May 2022 update: Portfolium will be undergoing changes that will change how you experience and interact with Portfolium in 2023. Stay tuned to find out how these changes will help you make the most of your time at UTS. Meanwhile, you can continue to build your personal digital portfolios with Portfolium.
Amara Atif coordinates IS Value Creation Studio, a first-year studio subject in FEIT. In this subject, students identify emerging contemporary challenges in cities and businesses and collaborate to design systems to address these challenges. In Autumn 2021, it was redesigned to include the development of a digital portfolio.
Adding an agile flair
The design of this subject reflects Amara’s desire to model aspects of Agile methodology – a common collaborative approach in industry. She wants to provide her students with opportunities to experience this approach before they formally enter the industry.
Using design thinking principles embedded in an agile approach, students were guided through the development of their prototype design, which they documented in a digital portfolio. The digital portfolio allowed students to demonstrate that they have been involved in the completion of key deliverables or tasks in their teams.
‘Sprints’, a time-boxed period of 2-4 weeks, are a common feature of an agile approach. For each sprint, a set of design deliverables would be completed, as teams steadily worked towards a prototype design. In their teams, students pooled their knowledge and collaborated on deliverables, then produced their own individual take on these deliverables.
The subject culminated with a formal showcase in Week 12 where students presented their final design, as a group.
Assessing learning with a digital portfolio
In this subject, the digital portfolio is an authentic assessment tool, and provided opportunities for both formative and summative assessment. Through the collection of the student’s work, in the form of project deliverables (the artefacts), students reflect on their learning, and self-assess their understanding of the concepts they learnt in that semester. Feedback was offered from peers and Amara in each sprint, before the final digital portfolio was formally assessed by Amara.
In Autumn 2021, students decided collectively in teams on a free digital portfolio tool or platform to store, document and showcase their final design. For example, they could use WordPress, Canva, Squarespace, Wix, or any other free third-party platform to host their digital portfolios. In Spring 2021, as Portfolium became the official digital portfolio platform for UTS, students were asked to use this platform instead.
Portfolium was used to store arfefacts (collection), as a workspace (to document the design and learning process), and as a showcase (a product).
Amara embedded the use of Portfolium firmly in the subject. She introduced the platform in Week 1 and shared a selection of public Portfolium profiles and projects to help students envisage how they could develop their own versions. However, she did not ask students to create or edit their Portfolium profile until Sprint 1 (Weeks 2 -5). As students created their deliverables for each sprint, she carefully introduced a Portfolium-specific task which guided them to store and document their progress in Portfolium.
The ability to receive and apply feedback, as well as to self-reflect, are important aspects in the development of digital portfolios. To practice this, the cohort came together for ‘stand-up meetings’ to share and actively reflect on their group’s progress. Progress of the deliverables was shared while peers provided feedback that could be incorporated into the final design.
A positive experience
I think Portfolium looked overwhelming in the beginning. But I think starting small, even just setting up your account descriptions and tags, and then adding projects made it much easier to work with.
Student feedback
One feature that I do really like, is that when I share a document, my team is updated quickly, and collaboration is made very easily.
Student feedback
Portfolium was quite similar to LinkedIn, and I look forward to building my portfolio throughout my degree.
Student feedback
“Integration of Portfolium with Canvas can help us studio facilitators to verify the artefacts and deliverables of our students,” explained Amara. “And then students can use the verified projects as proof of their skills when seeking employment.”
After a positive experience of using Portfolium in Spring 2021, Amara is looking forward to using it in the next iteration of this subject.