Important Dates

• September 25: Portfolio Due Today
• October 2: Portfolio Deadline (end of grace period, no work accepted after 11:59 PM)

Canvas Documentation

• How do I submit an online assignment?
• How will I know when my Instructor has graded my Assignment?

Submitting Your Project

Follow these instructions to upload your work, add the reflection comments, and submit your work.

1. Go to our course in Canvas.
2. Choose Assignments from the left sidebar.
3. Choose "Project 2: Build a Portfolio."
4. Click the big Submit Assignment button on the upper right. You’ll see this submission form:
   
5. Paste the URL to the front page of your portfolio in the Website URL box.
6. Type your reflection comments in the Comments… box (indicated by the orange arrow):
   • Tell me what kind of portfolio you are working on (e.g. professional writer, sportscaster).
   • Tell me what grade you aimed for (e.g., I aimed for a B+ by including headings and …..).
   • Tell me anything else you want me to know before I grade your project.
7. Click the Submit Assignment button, and your work will beturned in.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• Turn in Project 2 by 11:59PM, if possible. Otherwise, take advantage of the grace period.
• Have a fun weekend!

For Monday’s session (9/28), do the following before class:

• Read Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer and be ready to apply what you read about the modes of communication in class.

I will use the 3844 Portfolio Demo site on Blogs@VT to provide examples.

Portfolio Rubric

The rubric for the assignment is available in Canvas on the Project 2 Assignment page.

Designing Pages for Your Work

• Review the Ten Design Tips, which you should apply as you build the pages (and other resources) for your site. Alexis’s Identity Statement demonstrates the value of emphasizing only a few words in your text.

• Add short descriptions of what your work is about and link to it, like this example on Melody Warnick’s site. Avoid using links only, as the content no longer stands out (see Tom Johnson’s Podcast page).

• Add clear captions if you have a photo gallery page. Once you have your images uploaded, here’s how to add a gallery:

  1. Go to the backend page where you want it to appear.
  2. Choose the Add Media button (above the toolbar).
  3. Choose Create Gallery in the left sidebar.
  4. Click the images you want to add (a checkbox will appear as you choose them).
  5. Add captions that tell readers what they are looking at.
  6. Click the Create a New Gallery button in the lower right corner.
  7. Change any setting you like in the right sidebar.
  8. Click Insert Gallery to add your gallery to your page.

• Add thumbnail images with short descriptions for any highly visual work you want to share. Look at Dave Zirin’s books page and Will DeBoer’s Writing Samples page for examples. You can take a screenshot of a web page or article to create thumbnails.

• Use headings to organize your examples and make the page easy to navigate, like in this example from Hannah Carlson’s portfolio.

• Use a Works Cited/Bibliography style for your sample if you are working on an academic portfolio, like this example from Rebecca K. Miller’s portfolio. Note is visual thumbnails can also work for an academic portfolio. Think about your audience as you decide.

In-Class Work

Use the content that you brought today to work on the page(s) for your portfolio. Alternately, you can work on some other part of your portfolio.

In-Class Writing

Submit your site link and related information to the "Project 2 Peer Review" Discussion in Canvas. Choose the discussion group for your class section, and follow the instructions in Canvas.

You can continue working on your site after you have posted your link for the peer review. You can also edit your post later if something changes.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "Project 2 Peer Review" Discussion Reply in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 11:59 PM Tuesday (9/22). If you do not submit your draft by the end of the grace period, you will not receive peer feedback.

For Wednesday’s session (9/23), do the following before class:

• Continue working on your site. Have as much of the content and design ready to share in class for peer review. We will use the Peer Review tools in the Discussions Canvas.

For Friday’s session (9/24), do the following before class:

• We’ll go over how to turn in your Project, and you will have additional time in class to work on your portfolios.

I will use the 3844 Portfolio Demo site on Blogs@VT to provide examples.

Required Portfolio Contents

• Posts: You will write at least two posts on topics related to your career goals and portfolio topic. You can choose relevant topics of your own, but there are some blog post topics if you need some ideas.
• Pages: You will write the following:
  • an about page, where you tell visitors about yourself. You can revise your identity statement for this page.
  • a site information page (like a colophon in a book), where you tell us about the tools you used and the design decisions you made. Be sure that you give credit for any resources (like an image) that you use.
  • pages necessary for your portfolio, such as pages for your creative works or essays you have written.

