provide feedback on the work posted in the ePortfolio.
   • Teachers often provide exemplars for different levels of achievement, and provides a rubric for evaluation.
   • The portfolio developer should be given the option of updating the work, based on the feedback and the rubric.
5. Presentation/Publishing. The portfolio developer decides what parts of the portfolio are to be made public.

For another view of creating ePortfolios with WordPress.com, see a blog entry created at UBC.