Technical colleges and their faculties produce bright, motivated and skilled students ready to enter a trade or transition to a larger university. A lot of hard work goes into a technical college certification, both inside and outside the classroom. ePortfolios can help students collect, organize, and showcase this work, while administrators can harness an ePortfolio's convenient features for efficient assessments and more.
Learn more about the advantages of using ePortfolios at a technical college.
Benefits of ePortfolios for Technical Colleges
ePortfolios allow individuals and organizations to create a web-based portfolio in a website-like format. These online portfolios are easy to share via link or integrated share buttons, and users can send and access them across devices for greater availability. ePortfolios can have one or several components, pages, and data types.
These digital portfolios are especially useful in a technical college setting. For example, a design student can upload images or renderings of each design they've completed over the term. By the end of their program, they'll have a cohesive portfolio that they can present during job placement or for university admissions programs. Similarly, a communications major will have an easy-to-read file of all their reports, essays, research projects, and arguments throughout their education. Later, they can use these ePortfolios for apprenticeships, internship applications, and more.
Technical college ePortfolios are:
- Accessible: Unlike file folders or paper portfolios, ePortfolios are accessible from anywhere, at any time and on nearly any device, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Students and administrators will be able to view their work or assessments from any location with the utmost convenience.
- Scalable: Adding more information to an ePortfolio is simple and fast. As students complete new projects, submit academic work, or finalize course requirements, they can update their ePortfolio with limitless new data.
- Customized: ePortfolios can showcase everything from text files, like essays, research, or testimonials, to visual content, like videos, images, and artwork. This adaptability is ideal for technical education environments, where each student's goals and requirements differ across certification programs.
- Versatile: ePortfolios aren't just for students — teachers, academic advisors, and school administrators can use them to showcase project ideas, demonstrate course area competency, and more.
ePortfolios for technical colleges present an innovative way to demonstrate how a student has grasped the course material. These online portfolios can even document technical skills a student learned and act as a resume.
How to Use ePortfolios
Students and administrators can use ePortfolios for multiple purposes during and beyond the school term.
Display Previous Work
The ability to showcase previous work is critical across industries, especially for students submitting new applications or those applying to competitive positions.
With ePortfolios, web designers can link directly to the sites they've built, coders can link to the code programs they've designed, and those studying the arts can send easy-click links to a complete collection of their works across mediums.
Demonstrate Competency
Students can use ePortfolios to demonstrate competency in their area of study. Users can include several things in their portfolios, like:
- Demonstrations of their foundational knowledge on a subject from previous studies.
- Workshops and peer-to-peer feedback to demonstrate growth and the ability to understand a subject.
- Hands-on, real-world examples of the principles learned in coursework.
Faculty can also use ePortfolios to demonstrate their own competency inside the classroom. Their scalable, digital format allows for instant feedback that administrators can easily compile, organize, and take action on. On a larger scale, school boards and districts can use data from ePortfolio evaluations to generate and compare reports for things like teacher licensure and funding.
Fulfill Academic Requirements
Some courses or certifications might require students to collect, analyze, and present what they have studied, researched, or completed throughout the term. ePortfolios are a simpler alternative to hefty binders, and students can add to or adjust the content once the course has finished.
The digital nature of this portfolio method also means students can submit their ePortfolio when complete without turning in any physical documents, which is perfect for online-based programs and distance learning.
Capture What Matters
The more a portfolio can tell a student's story, the better that portfolio will work in their favor. An ePortfolio provides a single space to demonstrate all the facets that make your students and administrators unique — who they are, what they value, what experience they bring to the table, their special goals, and any niche industry interests.
Online portfolios for technical colleges showcase sides of an individual that might not otherwise have an opportunity to shine inside the classroom, such as:
- Apprenticeships and internships: Students are more than the knowledge they learn from homework, research, and in-class study. Internship and apprenticeship experiences are also highly desirable in competitive fields, provide hands-on experience to diversify industry knowledge, and train students in real time. ePortfolios let students showcase their volunteer work and previous positions to show how they're related to the coursework they're studying.
- Extracurricular clubs and teams: Sports teams, art clubs, and hobby groups help students build unique and valuable skills to complement their certification program. Including information about these extracurricular activities shows the personality behind the portfolio.
- Skills and interests: Creative projects, hobbies, spoken languages, special interests, and passions all shape a student. These extracurricular interests explain why they're taking the courses they're taking and could provide valuable insight for administrators and prospective employers about the growing workforce and their educational goals.
- Real-world experience: Job experience, workshop participation, and travel-study opportunities are ideal for display on ePortfolios. The digital format supports text explaining the opportunity, photos, and other diverse materials. Students can use these features to show a direct correlation to other areas of their portfolio and paint a complete picture of their experiences and interests.
Students can also use their ePortfolio to gather formal evaluation results and recommendations from industry professionals, managers, and teachers to support their job search and show a complete example of their abilities.
Request a Demo From Watermark Today
You already know your students are capable of hard work and high achievements inside the classroom — ePortfolios are the perfect way to collect those achievements and show how they connect to all other areas of a student's life, including their talents, interests, and outside experiences.
Community and technical schools provide strong foundations for today's workforce, and Watermark has the digital solutions you need to lift up your technical college's administration and students. We've built solutions that help your team with everything from course evaluations and faculty success to student learning and educational planning or assessment projects.
Fill out our online contact form today to request a demonstration of Watermark's ePortfolio solution, Student Learning & Licensure, or check out the Watermark blog and resource hub for more helpful insights.
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