Questions to Address

• Will we be uploading documents (pdf) to showcase previous projects/accomplishments or will those be links? (Both? Depends upon your goals. Framing the materials in your portfolio is a good idea.)

• How do you get a social media link in the social media link section? Like at the top corner, the kind that has an icon of the social media to click on and link to the site? (The exact solution depends upon your theme. Jetpack or other social media plugins can help.)

• How do you remove pages from sidebar? (Appearances –> Widgets, and drag it out)

• How do you get rid of the “Leave a Reply” option taking up the bottom of my page? (Turn off comments. Check Settings –> Discussions, and also turn off comments by Quick Editing the page.)

• My menus aren’t showing up the way I set them. (You probably need to check a box on the Appearances –> Menus page that says either Main Navigation or Primary Menu.)

Using Plugins

• Go to the Plugins tab on the left to see the tools that are available.
  • Browse the list and try any that are interesting to you.
  • Try the Visit plugin site link for more information on them.
  • Avoid any that require a premium ($$$) upgrade.
• Consider adding the JetPack plugin if you want to include a Contact Form on your site. It requires a little work to set up, but offers some useful options.

In-Class Writing

Go to Quizzes in Canvas and choose the "Portfolio Plugins" quiz to let me know what you have done so far and outline what you still have to do.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "Portfolio Plugins" quiz in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5 PM Sunday (9/20).
• Look for your name in the "List of Authors" in the left sidebar of the class megablog. Click it and then click on the Read More link (if there is one). If your name is missing or the links don’t work, please email me the link to your portfolio and tell me what’s broken.

For Monday’s session (9/21), do the following before class:

• Moving this to 9/30 Read Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer so that you are familiar with the terms we’re using in class as we discuss multimodal projects and how the modes of communication apply to your portfolio site.
• Have some content that you want to include in your portfolios, like PDFs of essays, videos you’ve made, poems you’ve written, etc.
• Review the Ten Design Tips, which we will apply as we talk about building pages and resources for your site.

For Wednesday’s session (9/23), do the following before class:

• Be ready to share your portfolio in class for peer review. We will use the Peer Review tools in Canvas.

Today we’re diving into WordPress and learning about some of the features built into the publishing tools. By the end of today’s session, you should have created a WordPress site.

Creating Your Site

If you want to create a blog on a site other than Blogs@VT, hop to it. You are free to work at your own pace. Otherwise, follow along as we complete these tasks:

1. Remember that your blog will be public, so think of a URL and a professional name that you can share with the world.
2. Choose one of the following options, depending upon whether you have used WordPress.com before:
   • If you have never used Blogs@VT before, sign up for your own blog.
     • Enter a Username and Email address. Leave "Gimme a site" marked. Click the Next button.
     • Choose the Site Name (which cannot be changed) and Site Title. Leave everything else at the defaults. Click the Signup button.
     • Go to your vt.edu email address, find the activation email, and click the link inside to finish setting up your blog.
   • If you have used Blogs@VT before, log in.
     • Click My Sites at the top left side of the page.
     • Click the "Create a New Site" link.
     • Choose the Site Name (which cannot be changed) and Site Title. Leave everything else at the defaults. Click the Signup button.

Setting Up the Basics for Your Site

• Go to the Users tab on the left and then choose My Profile to update your profile and login information. You can change the way that your name is listed with each post, for instance. You can also change your password on this page.
• Go through the Settings tab and update the information. In particular, be sure that you
  • Go to the General setting and fix the timezone. You can also change the Tagline here.
  • Go to the Discussion setting and decide when you want the site to email you.
• Don’t worry about the appearance of your site for now. We’ll work on that Wednesday.

