Digital Portfolios
As a post-secondary learner, you may be required or choose to create a digital portfolio to showcase your work. A digital portfolio, or ePortfolio, is a digital collection of artifacts to document learning, reflections, and achievement over time. As a learner, you decide what artifacts are included in your digital portfolio, how it is designed, and who can view it. Unlike online courses in your institution's L.M.S., your digital portfolio is your property, so you can take it with you into your future career.
Digital portfolios offer many benefits, including (Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres et al., 2018):
- By recording your learning regularly, you are able to show your growth as a learner and a professional over time.
- Digital portfolios allow you to show and reflect on your learning process. While other assignments focus on the final product, a digital portfolio allows you to record reflections and weekly learnings and to document the changes in your learning and practice over time.
- The process of considering the content to include and the best way to present it is itself a learning experience. By consolidating your learning from different course activities and assignments and applying your learning to your past experience, present personal goals, and future practice, you are engaging in meaningful lifelong learning.
- Digital portfolios provide a record of your learning to present in applications for future study programs or employment.
There are three main types of digital portfolios (University of Waterloo, n.d.):
- Assessment Digital Portfolios: the audience is internal to the institution, and the goal is to support institutional outcomes assessment.
- Learning Digital Portfolios: the audience is learners themselves, and the goal is to help learners examine and reflect on their learning.
- Career/Transfer Digital Portfolios: the audience is external, and the goal is to provide learners with a tool for showcasing their achievements to employers or transfer institutions.
Digital portfolios have both professional and personal benefits (The Learning Portal, n.d.):
Image 4.11
Source: eCampus Ontario
Description: Lise shown first wearing professional attire and then wearing casual clothing. Each version of Lise is paired with a list of text. First there are professional benefits, as follows: your portfolio acts as a persuasive self-marketing tool; it demonstrates evidence of your qualification and accomplishments in a captivating way; and it strengthens and employer’s image of your personal brand and impresses upon them what you have to offer. Second, there are personal benefits, as follows: by having all your documentation in one convenient place, you are able to keep better track of your information and update is as necessary, and quickly provide employers with information; and you can use your portfolio to prepare for interviews. Reviewing the information included in your portfolio will help you identify supporting examples when answering questions.
Portfolio Tools
There are various digital portfolio tools available, often for free.
Read more about digital portfolios (University of Waterloo)!
3D Printing
You may have an assignment that requires you to create a 3D model or prototype. 3D printing allows you to design and produce your own prototype or model and test your ideas in a tangible way. 3D printing is used in various fields, including engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, healthcare, automotive, and robotics. In many industries, 3D printing has become standard practice because prototypes allow companies to test their design in the “real-world” environment. It is easier to identify potential problems and prevent costly mistakes down the road (better products) (Shields, 2022). Today 3D printing, or additive processing for manufacturing, has become a standard.
Check out this video to see how 3D printing works!
Video 4.6
Source: PBSoffbook. (2013, February 28). Will 3D Printing Change the World? | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5AZzOw7FwA
Length: 7:25
You can explore examples of 3D printing:
Thinking about digital portfolios and 3D printing…
- When might you use digital portfolios as a post-secondary learner or professional?
- When might you use 3D printing as a post-secondary learner or professional?
- Who or what can support you in creating a digital portfolio or using 3D printing?
Design Thinking
As the world is changing at an accelerated rate, organizations look for solutions to grow with their customers or users, to do new things in better ways to improve their practices, retain and grow their customers, and expand their business.
Innovation is a must for these organizations. Design thinking is one of several approaches to innovation and is a process for creative problem solving. Design thinking has a human-centred core. It encourages organizations to focus on the people they are creating for, which in turn leads to better products, services, and processes. The design thinking framework helps inspire creative thinking and strategies that lead designers to create user-friendly products that solve real problems.
There are five stages to the design thinking process, which include empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. They are not always completed in a linear fashion. They can be done in any order and then redone as needed. Different stages might spark new ideas or showcase new findings in the user journey that will inspire new iterations of phases that have already been completed (Shields, 2022).
Image 4.12
Source: iStock
Description: A representation of cyclical nature of the “design thinking process” with five steps shown in a circular formation with an arrow pointing from one step of the process to the next. The steps are empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. An explanation of each step is included below.
Empathize
Imagine what the customer might be thinking or feeling, what needs they may have, and what their desires are. Observe the customer, interview the customer, and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. How do they want this product to work?
Define
Designers will analyze their observations completed throughout the empathy stage and work on synthesizing that information. Forming a problem statement that is succinct is an important part of this phase that ensures a human-centred approach by focusing on the end-user. A problem statement is important to a Design Thinking project because it will guide you and your team and provide a focus on the specific
Ideate
The solution-finding stage is where the team comes together to brainstorm creative solutions to solve the defined problem(s). The goal is to generate a large number of ideas — ideas that potentially inspire newer, better ideas — that the team can then evaluate and reduce into the best, most practical, and innovative ones.
Prototype
Without testing a new idea, designers would have a tough time actually solving the problem comprehensively. At this stage, small-scale, inexpensive versions of the product are required. This sets the stage for decision-making conversations around what works and what doesn’t. Prototypes can be sketches, models, or digital renders of an idea.
Test
Gather feedback from real users. Because design thinking is iterative, many designers roll out multiple prototypes to test different change factors within their idea. Designers should expect to go through a series of changes, edits, and refinements during the testing stage.
Check out this video to learn more about the design thinking process! (As you watch the video, think about how digital tools and skills can support each stage of the process.)
Video 4.7
Source: InVision. (2020, January 29). 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySx-S5FcCI
Length: 3:28
Activity
Thinking about the digital creation skills you may need as a post-secondary learner…
- Have you ever used digital creation tools/apps before?
- Which digital creation tools/apps might you need to use in your post-secondary coursework?
- Where can you access digital creation tools/apps and technical support in your post-secondary institution?
Learn More!
The Learning Portal. (n.d.). 3D Printing. College Libraries Ontario. https://tlp-lpa.ca/digital-skills/3d-printing
The Learning Portal. (n.d.). Tech Tools. College Libraries Ontario. https://tlp-lpa.ca/learning-online/tech-tools/