The University of Arkansas at Monticello is a small open admissions university in southeast Arkansas with a developing writing center and a new Professional Writing major and minor.

ePortfolios Defined

• Collects selected works from the archive of an individual or group.

• Presumes development, often tracing it through specific works.

• Documents diversity and individuality and communicatesthis to others.

• Includes reflection from the composer and shares what’s valuable to those who shaped the ePortfolio (Yancey, 1996).

Example ePortfoliosfrom writing center

consultants

J.T. Henderson, UAM

Brontë Spencer, UAM

Falon Lantrip, UAM

Ana Ribero, DePaul University

Daniel Clarkson, DePaul University

Situating the Project

“Participating in the daily routine of a writing center exposes writing consultants to the demands of a professional workplace. When they are on duty, they commonly work without supervision, have to put the team before themselves, and hold each other accountable for a shared level of professionalism. In the process, they learn valuable personal lessons that are better encountered in the writing center than in a career where their livelihood is at stake.”

Kathleen Welsch“Shaping Careers in the Writing Center” (2008)

“Learning and teaching in the Thirdspace [has] helped me to understand the importance of professional development that encourages teachers to provide spaces within their classrooms for acknowledging and building upon students’ individual funds of knowledge and out-of-school literacies. In this way, we can empower them to become more active and socially engaged citizens and create opportunities for them to be collaborators and leaders.”

Susi Bostock

“Thirdspace: A Perspective on Professional Development” (2012)

Writing Center Professionalization

SchoolCareer

“In the electronic portfolio, the role of the expert is being widened, and expertise is being shared. It is a truism in computers and composition that students are often the experts and faculty often the students. It is likewise a defining feature of portfolios that they include reflection, the site where students demonstrate their expertise about their own work, where they assess their processes, their goals, their texts.”

Kathleen Blake Yancey“The Electronic Portfolio: Shifting Paradigms” (1996)

“Portfolios represent a different way of construing the nature of curriculum and instruction. They refocus the course from teacher to student. They call for maturity and independence on the students’ part and they make any course become a matter of student learning rather than teacher instruction.”

Alan C. Purves“Electronic Portfolios” (1996)

“By ‘going public’ with electronic portfolios, our students transformed their school-bound ideas of audience, fostered their own sense of community extending beyond the classroom, and renegotiated the traditional terms of ownership of student writing.”

Beverly C. Wall & Robert F. Peltier

“Going Public with Electronic Portfolios: Audience, Community, and the Terms of Student Ownership” (1996)

Becoming Professionalin the UAM Center for

Writing and Communication

“It’s not just about yourself growing as a professional. You’re growing with a group of people and you kind of intertwine with each other and I think that leads to the overall professionalism of the writing center…holding true to the values of what it means to be a consultant is really important.”

Falon Lantrip

UAM CWC consultant

“This is a professional job, I have a goal and a duty here, but then there’s also this feeling of, I’m still kind of like part of the school and the students…[it’s] a school-type environment where I’m still learning, but I still do feel like I have these responsibilities that make me feel more professional.”

Sarah Sayyar

UAM CWC consultant

“I hadn’t been a part of the writing center, I wouldn’t have fully have grasped the importance of crafting it [the ePortfolio]…This helps you to experiment with how you want to develop yourself professionally, without being thrown to the wolves. It gives you that solid foundation without risking a whole lot. I mean, there’s still risk, but there’s still that safe base.”

J.T. Henderson

UAM CWC consultant

ePortfolio Training Modulefor Writing Center Consultants

Sample ePortfolio Training Module

for Writing Center Consultants

Week 1

Write: What does it mean to be

“ professional” as a consultant? Give an

example of when you felt that way.

Discuss: What kinds of things go on in

your center/what kind of work do you

do in your center beyond tutoring?

Make: Find 3 quotes that are important

to you. Then, list 3 things on your

“ bucket list.” Finally, search for 3

images that you’re drawn to. Make a

short PowerPoint that uses them all and

explains the connections.

Week 3

Write: Scan your social media and other

online profiles. What story are you

telling about yourself?

Discuss: Look at sample ePortfolios and

discuss their visual design, and how this

creates identities.

Make: Go on a color scavenger hunt,

either IRL with your camera, or on the

web. Use an app like paletton.com to

develop a color scheme. Then, have a

coworker take some headshots and

action shots of you for your ePortfolio.

Week 2

Write: Brainstorm key things you value as

a consultant, fellow student, and fellow

writer.

Discuss: Discuss the mission/vision of

your writing center and how it connects

to the list you just made.

Make: Make a list of content (papers,

honors, internships, etc.) you’d like to

highlight in your ePortfolio. Then, using

an app like balsamiq.com create a

wireframe. Decide where the content will

go and how it will connect.

Week 4

Write: Brainstorm ideas for controlling

metaphors.

Discuss: Discuss potential audiences for

ePortfolios. Think of what they might

make of your controlling metaphor and

how you might help them understand it.

Make: Make an account with a free

web-based platform. Create a splash

page that introduces your controlling

metaphor, and lay out initial design

choices.

Week 5

Write: Pair up and look at a colleague’s

ePortfolio in process. Critically “ read” it,

both for usability and for the professional

identity it creates. Write your

interpretations and share them.

Discuss: Work with your colleagues to

develop a space where the ePortfolios

can be showcased, IRL and virtually.

Make: Continue working on ePortfolios.

Finalize coherent design and place your

chosen content in meaningful ways.

Week 6

Write: Reflect on what story your

finished ePortfolio tells about you.

Discuss: Workshop and polish

ePortfolios. Finalize showcase plans.

Make: Introduce the ePortfolio project

for someone else. Make sure it

highlights the purpose, audience, and

context of the project, and offers some

specific how-tos and resources. Compile

the most useful info into an instructional

handout to accompany the showcase.

Pair the sample module with the suggested readings to help

your consultants create ePortfolios that represent their growth

as professionals, both inside and outside the writing center.

Thank you, and feel free to share your ePortfolio creations!

−Julie & Leigh

Julie Plattplatt@uamont.edu@aristotlejulep

Leigh Grazianograziano@uamont.edu