Portfolio Phase 1 Self-Assessment & Goals

The direction of my portfolio changed drastically after our group session where I was able to see examples from fellow students of what Diane would like to see within our portfolios. I spent the majority of the week working through Wix's various capabilities and limitations to determine the best way to organize my assignments, ongoing reflections, and capstone project. Up until now, I had followed Diane's tips for organizing assignments in Google Drive, but I found that carrying each of those over to a website portfolio was more difficult than I had originally anticipated and took a great deal more time as a result.

For example, I had initially planned on organizing my assignments within sections of a page on my site, I had designed 6 of my assignments on a page before I realized I couldn't create categories to distinguish and easily access different assignments. I changed course to use Wix's Blog feature, which, after I oriented myself and began publishing my assignments, I realized I didn't have the ability to determine the order in which they appear. I can put them in categories, but the most recent entries will appear first, meaning I have to publish my assignments in reverse order in order to get them to appear reverse chronologically on the site. This realization also demonstrated the value of leaving my posts in draft form, which caused me to develop a practice of working on something, saving it, and then revisiting it before publishing. This is a shift from my previous practice of completing, editing and submitting an assignment in one longer block of time.

Like many elements of the program so far, these assignments are causing me to build new habits and practices and that process takes time. I'm hoping to build more efficient practices of integrating assignments and other elements into my portfolio over the coming months. My time is limited and being managed alongside a full-time job, so this will be critical for me to develop as the program continues. I'm hoping to spend more time working on the actual assignments rather than spending time designing how and where they appear within the portfolio. I also need to be more open to asking for help. I have a habit of intensely focusing on an assignment and a "do it alone" tendency. Asking for help might save me a lot of time.

My most immediate goal is to make sure my portfolio contains the necessary content and is easily navigable by viewers. Longterm, my goals are to show viewers where I started in the program, where I'm growing and progressing in the program, and where I'm going as a result of the program, and that is all clearly communicated and navigable to viewers.