Featured Archives | bulb

Creating Custom bulb Cover Images

Ryan Good — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 18:01:32 +0000

Creating Custom bulb Cover Images

Featured

Published August 16, 2022

Cover photo by Joel Vodell on Unsplash. Edited.

Custom cover image photo by Karina Zhukovskaya on Pexels. Edited.

Graphic design aficionados – bulb now allows users to hide titles on their cover images so you can design your own custom titles for your pages and collections! Creating custom titles for your cover images is a great way to add a personal flare to your bulb profile and show off your design chops. In this blog post, we’ll go over the best practices for utilizing this new feature so you can start making your very own designs.

Hiding Titles

In order to hide bulb’s native titles on a page or collection, you will first need to navigate to that page or collection. Click on the three-dot menu icon to the left of the “Share” button. Then, from the drop-down menu, select “Hide Title,” the fifth option down. This will hide the title and can be undone at any time.

We’ve created a cover image template that you can download using the links below and drop into your favorite graphic design program. We recommend using the AI file for Adobe Illustrator or the SVG file for other programs, but there are PDF and PNG versions available if necessary.

In this template, you’ll notice three rectangular outlines – red, green, and blue. The red outline represents the browser view for a page on a standard large (1400px) and small (1024px) laptop. The green outline represents the browser view for a page on a mobile device (375px). The blue outline represents how the image will be displayed on a tile within your profile.

Make sure your design takes up the full template, past the bounds of all 3 outlines, and place your title and primary imagery within the blue outline. This will ensure that these elements are visible on a multitude of browsers and within tiles. You can test a mockup of your design by placing it into a draft version of your page or collection and using inspect elements to view it in different browser sizes.

Design Suggestions

First, you’ll want to consider whether you intend to have a unified style across all pages and collections or take it one design at a time. If you do plan on having a unified style, think about what you’d like that style to be and how you might create variants of it. Next, choose what colors, imagery, and style will best reflect you and the subject matter of your page or collection. There’s nothing wrong with taking to a search engine or social media platform for inspiration, just as long as you don’t plagiarize someone else’s work. Once you’ve thought through your plan of action, it’s time to get designing.

Use the template to structure your design so it displays properly on browsers across a multitude of laptops and desktops. You can use any program you’d like, or even use a physical medium then scan and digitize your design! Your file settings and export settings should reflect the original dimensions of the template and allow for RGB color mode to ensure high quality.

Make sure to consider legibility when creating your design. The title should be large and utilize an easy-to-read font. It should also stand out from the background in terms of color and texture. Look at your design through the scope of accessibility; just because you can easily read it doesn’t mean everyone can easily read it. Here’s a dyslexia-friendly style guide and a color blindness simulator to help guide you.

Go Forth and Design

Now you can get to designing your own custom cover photos. Let your creativity run wild and show off your design skills for all to see! Whether you’re creating connected designs for all of your pages and collections or just a single design for a single page, a custom cover photo helps make your bulb profile more you.

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Virtual Career Fair

rosilynnyoon — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 17:58:09 +0000

Virtual Career Fair

Featured

Published March 22, 2021

How exactly do you pull off a virtual career fair? Look no further than at Beaumont ISD, who successfully hosted a K-12 College Career & Military Readiness Virtual Fair using the bulb platform. They were able to gather their community across the region to bring students new opportunities, even during remote times. Here’s how Beaumont ISD successfully hosted a virtual career fair.

They had a dedicated introduction collection explaining to students, parents, employers and teachers how to attend the virtual career fair, along with other useful information about the event.

In this collection, attendees will find an embedded ‘Welcome’ video, a flyer explaining how to use bulb to attend the fair and how to collaborate with peers on the platform. They made all the information accessible to multilingual and deaf/hard of hearing families.

