BUS 2504 Individual Professional Digital Portfolio (Winter 2022)

Professional Digital Portfolio

Collect, Select, Reflect, Connect

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

 John Dewey, 1933

About this Assignment:

  • This assignment is to be completed individually, it is your mid-term assessment, worth 25% of your final grade
  • Your task is to create an individual professional portfolio website using WordPress.com (ref: Chapter 1: Types of Websites: Personal Websites, Web Templates and Content Management Systems)
  • Since your portfolio will be posted online, please 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
  • 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)
  • Use the following portfolio planner before you start building your website

Examples of Digital Portfolios from previous years:

Please note that the following are examples of portfolios that initially started in this class, and continue to evolve based on the individual’s needs. Therefore, they may not necessarily follow the same requirements of this assignment.

Phase 1: Pages, Widgets, Video & Navigation (10%)

You are required to 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:
    1. Welcome: Short welcome paragraph about yourself
    2. Quote: Your favorite quote using the Quote block type, with the source (who said it)
    3. Image: Suitable royalty free image from Unsplash, with the photo credit using pre-formatted block type
    4. Video Business Card: This is a short video where you would introduce yourself, summarize your experience and tells us what you’d like us to know about you. The video can be created using Adobe Spark, a free, easy to use online tool. 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. More on creating videos here (Humber library). Your video must:
      • Be 40-50 second
      • Include multimedia (text, images, music or voice over)
      • Include appropriate content only
      • Embedded on your homepage using the embed YouTube block type
  • Widgets:
    • Social Media widget with your LinkedIn profile (external link must open in new window)
    • Text widget in the footer explaining that this portfolio is a class project created using XXX theme, include a link to the WordPress.com free demo theme used for this website, e.g. <https://sketchdemo.wordpress.com&gt;:
      • “This portfolio is a class project, created using the Sketch theme”
    • Recent Posts widget
    • Any other widgets as you see fit
  • You are required to structure your website based on the nature of your content into both pages, and blog posts.
  • Your portfolio 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
  • Create your navigation menu
  • Optional: Some themes such as Sketch (free) Snaps (free) support “portfolio projects”. Talk to me if you’d like to use a portfolio theme to make sure your content aligns well with that option
  • Minimum requirements: 4 pages of your choice (not including a contact page)
  • For this phase, all pages other than the homepage must have a short paragraph or “under construction”
  • No blogging at this stage, blogging will be completed in the second phase
  • For this phase, all the content must be on the homepage (I will only be marking the homepage)

Submission through BB:

Virtual Conference (5% as part of class engagement)

  • You will be working in large groups of 12-14 to plan and produce a virtual Digital Business conference on Blackboard
  • The conference will take place virtually on Thursday Feb 24, 2022 between 10:30 – 1:30 PM
  • Make sure your technology is working (audio and camera) before the event day, you can use your phone if you do not have a webcam
  • The following is the Conference page, where the conference will be promoted, and the recordings will be hosted (recordings will be shared at the end of the semester). View the following example of a Fashion Grad Panel from our Winter 2021 series
  • Check the conference page, and choose one conference to work on. Keep in mind that the conference will take place virtually on Blackboard, make sure you’re available to join online during your chosen time slot (if you’re on campus Thursdays for other classes)
  • Join your chosen Conference group on Blackboard, the Conference team will work as follows:
    • Connect with you guest (ask me to connect you)
    • Choose two moderators to “run the show”, the moderators will be responsible for opening and closing of the session (check templates below)
    • The rest of the team will be responsible for asking carefully thought-out, unique questions
    • The questions must be planned in advance and shared with the guest at least a week before the event
  • Templates

Phase 2: Blogging (10%)

In this phase you are required to complete your website: finalize your pages, write two amazing blog posts, develop and refine your content based on SEO. Polish your website and get it ready to go live!

You are required to write two blog posts based on two conference sessions (one that you planned and one that you’ve attended). Please note the following: 

  • Blog Post 1: based on the conference session you planned, use the following blog planner template to plan your blog post, and do your own research on the ideal length of a blog post
  • Blog Post 2: based on a conference session you attended, must include an infographic summarizing the topic. More on infographics here from the Idea Lab, you can also check their workshop calendar and attend a virtual workshop. You can use Piktochart or any other tool of your choice.
  • All content must be created according to SEO guidelines, categorized and tagged properly

Submission through BB:

You will need to submit the following through BB:

  1. Your website URL in the “Submission” text field, make sure your website is “public” so I can view it
  2. Screencaps of your dashboard (details below). Make sure you use PPT, then save as PDF before you submit on BB
  3. Blog Post 1 Planner (PDF)

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. If you chose to use Portfolio Projects:
    1. Projects –> All Projects (view example)
    2. Projects –> Project Types (view example)
    3. Projects –> Project Tags (view example)
  3. Media –> Library (view example)
  4. Media –> Library; one image showing details (view example)
  5. Appearance –> Themes; showing the active theme (view example)