Students in higher education need to demonstrate their skills and academic achievements to potential employers. In today’s job market, students can showcase their work via ePortfolios. The features and functionality offered by blog platforms easily consolidate examples and create a place for recruiters to review them.

1. Blog Your Portfolio
Online Career Services: Using the Blog
Format to Present Your Career Portfolio
Melissa A. Venable, PhD
OnlineCollege.org
Poster presentation for Sloan-C 2011, Orlando, FL

2. http://blogyourportfolio.wordpress.com/
The full presentation is online as a WordPress.com blog
(linked above), which contains the following:
• Comparison of different types of student portfolios,
• Research related to ePortfolios and blogging platforms,
• Presentation of examples,
• Current resources for getting started with blogging and
eportfolios, and
• Recommendations for career services
professionals, students, faculty, and employers.

3. Getting Started
• Types of Portfolios
– Study (assessment)
– Career (job search)
• Organization
– Consider Structure (resume headings, established
standards and competencies)
– Select Specific Artifacts (best examples, coursework
and workplace)
• Why Blog? Blogs are:
– Flexible, Easy to Use, Affordable, Accessible, and Quick
to setup

4. Recommendations
• For students and job seekers
– Collaborate with your career center
– Network with alumni
– Consider online presence and reputation
– Gain more visibility
• For faculty members and instructors
– Create a showcase event
– Consider when developing course assignments

5. Recommendations (cont.)
• For career services professionals
– Integrate with existing portfolio materials
– Integrate with existing social media materials
– Collect examples from your students and alumni
• For employers
– Provide your guidance to career center
professionals
– Share the kind of information you are interested in
seeing in digital format.

6. Resources
• An Introduction to WordPress – Adam Warner
• Using Blogger to Create an ePortfolio - Helen Barrett
• Creating an Electronic Portfolio – ePortfolios at Penn State
• Blogs as Showcase Portfolios – Kim Cofino
• 4 Steps to Setting Up Your bPortfolio – David Wicks (student
examples included)
• At last – Recognition for Blog-based Portfolios – Jim
Shimabukuro, ETCJournal
• ePortfolio Resources: Publications, Presentations, Podcasts,
Blogs – EDUCAUSE
• Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research –
NCEPR.org

7. Research Review
• What is a blog? –
website, reflections, comments
• bPortfolio Effective Practice Award – SPU
• Critical skills – work and life roles – FSU
• Employer perspective – resumes/written
work/projects/presentations
• Integration with academics and career center
• Resume of the future?

8. Live Chat!
A live Twitter chat was conducted from the conference poster session on
Thursday, November 10th, 2011, 5pm-6pm ET.
Topic: Blogs, Resumes, Portfolios, and the Job Search.
Chat Discussion Questions:
• Q1) What are some of the potential benefits of using open blog platforms
for the presentation of student work?
• Q2) From your perspective (student, career counselor, instructor,
employer…) what are some of the challenges of blog portfolios?
• Q3) How might blog portfolios become a replacement for traditional
resumes in the future (or work to supplement traditional resumes today)?
Take a look at the Chat Report for a summary of the conversation that took
place at this live event.