“When researching virtual options for Beaumont ISD’s College, Career & Military Readiness Fair (CCMR Fair), Bulb Digital Portfolio provided the options we were looking for in a virtual platform. The CCMR Fair is a district-wide, K-12 event, where the objective is to introduce students to different professions, explore various colleges & universities, familiarize students with CTE programs in BISD, offer information regarding military opportunities, and provide resources about employment or workforce development.” – Eva LeBlanc | Coordinator of Business & Industry

They created a collection for each topic in the career fair. Within each collection, students can explore more information about STEM and careers.

Here’s a look at their collections/topic areas. As you scroll through the images, you’ll see a preview of the pages and work within each collection. Click here to explore the entire collection.

“To meet the needs of our students and community, we wanted a virtual event that would be available for more than one day, while providing easy access. Access to the virtual fair is available at any time, from any device with the web URL. The ultimate goal with a virtual option was to provide continuous availability of resources and information about CCMR topics through the end of the school year.” – Eva LeBlanc | Coordinator of Business & Industry

They created a collection for each topic in the career fair. Within each collection, students can explore more information about STEM and careers.

Here’s a look at their collections/topic areas. As you scroll through the images, you’ll see a preview of the pages and work within each collection. Click here to explore the entire collection.

They collaborated with corporations and employers across the region.

Hosting a virtual career fair boasts just as many opportunities for students, if not more, since businesses anywhere – like Exxonmobil – were able to join in using the bulb platform. Colleges and businesses created their own bulb pages and submitted them to the Beaumont team, who then added these pages to the career exploration collection.

They collaborated with corporations and employers across the region.

They curated take-home resources for attendees.

Just like an in-person career fair, where attendees walk away with piles of flyers, Beaumont ISD ensured virtual fair attendees walked away with the useful information for students and families to succeed. The additional resources can easily be downloaded and found in bulb too.

They curated take-home resources for attendees.

Because the bulb platform is so intuitive, allows users to fully customize organization layers, and free to use for any one, schools can get creative and host a virtual career fair that works for them. Beaumont ISD shows us one way to be successful. How will you host a virtual career fair on bulb?

“The bulbapp team walked with us during our virtual journey to develop an online event. The bulbapp IT department was excellent in providing insight, training, and help. They were always a phone call or email away, and customized instructions for our exhibitors to upload content. In addition, they were there to collaborate with us on our ideas, as well as provide best practices to put the finishing touches on our final product. Bulb Digital Portfolio has been an excellent companion in building our CCMR Virtual Fair.”

– Eva LeBlanc | Coordinator of Business & Industry

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Hosting Virtual Poster Sessions with bulb at the Long School of Medicine

rosilynnyoon — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 22:50:56 +0000

The Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio successfully hosts a virtual poster session with 1,000+ attendees using bulb.

Hosting Virtual Poster Sessions with bulb at the Long School of Medicine

Equity & Access, Featured, Jobs & Employment, User Stories

Published August 4, 2020

The Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio successfully hosts a virtual poster session with 1,000+ attendees using bulb.

A multimedia poster with bulb

Campus events are necessary. They create excitement for students and educators, and they bring the entire learning community together. It’s an opportunity for students to network with other professionals. What happens when a global pandemic cancels these highly-anticipated events? How can students, faculty, and alumni come together to share their work?

The Long School of Medicine UT Health San Antonio hosts a poster session every Spring—“Research Day”. For this event, Long School of Medicine (LSOM) Faculty, Post Docs, Residents, Medical and Graduate Students are invited to share their research on large-scale visual posters, then present them to event attendees and a panel of judges.

Before COVID-19, Research Day was an in-person event. Attendance and participation has steadily grown year-over-year. Knowing the excitement around this day, Dr. Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Vice Dean of Research, Courtney Peebles, Manager of Research Operations, and Ashley Jordan, Senior Program Coordinator, Office for Research, knew canceling this event was not an option. In a time of uncertainty and stress, especially in the medical field, they wanted to create something for everyone to look forward to. They quickly began working on finding a way to host a virtual poster session.