Creating Your First Page

• Temporarily change the sidebar so you can get to your page easily later:
  • Go to the Appearances tab on the left and then choose Widgets.
  • Under Available Widgets (on the left), find Pages and drag it into the Widget Area.
  • Click the Save button. Now your Pages will show up in the sidebar. We’ll remove this later and create Menus.
• Create your Site Information Page:
  • Go to the Pages tab on the left and then choose Add New.
  • For the "Enter title here" field, use the title "Site Information." You will be able to change it later.
  • Click on the Text tab if you want to code your own HTML.
  • In the body, tell readers about the name and tagline you have chosen for your blog, any other decisions you made, and anything you are considering or hoping to do. This is just a first draft. You will update the page later.
  • Click the Publish button in the right sidebar to save your page and make it live.
  • Go to your blog’s homepage, and click the link to your Site Information page in the sidebar to check your work.

In-Class Writing

Go to Quizzes in Canvas and choose the "WordPress Site Address" quiz to post the address of your WordPress site. I will use the link to check that you have your blog created, and to set up a megablog (sometimes called a motherblog) that includes everyone’s updates.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "WordPress Site Address" quiz in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5 PM Tuesday (9/15).

For Wednesday’s session (9/16), do the following before class:

• Outline your site, either on paper or using something like Word. Account for the following in your outline:
  • The menus you want to have, and what kinds of information will go under them.
  • What will appear on your homepage (Will it be static or changing? Lots of images or lots of words?)
  • What artifacts of your work/qualifications do you want to include?
  • Features you saw on the sites you gathered as examples.
• Continue taking (or finding) photos you can use to illustrate your blog. We’ll go over how to upload and insert images on Wednesday.
• If you need help, try the WordPress Documentation and FAQs. Try contacting 4Help if you need additional help outside of class. Also remember that you can use the step-by-step WordPress Tutorials & Training at Lynda.com.

For Friday’s session (9/18), do the following before class:

• Have whatever you need with you to spend most of the class period working on your blog.

For Monday’s session (9/21), do the following before class:

• Read Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer so that you are familiar with the terms we’re using in class as we discuss multimodal projects and how the modes of communication apply to your portfolio site.

Project 2 Assignment

We will go over the assignment for the second project, Building a Portfolio, and talk about the tools that are available for the assignment: a Blogs@VT site (recommended), a WordPress.com blog, or a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Portfolio Examples

We’ll get back into the same groups we used on Wednesday and look at one site from each of these collections:

• eP@VT Gallery
• Secondary English Education
• English Department
• Additional Electronic Portfolios

As a group, analyze the positives and negatives, reflecting on the information we collected about good websites on Wednesday:

• 10:10 What Makes a Website Good?
• 11:15 What Makes a Website Good?

Be prepared to share three things you like about the portfolio your group examines and one thing you would change.

In-Class Writing

Go to Discussions in Canvas and choose the "Portfolios to Emulate" discussion. Follow the instructions to share the three sites you found for homework. You will make one post with your three site and then at least one reply to someone else.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "Portfolios to Emulate" discussion posts in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5 PM Sunday (9/13). Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Sunday. If your holiday preparations will be in conflict, please talk to me before you leave the classroom today.

For Monday’s session (9/14), do the following before class:

• Read through the assignment for the second project so that you understand the requirements.
• We will work on setting up the WordPress sites on Monday, so begin thinking about a name and the kind of design you would like for your site. Think about what will be appropriate for your career goals.
• Begin taking (or finding) photos you can use to illustrate your blog.
  • You can use your identity image for your About page, but you will need more images.
  • Take some photos (or identify photos you have already taken) that will work with the name and design you are thinking of and upload them to some place like Flickr or Instagram so you can get to them in the classroom.
  • If you find images that you did not take, ensure that they are licensed for your use and keep track of where you found them.
• Note that by the end of Monday’s session, you should have a blog set up.

Important Dates

• September 23: Portfolio Peer Review
• September 25: Portfolio Due Date
• October 2: Portfolio Deadline (end of grace period, no work accepted after 11:59 PM)

Goals

write and design web content, use digital images (and if desired, video and audio), and recognize basic HTML and CSS syntax.

explore how linguistic text (words), images, and layout combine to communicate with an audience.

create something you can use as you enter the job market or pursue additional educational opportunities.

The Project Assignment

You will design and create an academic (or professional) portfolio where you will publish the work that you do for this course and other course you have and will take at Virginia Tech. You will write and design text for online presentation, use digital images (and if desired, video and audio), and use basic HTML and CSS syntax.

