Professional Digital Portfolio

Collect, Select, Reflect, Connect

“We do not learn from experiences; we learn from reflecting on our experiences.”

 John Dewey, 1933

• This assignment is to be completed individually
• Your task is to create an individual professional portfolio website using WordPress.com
• Since your portfolio will be posted online, do not include any personal information such as phone number, home address …etc. If you are concerned about posting your actual name, please speak with me
• Think of your portfolio as an extension to your LinkedIn profile: it must reflect your professional skills and expertise, for example: education, work experience, skills (technical, transferable), volunteer experience, community involvement, extra-curricular activities, conferences, workshops, seminars you’ve attended, awards, samples of projects (post screen captures only and a short description), interesting articles related to your field…etc
• You may choose to “Allow search engines to index this site” or “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” through the Dashboard –> Settings –> Reading (do not keep it private while I need access to it during the semester)

Static Content: Pages & Navigation

Start with the following portfolio planner to plan your website, feel free to share this with me for feedback during class time to make sure you’re on the right track

Create your free WordPress.com account (e.g. hanadi.wordpress.com) and include the following:

• Home page: must be setup as a static page (not blog) and must include a short welcome paragraph about yourself
• Navigation Menu: must include “Home”, and at least 3 other pages of your choice (e.g. About, Experience, Education…etc.)
• Multimedia: your own content or suitable royalty free images (Unsplash or Pexels) with photo credits
• Video Business Card: This is a short video where you would introduce yourself, summarize your experience and tell us what you’d like us to know about you. The video can be created using Adobe Express, or a tool of your choice. The easiest way to include the video is to upload the file to your YouTube channel (through your Gmail account and choose unlisted or public) then embed it into your WordPress page using the “YouTube” block type. More on creating videos here (Humber library), access Erin Walker’s presentation here, access sample video script here. Your video must:
  • Must be 50-60 seconds
  • Must include multimedia (not just a recording of you speaking)
  • Must include appropriate content only
  • Must be embedded on your homepage or “About” page using the embed YouTube block type
• Footer (appears on every page):
  • Include a disclaimer explaining that this portfolio is a class project created using XXX theme
  • Include a ink to your LinkedIn profile (external link opens in new window)
• If your “theme” comes with default blog posts, you must delete them to avoid confusion

Dynamic Content: Blog & Social Media Post

Blog Post

Topic: one of the following

1. Mentoring Conversations with a grad from your program; key takeaways and lessons learned
   • Check the following for details on Mentoring Conversations and access the list of mentors
   • Read the following post on the Power of Mentors for examples and snippets of previous mentoring conversations
2. Personal hobby or skill that will be useful for a future career in digital business, something you can talk about during a job interview (this must be approved with me prior to writing the blog post)

Notes:

• Start with the following blog planner template to plan your blog post
• Do your own research on the ideal length of a blog post
• Write an amazing blog post that is informative, includes multimedia, and well-optimized for search engines

Social Media Post

• Repurpose SOME of your blog post content and create a LinkedIn post that summarizes your key takeaways. You can use Adobe Express, Canva, or any other tool of your choice (choose the correct diminutions), embed it as an “image” in your blog post.
• Optional: feel free to post it on social media and tag me and your mentor after getting their permission

Submission through BB:

Item 1 (in the submission text field):

Your website URL in the “Submission” text field, make sure your website is “public” so I can view it

Item 2 (PDF attachment):

Since I do not have access to your dashboard, I will need to see screen captures of some of your dashboard items (listed below). Create a PPT file with a title slide that includes your full name, student number and link to your portfolio, include the following items, then save it as PDF before you upload it on BB. Make sure ALL screencaps are high quality images that can be viewed so I can see the details:

1. Blog Posts
   1. Posts –> All Posts (view example)
   2. Choose one post to show categories and tags (view example)
   3. Posts –> Categories (view example)
   4. Posts –> Tags (view example)
2. Media –> Library (view example)
3. Media –> Library; one image showing details (view example)
4. Settings -> Reading (view example)
5. Appearance –> Themes; showing the active theme (view example)