Not only were Courtney and Ashley successful in creating the framework to host a virtual Research Day, they created an opportunity for more people to participate, and found a way to share vital research to a broader audience. Here’s how they successfully did it.

How to make Research Day virtual

The first step for Courtney and Ashley was to identify the platforms they needed to make this happen. They broke the event out into four steps, and decided to use a seperate platform for each step:

Survey Monkey Apply to gather poster applications
bulb to upload, showcase and share posters and audio recordings – bulb was also used by the community, judges and other participants to comment and give feedback on the submissions

Zoom to host the judging session
Facebook Live to announce the winners

Since this was the first time The Long School of Medicine did anything like this virtually, they expected to learn from the process. Rather than listening to their concerns, like whether people would show up or if they were using the right tools, they decided to just go for it. The team would be happy with any result because it’s better to give their students this opportunity than not at all.

How posters were displayed in bulb for the virtual event

The benefits of using bulb for poster sessions

Although virtual events can never replace in-person ones, there are unique benefits to hosting a virtual poster session using bulb. The school noticed:

Participants were more engaged in each other’s work. Comments and likes were made on almost all 90+ posters.
Posters became dynamic. bulb allowed participants to create interactive posters and even create templates.
Going virtual allowed more people to submit their poster to the event. Before COVID-19, if a person wanted to participate in the event they needed to attend the event in person. Due to the demanding schedules of medical professionals, this often inhibited people from participating. With the flexibility of being able to attend virtually, this barrier was removed
Event organizers were able to have real-time updates, and a unique view of participants’ work.
Going virtual expanded the reach. According to Google Analytics, 15,000 people viewed the bulb pages. Anyone could attend the poster sessions from anywhere in the world, even clinicians that usually can’t make it in-person were able to see the work of trainees and residents on their own time.
Instead of posters ending up in the trash, or people only being able to access them at the event, the information was saved and shared out afterwards. The dean showcased all of the posters in a school announcement for their entire network to click through and have for reference.

Virtual "Research Day" was so successful that Dr. Potter and her team will likely continue to host poster sessions online.

The Outcome

After the event, seven faculty members have reached out to Dr. Potter’s team to see how they pulled it off. And students continue to use their bulb digital portfolio.

Students added more experiences and learnings to their professional portfolio beyond their posters, so they could easily share their work with other professionals in a time like this. With bulb, they’ve been able to stay connected and expand their opportunities.

The post Hosting Virtual Poster Sessions with bulb at the Long School of Medicine appeared first on bulb.

How To Successfully Implement Edtech Tools in a District

chelseakasen — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 14:27:43 +0000

How To Successfully Implement Edtech Tools in a District

Classroom Tips, Featured, Personalized Learning, Student Portfolios

Published June 22, 2020

Learn how Coppell ISD implemented a digital portfolio program district-wide as their newest foray into edtech tools. Digital portfolios allow students to showcase their work and create a positive digital presence which they can leverage to gain access to countless opportunities.

Photo by Aryan Dhiman on Unsplash.

How To Successfully Implement EdTech Tools in a District

We sat down with Nancy Garvey, Director of Digital Learning at Coppell ISD, to learn about the process her district went through to implement a new edtech tool for students grades, K-12. She addressed what went well, the challenges, and how they continue to expand the program district-wide year over year.

In this 60-minute webinar Nancy specifically addressed:

How she and her team implemented digital portfolios district-wide.
Their process for getting district buy-in, and how they trained and provided support to their K-12 educators and students.
How, in this ever-changing education landscape, they’ve been able to build engagement with students & families, and demonstrate competencies & skills using digital portfolios.

