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Purpose of a Digital Portfolio
Purpose of a Digital Portfolio
What is the purpose of a Digital Portfolio?
A Digital Portfolio is an online space where you collect or showcase digital artifacts as evidence of your skills. It can be used as:
- evidence of academic development and reflection;
- a foundation for personal career reflection;
- part of an application package for admission into professional school or other further education programs; or
- a work search tool used in addition to a résumé.
The four kinds of Digital Portfolios
Your intended outcomes determine which type of Digital Portfolio you choose to develop.
Academic
An academic Digital Portfolio is a great foundation for other kinds of Digital Portfolio: it helps you to document evidence of your skills as you develop these skills through your academic program. The Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) defines an academic Digital Portfolio as
a collection of digital artifacts that represent a person (essays, posters, photographs, videos, artwork, other course-related assignments, volunteer/work experiences, and extracurricular activities).
Reflecting on your experiences can show skill development and learning, and a Digital Portfolio combines that reflection with the digital artifacts mentioned above.
Career
A career development Digital Portfolio is a collection of skill evidence that traces your career growth using what you have discovered from ongoing reflection about yourself. It may be based on your academic Digital Portfolio or initiated independently as part of your career development. It is helpful to organize this type of Digital Portfolio around digital artifacts collected as a result of increased self-awareness about your skills, personality preferences, interests, and values.
Admission
An admission Digital Portfolio functions as part of an application package for admission into professional school or a further education program.
When you design a Digital Portfolio for graduate or professional school admission, the content will demonstrate your suitability to the program: select from your collected digital evidence of skills and accomplishments by choosing relevant content aligned with the admission criteria.
Use the comparison table below to help you decide whether a Digital Portfolio is right for your intended admission outcomes.
Work search
A work search Digital Portfolio is an addition or supplement to a résumé, used to demonstrate your uniqueness or brand with the intention of attracting positive attention from your target audience.
You design a work search Digital Portfolio on a web platform to showcase your professional, publicly-accessible, web identity. While a Digital Portfolio offers many flexible presentation options, it requires a higher commitment in terms of time, development, and design.
Similar to a non-digital portfolio, this type of Digital Portfolio is most commonly used in creative sectors such as visual and performing arts, engineering, and architecture. A work search Digital Portfolio can be used as a complement to GitHub and similar platforms to demonstrate technical skills and accomplishments in the software design and game industries. When well—designed for your target audience, a Digital Portfolio can enhance your appeal and attract positive attention in many career areas, fields, and sectors.
Use the comparison table below to understand how a Digital Portfolio differs from your résumé and LinkedIn profile.
Researching your audience
Best practice in any communication begins with defining your audience and establishing the focus of your message. Your inteded audience depends on the type of Digital Portfolio you are using.
Academic
The audience for an academic Digital Portfolio is your professor, instructor, teaching assistant and other students.
Consult your syllabus and assignment criteria, due dates, instructions, guidelines, examples, and rubric for specific details of how to design your academic Digital Portfolio for course credit.
For more support in developing your academic Digital Portfolio, you can book a Manage Your Online Presence appointment with a career advisor in the Centre for Career Development.
Career
The audience for a career development Digital Portfolio may vary: you might use it to reflect and enhance your own learning and development, you might keep employers in your field in mind as you design your content, or you may do a little of both.
Regardless of who ends up seeing your career development Digital Portfolio, you will be investigating your own values, skills, interests, and personality preferences. This Digital Portfolio will reflect you and your goals.
For more support in your reflection and goal setting, visit the decision-making section of CareerHub, or book a career development appointment with a Career Advisor in the Centre for Career Development.
Admission
The audience for an admission Digital Portfolio is the members of the selection committee.
Consult the school website and promotional materials to learn the expectations and criteria for your admission package and become familiar with the mission and values of the program. Determine whether a Digital Portfolio is a required or optional component.
Explore opportunities to network with alumni. Speak to current graduate students to learn how they are using their skills in the program.
For more support in your work on your admission Digital Portfolio, visit the Further Education section, or book a Manage Your Online Presence appointment with a Career Advisor in the Centre for Career Development.
Work search
Your audience for a work search Digital Portfolio is the employer. Your objective is to attract the attention of people who make decisions in the hiring process, for example, a hiring manager or human resources (HR) professional. Your Digital Portfolio is an engaging narrative about who you are; it answers the employer’s questions about why you are interested in a job and what you have to offer. You want to align your level of formality, keywords, and vocabulary with what you have determined is appropriate to the field, sector, organization, or company. For example, the language and style of presentation you would use in the creative sector will be different from what works in the business, technical, or client service sectors.
It is important to remember that the employer is also looking for your personal fit with their organization. Learn all you can about the values, mission, and needs of the employer by examining the organization’s LinkedIn pages, publications, website, job postings, and promotional materials. Newspaper and journal articles can also be great sources of information about the organization and its current activities. Think carefully about how you might fit with such an organization.