You’ll create your web portfolio using WordPress, which will provide the basic tools you need so that you can focus on your multimodal design and learning the basics of HTML and CSS coding.

Step-by-Step Details

Step 1: Create a WordPress blog and a backup plan
Setup a Blogs@VT (recommended) site, a WordPress.com blog, or a self-hosted WordPress blog for your Web Portfolio. Realize that your blog will be a public site, so anyone on the Internet can read it. Make wise, professional choices about naming your site and the information you will display.

Decide on a backup plan for yourself. The easiest option is to copy and paste things out into files on your Google Drive, a flash drive, or your own computer. Dropbox works too. You can also go to Tools on the left and then Export to download your content as an XML file.

Step 2: Set your goals for the project.
You have the opportunity to aim for the grade you want to earn for the projects in this class. The options below outline what you need to do for the grade you want to receive. No one aims for a D or an F, so I have not included any details for below-average work. If you really want a D, just put in minimal effort and do sloppy work.

Complete the B-level project and then use unique strategies and details that increase the effectiveness and impact of the site, such as posting additional, relevant resources, using multiple modes of communication effectively, and/or demonstrating excellent design decisions. Your site should have no errors in image editing, grammar, spelling, style, punctuation, mechanics, linking, or formatting.

Complete the C-level project and then use design elements (like menus, widgets, headings, layout, etc.) to make your project visually appealing and easy to read and navigate. Your site should have no more than two or three minor errors in image editing, grammar, spelling, style, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and/or formatting.

Create a WordPress portfolio site, appropriate for an academic and/or professional audience, including the required posts and pages listed below. Include reflection comments when you submit your project. Your site should be complete, well-written, and include no more than five errors in image editing, grammar, spelling, style, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and/or formatting.

Warning! No grade is guaranteed.
Make sure your project is error-free, fully-developed, and ready to share with the intended audiences. Any work that is incomplete or that contains multiple errors will not earn an A or an A-.

For instance, say the writer aimed for a B and used design elements to make the project visually appealing, but the finished text was full of typos and the image was blurry. The project earns a C rather than a B.

Step 3: Customize your blog
Use the tools within WordPress to customize your site so that it represents you. You need to complete the following tasks: 

1. Choose a Theme for your blog (under the Appearance tab on the left).
2. Use the Widgets (also under the Appearance tab on the left) to customize your sidebar(s), header, and footer (as applicable). 
3. Use Menus (again under the Appearance tab on the left) to set up the menus for your site.

If you need help, try the WordPress Documentation and FAQs. Try contacting 4Help if you need additional help outside of class. Also remember that you can use the step-by-step WordPress Tutorials & Training at Lynda.com.

Step 4: Set-up your content
You will write outline the sections required for your site, after looking at example sites and thinking about your goals. At a minimum, you will include the following content for your site:

• Posts: You will write at least two posts on topics related to your career goals and portfolio topic. Much in-class writing going forward will be done in blog posts. By the end of the term you should have a robust blog as part of your site. By the due date, however, you only need two.
• Pages: You will write the following:
  • an about page, where you tell visitors about yourself. You can revise your identity statement for this page.
  • a site information page (like a colophon in a book), where you tell us about the tools you used and the design decisions you made. Be sure that you give credit for any resources (like an image) that you use.
  • pages necessary for your portfolio, such as pages for your creative works or essays you have written.

Step 5: Submit your project.
When you are finished with the project, you will upload your project file in the Assignment tool on Canvas. Details on how to submit your work will be included in the post for the due date (September 25).

You will use the Comment section for reflection on your project. In this section you will tell me the following:

• your intended audience and purpose.
• the grade that you have aimed for.
• how well you reached your goals.
• any other information I need to know to understand the work you did on your project.

Be sure that you follow the instructions, include the relevant information, and proofread your memo. If you skip adding the Comment, you lower your grade on the project. Remember that there are no rewrites or revisions after work is graded.

Examples for Inspiration

• eP@VT Gallery
• Secondary English Education
• English Department
• Additional Electronic Portfolios