Follow Coppell ISD for more:

Follow Nancy Garvey on Twitter: @ngarvey
Follow Coppell ISD on Twitter: @coppellisd

Resources shared by Nancy:

Explore more examples, templates, and case studies in bulb’s Resource Center.

bulb is the missing piece of your 2020-21 distance learning puzzle. Supercharge alternative assessment, engage parents, showcase meaningful learning and progress. bulb is easy to implement and use, with world-class support and onboarding.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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How to Use Digital Portfolios for Assessments

rosilynnyoon — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 13:47:12 +0000

How to Use Digital Portfolios for Assessments

Assessment, Classroom Tips, Featured, Personalized Learning, Remote Learning, The Portfolio Difference

Published June 10, 2020

Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash. Edited.

Learn How the Top Three Forms of Assessment Pair with bulb for Dynamic Results

Educators assess students using a variety of methods. With the shift to remote learning, they are finding it more difficult to engage students in learning. And research has proven that standardized tests, plug-in answers, and surface level tests only capture recognition. Educators are using this time to reimagine authentic assessments and the tools they use. When pairing assessments with digital portfolios, not only will student’s capture their learning process, they will take ownership of their learning, while educators gain deeper knowledge for each of their students.

Assessment + bulb Digital Portfolios

bulb Digital Portfolios is the place to store artifacts of learning from any form of assessment. It is both the creation and curation place where students take ownership of their learning, activate metacognition, and reflection. Digital portfolios allow educators to see their students apply the learning and help gauge the student’s understanding of the learning process.

The platform makes it easy for students and educators to find all of their assessments in one place, instead of scrolling through an LMS. Other apps used for assessment like FlipGrip, Google Forms, Nearpod, etc, can all be embedded within bulb. No matter the type of assessment you use to meet your classroom’s needs, bulb makes it easy to assess a student’s speaking, reading, writing, listening, and critical thinking skills.

The Results

With users around the world, bulb has a unique perspective into the results of pairing alternative assessment and digital portfolios. From speaking with bulb users, we’ve compiled a list of the top 8 results teachers, parents, and students experience:

Documenting growth over time: A digital portfolio tracks student work from year to year, showing a holistic view of their growth over time. Here is an example from a 3rd grader, Kaden, who shows his writing progression over the years. Other forms of summative assessments can be documented in bulb—like unit reflections, final projects, or final portfolio reviews to show process and progress over time. Educators can also provide rubrics within a bulb page to help guide students when completing assignments.

Encouraging creativity: bulb digital portfolios gives students options in how they express their learning. They can add interactive media, outside sources, audio recordings, videos, and images to truly show what they know and make the learning their own. Students in this bulb page created a video to show they fully understood the science principle they were learning about.

Metacognition: Digital portfolios show the process of learning, helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses. Because students can document each step, this encourages them to reflect on what they did and become more aware of their thought process. See how an 8th grader, Angela Olsen, reflects on personal goals within her portfolio.

Ownership of learning: bulb is built for life. When a student graduates, or moves, they can take their work with them by adding a personal email address to their account. , Over time, students who have actively used their digital portfolio will be able to see all of their work and accomplishments. Seeing the whole picture of their growth encourages them to continually learn. William Robinson III has built his portfolio since college and over the course of his career, and it shows the remarkable outcomes of having a digital portfolio for life.

Personalized learning: When master teacher Belinda Medellin uses digital portfolios to assess her students, she can easily give them personalized feedback and instruction. Digital portfolios help her keep track of each student’s progress with each subject she teaches. Having a tangible record of a student’s work that she can access at any time allows her to respond to each of her student’s goals and identify how she can help them achieve them.

Displaying capabilities & competencies: Digital portfolios help students display capabilities and competencies. A great example of this is Caroline Schulze’s portfolio. As a civil engineering student at the Oregon Institute of Technology, she uses her portfolio to keep track of her diverse interests and talents. She then shows to her portfolio visitors how she brings her learning and talents together in her Capstone Project, providing evidence of what she’s capable of.

Iteration: Learning is an iterative process and assessments help the learner identify where they are at. With a dynamic digital portfolio, students can revisit and build upon their past work. They can take feedback and apply it, and see the progression of their learning. Shrayes G, an art student, captured evidence of composition over multiple years.

