Montclair State University

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Center for Career Services and Cooperative Education

Alumni

Portfolio

The Center's Blackboard Portfolio...

1. Accessing the Career Development ePortfolio

Our ePortfolio system is located within the Content section of Blackboard. In order to create an ePortfolio, you must contact Dr. Yanling Sun at 973.655.4091 or email suny@mail.montclair.edu to request the Portfolio Tool with the Blackboard Content System.
Once you have a Content system account, watch the portfolio presentation (use Internet Explorer) at mms://caldwell.montclair.edu/users/tti/eportfolio_career.wmv or attend a training session. Training dates can be viewed at http://oit.montclair.edu/trainingandevents.html.

2. Understanding Career Development's adaptation of the Blackboard Portfolio system
The portfolio system that is built into Blackboard is a "file cabinet" system, that simply allows users to attractively present an on-line collection of documents.
    a. Career Development's system adds to the "file cabinet" system by
    1. presenting your skills year by year detailing your accomplishments according to employer-valued skills/qualities shown in the template image below.
    2. showing your thoughts about your growth on a particular skill.

    b. Five charts--one for each year of your education plus graduate school--are available for your use as templates within the portfolio system. (Be sure you are using Internet Explorer.)

    c. Clicking each of the Skills/Qualities listed on the left side of the template (within the content system) will show a definition of that skill and questions you can use to help you think about that skill. Rather than just selecting documents from your content system to include in the portfolio, you will show your thinking about why these items have been important to you and what they mean.

    For instance, if you want to show how a certain class or internship developed your competence in a skill related to the job you want you would:
    1. Select a document (a paper, a video, a powerpoint presentation etc) you created that reveals that you have developed competence in a particular area.
    2. Place that document in the Content System of Blackboard.
    3. Return to the template.
    4. Click on the skill, look at the questions connected to that skill, and write a reflection paragraph in MS Word that shows why you believe that the document you have selected shows your skill.
    5. File that reflection in your Content System.
    6. Link both the reflection paragraph and the document you selected earlier to the appropriate cell in the template.
3. Setting up your Content System
We recommend creating a freshman folder, sophomore folder, junior folder etc for ease of access to relevant documents.
For example:
    Freshman Year

    1. Essay from Freshman Composition showing my ability to write a persuasive essay. Reflection on Writing Competence

     

    2. Posters from my candidacy for club office. Reflection on Identity - Beginning to believe in myself

    3. Letter of commendation from supervisor of Campus Computer Help-Line. Reflection on Developing Technical Competence:

    Sophomore Year

    1. Essay from Shakespeare class showing critical thinking.

    Reflection on Ability to Evaluate Knowledge:

     

4. Click here to see a sample portfolio being created by an imaginary sophomore. (Please try again if your first click takes you to a "dysfunctional" page.)