Lifelong Learning 
Lab

Lifelong Learning Lab

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ePort

Overview

You will build your own website either with WordPress on USNH Domains or another tool of your choice, which we will use as an e-portfolio and workshop space for ideas throughout the course. We call it an ePort because it is more than a portfolio: it is portable, a port of call, and maybe even a port in a storm. You can control the privacy settings on your ePort, which we will discuss in class, but if you prefer to work in an inherently private setting, please discuss this with your instructor, who will help you to use Mahara, Canvas, or another tool.

The goals are two:

1.) for you to have a space of your own on the web to collect and share your work; and

2.) to learn how to navigate the information overload of the web so that you have confidence assessing and addressing your own technological needs

ePort Vision Assignment

(This is the same assignment that’s on Canvas, which is where you should turn it in.)

In this course, you will build your own website on USNH Domains or another tool of your choice. You will create a space completely curated to your needs – maybe you want to create an artist’s portfolio to showcase your favorite work; maybe you want post and rework some of your strongest academic writing for your resume. The sky (and your drive/ our collective tech skills) are the limit! One thing to keep in mind is that you aren’t going to be graded on your tech ability. We will do our best together with the power of our collective brains, tutorials, Google, the Help Desk, and folks at the CoLab who are talented with WordPress. The most important thing is to keep an open mind and be willing to try things out, even if they don’t work.

For this assignment, you are going to be creating a proposal that introduces your vision for your website. You will imagine what kind of online space would benefit you most, especially given your major, interests, and overall professional goals. This website will stay with you in your time at PSU (and there are ways to keep it after you graduate, too) so it’s worth your time to develop a space that can be useful for you academically and professionally.

The format of your Vision Proposal is up to you. You can create a document, a presentation, a post on your ePort site, an infographic, etc. Feel free to have fun and get creative with it; we write enough academic essays to last a lifetime. In order for this assignment to be considered complete, you must include the following elements:

ePort Exploration 

Read “The Web We Need to Give Students  by Audrey Watters. Choose a quote that stands out to you as important, interesting, or confusing and reflect. Why might it be important to have your own website? Why might a website be useful to you, given your major, interests, and the kind of work you do?

Explore the following example ePorts and find one that has elements that you might find useful or inspiring as you create your own site. Reflect on these elements.

ePort Identity and Purpose

You will need to Include the public URL (web address) of your website in your proposal.

Create an “ePort Mission” where you describe of the kind of website that would be most useful to you to create. Think about your major, interests, and the kind of work you do. What might be useful to be able to share with a potential employer? What do you want to capture from your time in college? What are your goals with your ePort? 

Create a short “About” to put on your ePort. If you don’t want to identify yourself, that’s fine. An about page usually states the purpose of a website and what kind of content can be found on the site. It might include information about the site’s author, but it doesn’t have to.

ePort Vision

Use Canva , Microsoft Whiteboard , Padlet , or your preferred tool to put together a vision board for what your ePort might look like (if you want to see an example, check out one Hannah Mallon made for an online zine ). Think about colors, images, navigation, and elements that you want your ePort to include. This doesn’t have to look exactly like what you expect the site to look like, but rather can be a tool to represent the mood and purpose of your site. It can be like a blueprint if you want it to be, or it can be an impressionistic collage. Just be use to include both some text and some imagery. (Please don’t use AI. It destroys Matt’s soul.)

ePort Checklist

An adequate ePort meets the following guidelines:

  • Title

    Your site has an appropriate title: your name, a meaningful phrase, or something else to help people understand and be interested in your site.

  • Appearance / Theme

    You’ve chosen a theme that reflects your own personal aesthetic or the topic of your site (and not just stuck with the default theme without trying out others)

  • Cleared Defaults

    WordPress will fill a few areas with default text designed to be replaced. The words “Hello World” (or equivalent) should not appear in any blog post title and the words “Just another WordPress site” (or equivalent) should be replaced in the subtitle. (A subtitle is not required.)

  • About Page

    You have a page on your site that explains the site's purpose. If this is a site about yourself, you should say who you are. An About page is also a good place to put contact info, social media profile links, etc. Whatever you would like a curious visitor to know. An About page looks a lot better with some sort of image — a photo of yourself, a picture you feel expresses the purpose of the site, etc.

  • Copyright / Creative Commons

    Once you feel informed about options for copyright or Creative Commons, you should add a notice of either your copyright or your chosen CC license to your About page and/or the footer of your site.

  • Menu

    You have a menu on your ePort that at least directs to your blog and to your About/Home Page.

  • Social Media

    If you use social media and want people to be able to connect with you that way, you have added links to your Home page and/or your About page.

  • Blog Posts Are Titled

    Your ePort posts have titles.

  • You Use Paragraphs

    Nobody wants to read big blocks of text online. In the text on your site, use paragraphs to help readers understand what information goes with what, to create a sense of pacing, and to make your site look welcoming.

  • Blog Posts Have Links

    You're writing on the internet — use one of the key tools of the internet: hyperlinks! Links are a powerful way to help readers understand where you are getting information from, places where they can get more information, etc.

  • No Raw URLs

    Raw URLs are like raw fish: you want to be careful with them! (This is a raw URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL. This is a cooked URL.) Most links on your site should be via text or image links, not raw URLs. Now and then you may want your audience to know what the web address itself is, so you will use one, but it should be rare.

  • Multimedia

    Like links, multimedia is one of the great tools of the internet. Add images, audio, and video to your site to make things more lively. Be thoughtful about how you do this, as it may affect how your site loads and there could be accessibility issues, but intentional, thoughtful use of media will bring your site to the next level.

  • Credit Where Credit Is Due

    If you get images, videos, etc. from elsewhere, first be sure that they are not protected by copyright or other licenses that would present them being shared, then be sure that the original source/creator is clearly credited. (For images, this is easiest either with a caption crediting the creator or with an image credit at the bottom of the page.)

  • Weird Formatting Is Fixed

    When you first create your site, there will probably be some weird formatting issues. It often happens during the design process. It's important to work to get the design working so that your audience is not confused or put off by unintentional weirdness. (We like intentional weirdness!)

Optional Process (especially if you're feeling stuck)

The following process is a great one for thinking about how to create your ePort. We are not doing these particular steps as official assignments, but if you are feeling stuck, try this:

  • Consider Yourself

    Create a tech self-portrait. This can be a piece of writing, an image, a series of images, a video, an audio file, a sculpture—whatever makes the most sense to you. It should represent who you are right now as someone who uses technology.

  • Explore What You Know

    Create a list of technologies that you are familiar with.

  • Explore What You Don't Know

    First, brainstorm questions you have about technology and about technologies that you are curious about.
    Then begin exploring. Where can you find information about what you don't know? Keep track of where and how you look for information.

  • List What You Want Your ePort to Do

    Before you create your ePort, you should know why you are doing so (beyond the fact that it is an assignment for the course). What do you want the ePort to be and do for you? How do you plan to use it?

  • Research

    Research tools that will achieve your goals for your ePort. Look for examples. Check out YouTube videos about the tool. Write down some positives and negatives to help you make an informed choice.

  • Start Your ePort

    Once you feel ready to commit to a tool (at least for a brief time), start building your ePort.

  • Assess Your ePort

    After you have been using your ePort for a little while, assess how it is going. Does it do what you want it to do? Will you continue to use it? Why or why not?

Example ePorts

For ePort Help

take a look at the tech textbook for lots of documentation
search YouTube or the internet for info
come visit the CoLab (Lamson 003)
Tech Textbook

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