Learning beyond the classroom: Work can be done within a digital portfolio at any time, from anywhere, on any device. For educators using authentic assessments, this is a dream come true. Students can be encouraged to engage with the world outside of the classroom then share it in their digital portfolio. These experiences can then be easily shared with teachers, future employers, colleges, and peers. Take a look at Derrell Walker, who started using his digital portfolio to document coursework, and is now using it to document his career in culinary arts.

One thing is for sure: No matter the form of assessment, when paired with a digital portfolio the results are dynamic.
What results will you discover?

bulb + is free for educators, always. Try bulb.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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How to Use bulb & Google Classroom

rosilynnyoon — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:07:32 +0000

How to Use bulb & Google Classroom

Classroom Tips, Featured, Integrations, Interoperability, Remote Learning

Published May 6, 2020

How to Use bulb & Google Classroom

One of our most frequently asked questions is, how does bulb integrate with Google Classroom? Below is a side by side look at an educator and student’s journey of using bulb in tandem with Google Classroom.

Educator Journey: Follow the educator’s steps to see how to create an assignment in bulb then send it to students through Google Classroom.

Download Infographic

Student Journey: Follow the student’s steps to see how to turn in an assignment that has been completed in bulb to Google Classroom.

Download Infographic

To learn more about our integration with Google Classroom, here’s a 4-minute YouTube video that guides you through the integration. Or visit our Google Classroom help page.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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bulb is an online digital resume platform that lets you beautifully showcase your abilities, experiences, and what makes you unique. We’re based in Lafayette, CO and serve educators, students, and professionals all across the globe.

Everyone should have an easy and accessible means to show who they are and what they’re great at; that’s what bulb is all about. Paper and PDF resumes are outdated, and portfolio websites are overpriced and overcomplicated. You’re better than that. A digital portfolio is the best way to show your value and land new opportunities. Whether you’re looking for a career, an internship, admission to a college, or something else, demonstrating proof of competency with a clear and succinct digital portfolio will make you stand out from the competition.

Create eye-catching multimedia pages with our easy-to-use page editor, capable of embedding all sorts of media. Use our intuitive content management to arrange your pages into collections and sub-collections, so your work is neat and easy to navigate. Make a page about your internship, make a collection about your education experience, make a digital resume about your various jobs and skills; anything and everything you’d like to share you can share with bulb.

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Teacher & Student View: Using Digital Portfolios for Remote Learning

chelseakasen — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:43:35 +0000

Teacher & Student View: Using Digital Portfolios for Remote Learning

Classroom Tips, Featured, Personalized Learning, Remote Learning, Student Portfolios, The Portfolio Difference, Webinar

Published April 6, 2020

Teacher & Student View: Using Digital Portfolios for Remote Learning

bulb Digital Portfolios sat down with CAST Tech High School teacher Belinda Medellin (2020 Secondary Texas Teacher of the Year for Region 20) and two of Belinda’s UX Design students, Payton (9th Grader) and Li (10th Grader), to understand how they’re using bulb Digital Portfolios for remote learning.

San Antonio’s CAST Tech High School has been using bulb for the past 3 years. Students at CAST tech are required to create a digital portfolio documenting school projects in order to apply to internships during their senior year. This requirement uniquely benefited CAST Tech, giving them the ability to easily implement a remote learning plan for COVID-19 school closures.

Districts all over the country are quickly pivoting to remote learning, with digital portfolios as the cornerstone of their plans. Belinda and her students demonstrate how schools can quickly and easily implement a successful plan for teachers and students using bulb Digital Portfolios.

In this 45-minute webinar you will learn how:

bulb seamlessly integrates with LMSs (CAST Tech uses Google Classroom) giving teachers the ability to assign and grade student work without inundating the LMS. This also provides teachers with the opportunity to give students valuable direct feedback
bulb helps teachers teach new concepts and clearly communicate with their students about assignments, expectations, and office hours
bulb documents student learning; it shows more than the final answer, it clearly demonstrates a student’s process
bulb gives students a platform to complete projects in the way they feel most confident; audio, video, visuals, writing

To view more examples of how CAST Tech teachers and students are using bulb Digital Portfolios for remote learning, visit CASA@CAST’s bulb page.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

Don’t have a bulb account?