Attend employer information session, career and job fairs, and open house events to conduct research, introduce yourself, and make connections.
Connect with people in your existing network to talk about your employment objectives. Close friends and family, people in and outside your industry, alumni, students, and other job seekers may be able to introduce you to an employee in a company, organization, or sector where you want to work. When that happens, you can reach out and ask for a networking interview!
For more support in your work on your work search Digital Portfolio, visit the Work: find/create section of CareerHub, or book a Manage Your Online Presence appointment with a Career Advisor in the Centre for Career Development.
Comparison of Career Tools: Résumé, LinkedIn, Digital Portfolio
Résumé
Digital Portfolio
Résumé
Actively looking for work
You know where you want to apply
You know how to highlight your achievements
Any career stage
You have considered your professional brand or reflected on your unique skills and goals
ePortfolio
As early as possible in your career — it is harder to remember your accomplishments looking back in time
You have considered your professional brand or reflected on your unique skills and goals
Résumé
Used to apply to a specific job, job type, or professional school/further education program: provides specific and relevant accomplishments and skills
Used to highlight a range of career accomplishments and skills; can give interested employers, recruiters, or school admissions committees a broader understanding of what you do and who you are
Highlights career; focuses on wider range of potential roles and jobs. Supports job applications.
Used to research and apply to jobs, and to research people and companies
ePortfolio
Used to support job applications or admission applications to graduate school or further education
Acts as a supplement to other tools (résumé, CV) to showcase field-specific skills and accomplishments
Displays evidence of growth, effort and progress over time (e.g. reflections on learning, goal achievement, skills, abilities, accomplishments, capabilities)
Résumé
Intended audience
One organization, school or multiple organizations, schools hiring for similar jobs or reviewing admission applications
Public web audience
Searched by a broad audience including recruiters, employers, other job seekers, and school admission committees with a goal of learning more about you
ePortfolio
Public or specific audience depending on portfolio type and purpose
Employers, recruiters, people in and outside your industry, alumni, students, job seekers, admissions committees
Résumé
Read by most employers for most job applications
Used by a majority of employers in a wide variety of sectors to network and seek out job candidates
ePortfolio
May be reviewed by interested employers for short-listed candidates or during information or networking interviews
Résumé
1-2 pages
Based on industry and relevant content
Maximum 2,000 characters per experience
View your profile on a mobile device to ensure accessibility
ePortfolio
Any length
Strategically spread over any number of slides or pages organized for ease of navigation and flexibility
Résumé
Both
Print, PDF, Word, or plain text
Ensure readability by Automatic Tracking Software
Electronic
ePortfolio
Electronic
Résumé
No (Sometimes for creative fields)
Yes
ePortfolio
Optional, but recommended
Résumé
1. Summary
2. Some or all of: work experience, education, volunteer positions, relevant projects and courses, ordered by relevance to career goals
1. Summary
2. Some or all of: work experience, education, volunteer positions, relevant projects and courses, ordered by relevance to career goals
ePortfolio
1. Landing page, including links to other sections that invite free navigation between areas
2. Evidence of competency; projects, philosophy, experience, divided into cohesive slides or pages
Résumé
Formal
Sets the tone of your communication with an employer, often someone you have not met, as your professional audience
Business casual
Aligned with the language style, vocabulary level and conventions that match your objectives
ePortfolio
Business casual
Aligned with the language style, vocabulary level and conventions that match your objectives
Résumé
Concise and relevant sections and bullets relevant to the prospective position
Relevant reflective writing Career overview Invitation for others to connect
A narrative that highlights why and how you developed the skills and abilities for any given career. Aligned with your professional brand
ePortfolio
Relevant reflective writing Project/career overview Skill statements Writing samples Professional development Résumé/CV Citations
A consistent narrative that showcases your skills and development using a curated collection of artifacts
Résumé
Interests and activities
Endorsements, recommendations given and received, group membership and participation, information shared via SlideShare, multimedia, select content
ePortfolio
Photos, graphics, multimedia, stories, journals, publications, projects photos, documents, videos, essays, GitHub content, major research elements
Résumé
For each position you apply to based on job description and industry research
Regularly to post or respond to updates and discussions
Add content like photos, multimedia, stories, publications or projects as they occur
Update profile sections with industry keywords in order to stay at the top of searches and pique employer and/or reader interest
ePortfolio
Whenever you have relevant material to add to your collection of evidence (e.g. photos, graphics, multimedia, stories, journals, publications, projects)
In addition to résumés, LinkedIn, and Digital Portfolios, you might want to use a specialized tool to make samples of your work available online. For example, if you are in the software field, GitHub is great for showcasing your code to potential employers, and can provide further solid evidence of your skills and abilities. Keep an eye out for similar options in your field!