This presentation explores the benefit of implementing single-document digital portfolios in a first-year writing course. I position these portfolios as an accessible, flexible middle ground between traditional paper portfolios and fully online electronic portfolios.

1. Taking a
Bite
in the
Chris Friend
(@chris_friend)
Middle
University of
Central Florida

2. Debate Over
Delivery
Student
Portfolio

3. thin k they
What Students ^Know

4. Features of Word*
*or pretty much any document editor these days
• Automated page numbering
• Automated tables of contents
• Formatting styles
• Comments & Document metadata
• Hyperlinks
• Master Documents

5. 5 Skills
Students
Would
Learn

6. Rely on styles.

7. Consistency

8. Machine-
readability

9. Track sources.
• External References
• Peer contributions

10. What we
could see

12. [The image of peer-reviewed work with
comments from multiple students has been
omitted from this copy of the presentation
out of respect for the students’ privacy.]
Image showed multi-colored commentary
and highlighted changes to emphasize the
conversation around—and work behind—the
text, rather than only the text itself.

13. Use hyperlinks.

14. sources (Coleman 383).
Within a
Coleman, Anita. "Instruments of Cognition: Use
document
of Citations and Web Links in Online Teaching
Materials." Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology. 56.4
(2005): 382-392. Web.
To other
documents

15. Add metadata.

16. Possible Tags
• Authors’ contact info
• Project details
• Keywords

17. What if…?

18. Convert files.

20. 1. Rely on styles
2. Track sources
3. Use hyperlinks
4. Add metadata
5. Convert files

21. The Byte
in the
Middle

22. Thank You
Chris Friend (@chris_friend)
University of Central Florida

23. Gratitude: Visual
Credits
• Color palette (“undecided”) by Tzadkiel on colourlovers.com
• Title slide image (“C is for Coronary”) by somegeekintn on Flickr
• File cabinet & address bar courtesy Microsoft
• Hammer and bent nail courtesy Microsoft
• Metal letterpress by nutmeg66 on Flickr
• Chips and silicon courtesy of Microsoft
• Recycle tag courtesy Microsoft
• Notes, Pages, and Photos app icons from Apple; PDF icon from Adobe,
Word icon from Microsoft, and OpenOffice icon from Apache. All were
used completely without permission. Oops.
• Cookie bite from Lara604 on Flickr