Want to receive weekly resources like these directly in your inbox?

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How bulb Digital Portfolios Fit Into A Student’s Remote Learning Journey

rosilynnyoon — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 01:49:35 +0000

How bulb Digital Portfolios Fit Into A Student’s Remote Learning Journey

Featured, Personalized Learning, Remote Learning, Student Portfolios, Student Voice, The Portfolio Difference

Published March 27, 2020

Digital portfolios allow teachers to track student growth and assess competencies, even remotely. With the ability to create personalized learning environments for each student, digital portfolios help to give students a voice and choice with their learning. In the infographic below we demonstrate how digital portfolios fit into a student’s remote learning journey.

1. The teacher gives an assignment.

The learning journey begins in one of two places, through a learning management system or directly in bulb.

With an LMS, teachers assign work to be done in bulb and keep track of student grades within the system.
Without an LMS, teachers create and assign work through their bulb class group.

2. The student researches & creates content.

Today’s students have more access to information and inspiration than ever before. The digital era has introduced new ways to expand knowledge and gain perspective. For example, students can discover new content and create their own with apps like Google Drive, Adobe Suites, YouTube, Flipgrid, Quizlet, and Nearpod. With so much access to content and information, it leaves us with this question —where is the best place to maintain, synthesize, and curate it all?

3. The student brings their learning together.

A digital portfolio is where learning comes together. bulb integrates with 1900+ apps, helping students embed their research and content to show process and progression. For example, here are some ways bulb users bring their learning together:

Primary students document development by photographing their handwriting and recording themselves reading throughout the school year. They use bulb as the place to store these pieces of content to refer back to.
Secondary students compile their class notes from Quizlet, Evernote and other apps, along with their assignments they completed in bulb to create helpful study guides.
Higher education students use bulb to complete capstone projects. bulb allows them to compile research, write their final paper, and display other multimedia artifacts in one place.

4. The student completes the assignment.

Students submit a one-of-a-kind bulb page via an integrated LMS or to their bulb class group. Students, their peers, and teachers can provide feedback via bulb’s in-line commenting feature. They can also easily share their work with people outside of their class using private share links.

Download Infographic

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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5 Ways Digital Portfolios Improve Reading & Writing

bsa-developer — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 16:07:13 +0000

5 Ways Digital Portfolios Improve Reading & Writing

Digital Storytelling, Featured, Personalized Learning, Student Voice

Published October 9, 2019

5 Ways Digital Portfolios Improve Reading & Writing

Here are five simple strategies to help students enjoy practicing and refining their reading, writing and literacy skills.

1. They invite expression and creativity.

Your students have an array of tools for multimedia creation and application, successfully targeting all five components of ELA: listening, speaking, viewing, writing and reading. Help your students master these areas and develop a varied skill set for any curriculum.

2. They support all learning styles.

Your students learn differently from one another. Digital portfolios make lessons resonate with all students and learning styles. Auditory learners can listen to instructions or pronunciations, visual learners can use videos or images, kinesthetic learners can document experiences or processes and reading/writing learners can further their skills.

3. They facilitate discussion and collaboration.

Your students can collaborate, comment and gain perspective by viewing each other’s work in bulb. Spark engaging conversations around literature by hosting book reviews. Or give feedback during the writing process.

4. They can translate and share information in any language.

Your students can share their smarts with the world. Translate a digital portfolio to any language for acquisition or to land an opportunity in a different country.

