One of the critical success factors in any digital portfolio initiative is the provision of adequate support for students. Generally, this support needs to cover two overarching areas: technical and reflective. It’s a good idea to draw on any technical support resources at your institution to help with the initial stages of the portfolio setup when students are likely to have the most difficulty. Colleagues in learning and/or IT support can be a valuable source of support if you bring them in on the project at the planning stages. In addition, if you choose WordPress for your portfolio project, you will find a bank of help videos on the Plan section of this site.

Another area in which students tend to require support is reflective writing. Reflective writing is a skill that can be developed with practice but to get the best results it requires ongoing support. To help provide the necessary scaffolds, it’s a good idea to build checkpoints into the projects, during which time you will review the work the student has done and provide feedback on the commentaries they have written.

Below is a series of resources to help get you started.