FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions:


What is an ePortfolio?
Portfolios are perhaps best known in writing communities and creative arts circles. Writers maintain portfolios of their work, and artists almost always have a portfolio of creative work. Portfolios are a way to document the kinds of things you can do. ePortfolio brings this concept into the digital (electronic) age and expands it to include one’s professional identity.

Beyond the electronic medium that makes ePortfolio different from the classic portfolio, ePortfolio today is most often described with three words that capture its methods: Collect, Select, Reflect.

By collecting, selecting, and reflecting on your work in your ePortfolio, you effectively make an argument (supported with evidence!) for your learning. For more information, read about the methods and common types of ePortfolios to see how you can see your ePortfolio as both process and product.

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Why should I have an ePortfolio?

ePortfolio is a powerful twenty-first century tool that enables you to collect artifacts from your education, to control the presentation of those artifacts, and to think about your learning over time. As you approach graduation, an ePortfolio also becomes another tool that can aid you in entering the workforce or pursuing an advanced degree.

Here are two relatively brief, peer-reviewed articles that might help you understand the value of ePortfolio:

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Are there restrictions or limits on what I can include?

This is your ePortfolio. There are very few restrictions or limits on what you can include. Almost all of them are governed by the Acceptable Use Policy for Students and by the university’s copyright policy, which requires adherence to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

You are part of an intellectual and creative community for liberal learning while on UNEPortfolios. All UNEPortfolio users are expected to adhere to the equal opportunity and academic integrity policies outlined in the Student Handbook.

In practice, this means you cannot make discriminatory posts or use racist, sexist, homophobic, or bigoted language. We require that you post your own work, use royalty-free or Creative Commons-licensed work when including others’ material, credit to sources you use, and/or secure permission to include others’ work.

You are crafting a digital identity that may be quite different from the one you are crafting via your posts to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We think there is tremendous value in thinking about those differences as you build your ePortfolio.


Is my ePortfolio visible to others?

Your ePortfolio has various privacy settings that you control. You can make it fully public, limit access to just members of the UNEPortfolios community, limit it to just subscribers you allow, or lock it all down. You can make parts of your ePortfolio private or even password protected, while keeping other parts public. And you can change visibility settings at any time. We encourage you to keep at least parts of your ePortfolio public, but it is really up to you. We’ll be happy to talk with you about what you might (and might not) want to make public in your ePortfolio. Get technical help on Privacy with our tutorials.

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What are the terms of use?
Our terms of use consist of both the terms of service and our privacy policy. Related to the terms of service are the usage, copyright, and integrity policies described in the FAQ on restrictions or limits.

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