5. They encourage a lifetime of writing.

Your students can express and discover themselves through a digital portfolio. Give your students a platform with no creative boundaries. Encourage your students to write about anything and collect work done for reflection and growth.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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The Portfolio Difference

stevemiller — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:02:16 +0000

The Portfolio Difference

Classroom Tips, College & Career Readiness, Featured, Personalized Learning, Student Agency, The Portfolio Difference

Published March 7, 2019

The Portfolio Difference

How Digital Portfolios Help Prioritize Learning & Teaching, not Testing

Proof of learning rests in the developed mind and heart of the student.As the digital age matures and the demand for new skills and competencies grows, how we measure what students know and what they do with that knowledge needs to happen.

Not only do tests and other end-of-term markings fall short of determining competencies, but aligning learning to tests fails to help students develop skills necessary for their futures. Shifting from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more personalized, self-directed education empowers students to be agents of their learning and to showcase and celebrate what they know.

A digital portfolio helps students build the skills needed to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing global economy and brings the often invisible soft skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, solving problems and self-organizing, to life. Digital portfolios are not only the foundation of a student’s continuing education and employability but an integral component of classroom instruction, right here and right now.

Here are 12 reasons why you should consider adding digital portfolios in your lessons.

1. They improve student performance and learning retention.

Several studies, compiled by Clive Thompson in his groundbreaking article in Wired magazine, demonstrate the “audience effect” — the idea that publishing and sharing work actually boosts academic performance and learning retention.

2. They give students grit.

The use of digital portfolios results in higher GPA scores, higher course pass rates, higher retention across semesters and ultimately, higher graduation rates.

3. They help answer the paramount questions “What am I?” and “How do I learn?”

Advancing higher order thinking and integrative learning, the connective nature of the digital portfolio helps students to construct purposeful identities as learners.

4. They help students make meaningful connections.

Digital portfolios help students make connections across curricular, co-curricular and experiential learning and communicate those connections in a meaningful way.

5. They give students and teachers “the long view”

A longitudinal view of a learner’s work paints a picture of growth, progress, and continuity over time that the learner can collect, select, and reflect upon to present a profile of accomplishment based on evidence. (Boston University)

6. They teach the skills to succeed in today’s world.

We can now all agree: the internet is not a fad. Digital portfolios effectively and naturally incorporate 21st century skills—the skills necessary to survive in today’s world—into every assignment. (Teach Thought)

7. Digital portfolios help students develop a digital identity.

As digital identities become increasingly complex and scattered across the web, an ePortfolio can be a valuable means of bringing coherence to the digital self and develop a personal brand online. Through reflection and self-authorship, students can craft a compelling narrative based on their values, beliefs, and experiences. (International Journal of ePortfolio)

8. They open the door to metacognitive learning.

As students reflect on each experience, they become more aware of the processes and strategies that make them successful, allowing them to learn from their successes as well as their challenges or failures. At each grade level, students assume more responsibility for their portfolios and take greater ownership in their development as learners. (Edutopia)

9. They create an opportunity for reflection.

By making learning visible and connecting ideas across learning experiences, digital portfolios drive the practice of reflection, advancing higher order thinking and helping students construct purposeful identities as learners. (The International Journal of ePortfolio)

10. They facilitate the transition from being a digital consumer to a digital contributor.

When teachers and students can capture their own learning and then make thoughtful decisions about what artifacts are worthy of sharing with the world, they become more mindful contributors to a global society. (SmartBrief)

11. They provide opportunities for expansive learning.

A student could take a story they started writing in the fourth grade and expand on it later – like in 9th grade – when they have a better grasp of writing mechanics, word choice and voice. Or passionately develop a science project over several years. The possibilities are limitless and will happen organically if student work is digitized and housed somewhere that is easily accessible to them. (Holly Clark)

12. Portfolio initiatives catalyze learning-centered institutional change.

Focusing attention on student learning, prompting connection and encouraging cooperation across departments and divisions, portfolios can catalyze campus-wide cultural and structural change, helping the institution move towards becoming a true learning organization.

Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources. Or contact us to set up a demo.

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