Orientation to Portfolios

The Expository Writing Program (EWP) and Freshman Interest Group (FIG) Program both use Catalyst Portfolio and Portfolio Project Builder. The information presented below on portfolios is a part of the student and instructor guides for those programs. The information will also be useful for others seeking to replicate the scaffolded portfolio approach used by EWP and the FIG program.

What is a Portfolio?

A portfolio is a collection of work, usually accompanied by commentary that explains the purpose of the collection and the rationale for including particular items.

Portfolios have long been a standard format in some disciplines: writers of all types assemble collections of their papers and articles and visual artists assemble collections of slides, prints, and other representations of their artwork. With the advent of electronic portfolios, this format has become more common in a variety of fields. Catalyst Portfolio allows anyone with a UW NetID to create portfolios to suit a variety of purposes and to publish them on the Web. Individuals can create professional portfolios to showcase their job skills, academic portfolios to present their work for a course or program, or personal/reflective portfolios to share a variety of experiences.

A published portfolio created with Catalyst Portfolio functions as a Web site; it has the same appearance, structure, and navigation. What separates an electronic portfolio from other Web sites is that it presents a collection of work and commentary about that collection.

How Catalyst Portfolio Works

Portfolios contain two main elements: artifacts and commentary.

• Artifacts are the items that make up a collection of materials (course papers, links to Web sites, pictures, scanned images, et cetera). Artifacts are uploaded and stored in the portfolio tool, where they can be linked to one or more portfolios.
  
• Commentary includes text within a portfolio that explains the purpose of the portfolio, introduces the artifacts in its collection, and explains the reasons for their inclusion.

The combination of artifacts and commentary determines the structure of the portfolio. In Catalyst Portfolio, a portfolio consists of a series of linked pages, like a Web site; each page contains one or more sections. Each section contains either commentary, a link to one or more artifacts, or, most commonly, both elements. Every portfolio is constructed and edited section by section. When you view the sample portfolios in the next section, this structure will be evident; each section is separated from those around it by a horizontal line.

Sample Portfolios

View example Portfolios from Freshman Interest Groups, Expository Writing Program, and the Catalyst Portfolio contest.