What should I put in my ePortfolio?
First, you should put work in your ePortfolio that demonstrates your proficiency with Clemson's general education competencies. But, we recommend that you take this a step further and include work that will help you in the long run, that is work that extends beyond the general education competencies that will help you get a job or get into graduate school. Think about representing yourself to an external audience. To do this you must first determine who that audience is: a future employer? a graduate school? Clemson? Your ePortfolio can and should serve multiple audiences and address multiple purposes.
I noticed there is a group option when I try to tag work for the general education competencies, when would I use this?
You would only create a group if the artifacts need to be reviewed together. For example WO3 (Explore the full range of the writing process from rough draft to edited product) will need two artifacts (a rough draft and an edited paper) this would be a group and will be assessed as a single artifact. If you have two or more completely separate artifacts upload them individually. You can upload as many artifacts as you wish for each competency.
Help! I am trying to edit my GoogleSites Portfolio and I get a message:
Break Lock is already editing the page
What did I do? You exited your page without saving your changes.
How do I fix it? The best work around for this issue is to click the "revert to an earlier version" link on the top right of your page. You may lose a couple of changes that you made to the page, but you won't lose all your work
Assessment of the ePortfolio
If I tag something that I think is an example of a competency, who judges if this is an appropriate or adequate example?
As part of the ePortfolio Student Support Program located in the Class of 1941 Studio, Student Fellows who focus their studies in the particular competency area will be looking at your work. These Student Fellows will notify you if the artifact you have tagged needs to be developed further. Additionally, feedback will be combined and compiled with other students in your major and these results will be forwarded to your major department. In this manner, your major's department head will be alerted if students in the major need further development in a competency category.
Is there a right or a wrong way to create an ePortfolio, as long as the competencies are all tagged?
Unfortunately, there will be students who create ePortfolios to simply meet the requirement for graduation. If all the competencies are tagged with relevant artifacts, then your ePortfolio has been completed. However, the ePortfolio can be used to improve the value of each student's Clemson University degree, and we hope that it will be completed with this goal in mind.
Career Portfolio
Will my ePortfolio help me in the job search process?
Yes, we are currently collecting data from corporations in the upstate area who say that they are eager to see our students' ePortfolios. Stay tuned for Creative Inquiry research results!
Saving Files
How do I save files in PDF format?
For the Mac this function is part of the operating system so you simply go to the print menu (yes it is a print function) and on the lower left of the print window there is a button PDF click that button and save as PDF.
For the PC you will need to download a PDF writer. Then simply go to the print menu (yes it is a print function) and on the lower left of the print window there is a button PDF click that button and save as PDF.
Here are a couple of great free ones for the PC:
PDF plugin for Office 2007 ----ONLY FOR OFFICE 2007!!
PDFCreator v.9.5---- Use if you have Windows XP - NOT WINDOWS VISTA COMPATIBLE. DO NOT INSTALL THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR!! IT WILL MESS UP YOUR INTERNET EXPLORER ADDRESS BAR!!
PDF reDirect v.2.2.5---- Use especially if you use WINDOWS VISTA; also Windows XP compatible
- Tagging Work
When I tag my work, do I need an explanation of why I selected that competency?
Once you select the "manage" button, it will prompt you to select a competency and write a brief comment on why you tagged that item and why you believe it reflects the selected competency. Secondary reflections can and should be attached and tagged as well.
We created a General Education inventory so professors can double-check that their class is satisfying a competency. Beginning fall 2008, professors will be required to include in their syllabi which competencies are met by their course.
What if I have a paper that demonstrates more than one competency?
You can place multiple tags on one artifact. However, make sure that the tags are relevant and that you reflect on how the artifact satisfies each competency that you have tagged.
What if I am a transfer student and/or an AP student and I did not take some of the classes that would cover General Education at Clemson? Do I need to retake the class?
Absolutely not; you are not being penalized for either situation We realize that because transfer students and AP students may have completed general education courses (such as math, lab science and social science courses) that are transferable to to Clemson, it may be challenging for you to generate an artifact for a particular general education competency. Because of this challenge, the faculty have determined that transfer and AP students are obligated to submit an artifact for at least 75% of the competencies. There are 22 competencies; this means that you will need to provide artifacts for a minimum of 17 competencies. In fact, you can use documents that you created at your last university or in your AP classes in high school. The process is the same; tag the artifacts and write a reflection. If you cannot locate an appropriate artifact, do not stress. Even though you will only be here for a short time, most competencies will be met in the classes you do take at Clemson.
If my document was for a foreign language class like Spanish, do I need to translate it?
No, but your reflection should be in English.