History Major ePortfolio
We know that the History major can prepare you for any number of careers, including business, journalism, law, teaching, public policy, international affairs, and more. We also know that History majors often find it challenging to talk about just how their major prepares them for these careers. The ePortfolio is designed to help you do that – to talk about the skills you have developed through your major, how your coursework and the various learning experiences you’ve had (study abroad, research projects, internships) have prepared you to go out into the world, and how your undergraduate experiences have come together. Even as the ePortfolio helps you think and talk about your undergraduate education, it is also something that you can show to others – to show why you are a strong applicant for a job, graduate or professional school, or public service.
Each of you will set up an ePortfolio in the 1-unit HIST 1995 Introduction to History course. You will build this portfolio over the course of your time in the History Department at LMU, adding a resume, statements about and examples of your work, and reflections about your learning, work, and extracurricular activities. You will finalize the ePortfolio during your final semester, when it will also be evaluated as part of the 1-unit HIST 5995 Capstone ePortfolio course. What your finished ePortfolio (your finished website) looks like is up to you, both in look and in content. At the end of the day, you want to put together something that highlights what you have done here at LMU and that can serve (if you wish) as the foundation for your own professional website.
Setting Up Your ePortfolio
Create an Account: Your first step is to create an account on a website hosting service. You can use whatever hosting service you prefer – Weebly, Wix, Google Sites, WordPress, Squarespace, even LinkedIn. We recommend Weebly, a user-friendly, free platform. The rest of these start-up instructions will use Weebly as the example, but other platforms function similarly. After you go to Weebly.com, click “sign up” in the top right or the blue “create your website” button. You can sign up with your email address or use your Gmail or Facebook credentials. Weebly will ask you whether you want to create a simple website or a website with an online store; click “I just need a website.”
Select a Theme: The next step is to select a theme, and Weebly gives you lots of options. Don’t worry: you can always change your theme later. Look in the Portfolio and Personal categories and select the theme you want to use to get started. In general, a simple theme that allows for some good images is best.
Select Your Domain: The domain name is the name of your website, the URL for your website. While Weebly does have an option for a free, fully customizable domain name, for the ePortfolio a Weebly free domain is fine. You’ll be able to choose the first part of the domain name (provided it is available), and then the last part will be “weebly.com.” For the first part of the domain, you should use your name or some combination of your initials and name; remember that this is a website that you can and will use for professional purposes.
Design your Website: Weebly is very user friendly, using a drag and drop design template – e.g., text boxes, image blocks, galleries, etc. Basic design features are free, and Weebly offers more advanced features with the paid upgrade. If you click on a certain aspect, you can change the color, layout, font, etc.
Adding Pages: Your ePortfolio will need to have the pages listed to the right:
- Homepage or Landing Page: This is the gateway into your site. You should include an image of yourself, a brief biographical sketch, and a link to your resume file.
- My Work: Your ePortfolio will highlight work you do during your college career. Go to the Pages tab at the top and click the plus sign and then add a standard page where you will highlight your work. Use the same process to add sub-pages; to make sure that these are sub-pages under “My Work,” just drag them up under My Work in the menu and then to the right. We recommend that you include the following sub-pages:
- Coursework
- Learning Experiences
- Work & Internship Experiences
- Extracurriculars
- Reflections: This is your blog. You’ll post an initial reflection during HIST 1995 and a final reflection during HIST 5995, but you are also encouraged to post at least one reflection about your studies in History per semester. On the pages tab, click the plus sign and then add a blog post.
- Contact Me: Somewhere on your site, whether on your homepage or on a separate contact page, you should include your contact information (just an email is fine).
Site Settings: Your website will be published, and thus public, but you can make it difficult to find unless someone has the specific address. Go to the Settings tab and then to the SEO (search engine optimization) section. If you want to make your site easier to find, add meta keywords. If you want to make your site harder to find, click “hide site from search engines,” which prevents search engines from indexing your website and means that people will generally need to have the URL to find your site.
Publish Your Website: Once you have set up and designed your website, you need to publish it. In the top-right corner, click the blue button saying publish. This will not be the final version of your website. Over the coming years, you’ll continue to add content and update your website.
Components of Your ePortfolio
As you continue to develop the ePortfolio, you should feel free to make it your own: experiment with themes and design features, include images and galleries, add apps and widgets, change or revise your content, and so on. But all ePortfolios should have the following general components:
The biographical section: This section will generally be on your homepage/landing page and will include a photo of you, a biographical sketch, a link to your resume, and your email (and other contact information that you want to include).
The portfolio section (My Work): This section is where you will showcase your work, what you have done as a college student. You can determine which sub-pages make the most sense for you, but we recommend that you add the sub-pages listed to the right. Each sub-page should include a written statement where you bring things together and discuss what you’ve done, always better with at least one featured image. We also suggest that you add examples of your work – e.g., your best papers or research projects, photos or videos, etc. These will be static pages, updated regularly to reflect the most up-to-date information.
- Coursework: Here is where you will talk about your program of study (Core, History major, second major and/or minor(s), and electives) and how it all fits together. What are you doing in your program of study? Why did you take these courses? How do they contribute to your studies as a whole? What are some interesting things that you’ve learned? Aim to update this every year. You don’t have to, and probably shouldn’t, talk about each individual course. Rather, highlight key experiences and link to some of your work product (e.g., your best paper or a PowerPoint presentation).
- Learning Experiences: This is the place to talk about all those unique learning experiences that you’ve had. If you’ve done undergraduate research (IURP or SURP), presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium), studied abroad, done a global immersion course, worked as a Rains Research Assistant, held a fellowship, etc., talk about it here. Include your research presentation or photos of study abroad; talk about what these experiences have meant for you.
- Work & Internship Experiences: Most of you will do internships and/or work while in college. Talk about those experiences here. This is also a good place to talk about any career training workshops that you have done.
- Extracurriculars: College is about more than just classes. Talk about your extracurriculars here and how they have also contributed to your formation as a person.
The reflection section: Regular reflection about your college career is an important part of your own development. You should aim to post at least one 500-750 word reflection on the blog per semester. These reflections can be whatever you want – school, work, life, politics, food, whatever, though ideally with some connection to history – with two exceptions. During HIST 1995 and HIST 5995, you must post a reflection about the study of history:
- HIST 1995: What is history? What does the study of history entail? What do you hope to get out of your History major?
- HIST 5995: What is history? How has your understanding of history changed? How has your History major prepared you for the future?
Resources
Getting Started Resources:
- Weebly Tutorial (Bamboo Studio)
- Weebly Beginning Guide (Flip Cause)
App Center, Plugins, Widgets (to take the site to the next level and add some extra features)
- Free Apps (Weebly)
- Free Widgets for Weebly (Elf Sight)
Portfolio Examples (to get some creative inspiration):
- Best Weebly Portfolio Examples (Superb Website Builders)
- 5 Things Your Online Portfolio Needs (Weebly)
- Best Examples of Websites Built With Weebly (Design Bombs)
