Welcome to my ePortfolio
My name is Felix Medina and I am a fictitious character. I am currently studying invasive species at the University of Idaho. As I was growing up, I realized that my favorite places to be were outside examining the natural world around me. Thus, when it came time to decide on a direction for my future, I thought about looking into areas of study that would keep me out in the field—learning as much as possible about "mother earth" so to speak.
When I was a senior in high school in California, I started looking at various undergraduate school options. It was during this time that I discovered the Center for research on invasive species and small populations (UIDAHO CNR and AG SCI) at the University of Idaho. (http://projweb.cals.uidaho.edu/crissp/ ) The work they were doing in this center really caught my attention. Thus, I decided that I wanted to attend the University of Idaho for my undergraduate studies.
So here I am in Idaho. I have learned so much from my University of Idaho classes and fellow classmates as passionate as I about the subjects we are studying. I have had so many rich experiences while living in this small northwest town. I qualified for work study and have been working for CRISSP which has been really fascinating. I am currently assisting one of the graduate students with the data collection for their thesis. I can't wait to find out if their research hypothesis proves to be statistically conclusive.
When I was a senior in high school in California, I started looking at various undergraduate school options. It was during this time that I discovered the Center for research on invasive species and small populations (UIDAHO CNR and AG SCI) at the University of Idaho. (http://projweb.cals.uidaho.edu/crissp/ ) The work they were doing in this center really caught my attention. Thus, I decided that I wanted to attend the University of Idaho for my undergraduate studies.
So here I am in Idaho. I have learned so much from my University of Idaho classes and fellow classmates as passionate as I about the subjects we are studying. I have had so many rich experiences while living in this small northwest town. I qualified for work study and have been working for CRISSP which has been really fascinating. I am currently assisting one of the graduate students with the data collection for their thesis. I can't wait to find out if their research hypothesis proves to be statistically conclusive.
How has this ePortfolio been created?
Felix Medina is a fictitious character created for this ePortfolio demo. This ePortfolio was created using a product called Weebly (www.weebly.com). The work presented is gathered from multiple sites and is presented only for the purpose of showing others the power of asking students to create and maintain an ePortfolio online. Students engage more fully with ePortfolios when they are confident they own them from the outset. Institutions can let students have full ownership over their ePortfolios and still require students to demonstrate how they are meeting institutional expectations in their ePortfolios. An effective solution is to forefront the learning outcomes by making them part the ePortfolio’s navigation. Additionally, students can easily filter evidence for their ePortfolio using the powerful categorizing functions built into today's blogs.
As a student, why create an ePortfolio?
You learn a lot of skills that never get captured in your transcript or resume. Unfortunately, many of these skills are the very ones that interest employers and graduate schools. They want to know how you will fare when confronted with ill-defined problems, or when you work with a group of diverse people, across disciplines, cultures, time zones, and temperaments. How good are you at negotiating approaches that satisfy multiple stakeholders? Do you have the ability to assess and interpret information and communicate clearly to different audiences? These kinds of skills are not gained in one class, but rather across multiple classes in combination with your life outside of class. So they don’t come with a grade and they don’t show up on your transcript. But if you develop the habit of capturing different aspects of your learning, you will have evidence of these skills ready to demonstrate when the time comes.
Why should an institution ask students to create ePortfolios?
ePortfolios provide the perfect platform for authentic assessment. They challenge students to show what they can do along with what they know. They require students to pull together skills and knowledge from multiple areas, including their own life experiences. ePortfolios help students connect the dots and take responsibility for directing their own learning and they can provide students with a coherent picture of what the institution is looking for in its graduates. By displaying learning outcomes in the navigation ePortfolios encourage students to think about how they will meet institutional expectations and how their personal learning goals relate to outcomes of the institution.