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Introduction: How the Keep Toolkit works The Keep Toolkit consists of web pages called snapshots. Snapshots are controlled from a central interface called the dashboard. Within a snapshot, you can design a simple web pages consisting of a series of boxes. Boxes can be moved around, arranged in a multi-columned layout, and formatted with a limited set of colours. You can add additional content by uploading images, videos, or files. Uploaded images can be used to add additional design elements to your snapshot. Snapshots can be arranged in a stitched group, which is a little website with a navigation menu.
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Why have an ePortfolio? Designers of all kinds have always used portfolios to show what they can do. Whether it's graphic design, fashion, architecture or web, design professionals need to be able to show potential employers, investors, or clients what they can do. Now this is being translated into other fields. A two page resume really doesn't tell anyone very much about what you can actually do. In addition, developing your ePortfolio will help you to integrate your learning experiences, learn to reflect and understand what you've learned, and learn how to communicate visually. Here are some reasons why you should develop an ePortfolio: 1. Demonstrate a deeper range of understanding by reflecting on what you've learned. 2. Connect what you learn in the classroom with your experiences in residence, extra-curricular activities, social situations, and on the job. 3. Expand on your resume by providing more detail about your skills and accomplishments. 4. Impress employers by providing something other applicants don't have. 5. Learn through reflection. Bonus: employers will often ask reflection-based questions in interviews. Practicing reflection will help you prepare for these types of questions. 6. Document your progress through university and beyond 7. Learn to communicate visually through fonts, colours, graphics, and other design elements. 8. Help you to plan for your future by reflecting on your past. When I was offered my job here at Housing and Residences, my new supervisor told me directly that my online portfolio helped me to stand out from other applicants. It was very helpful for her to see what I could do in more detail than what I could provide on a resume. This can work for you too :)
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Keep Toolkit Lingo Snapshot - web page Dashboard - control panel Stitched Group - a set of web pages "stitched" together to form a little web site with a navigation bar Gallery - a group of snapshots from a variety of users (i.e. you could create a gallery of the snapshots you and your group members have created about your group project).
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Using the Editor - Warnings! When using the Keep Toolkit editor, keep in mind that: 1. There is no undo! It is a good idea to save a copy of anything you write in a text document on your computer or flash drive. If you accidentally delete something, there is no way to get it back. 2. If you are using the HTML editor, Keep may rewrite and/or remove HTML code it doesn't like. It will also sometimes just remove everything after a piece of code that it doesn't understand. 3. Copying and pasting text from other applications can sometimes create problems when using special characters (any kind of punctuation). If you odd characters show up in your text, go back to the edit window and re-type them. Proofread carefully.
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Things you can't do in Keep Tookit (without writing your own HTML) 1. Change the width of columns - columns are always equally sized. If you have three columns, they will all be 33width. 2. Use colours other than the ones available in the colour drop-down 3. Make a table or an automatically numbered list 4. Change the style of the navigation menu in a stitched group, choose your own colours, or change the style of the heading for a stitched group. 5. Use ctrl-z to undo (although ctrl-c and ctrl-v to copy and paste do work) 6. Include more than one image in a box, or include the image in the middle of a block of text or at the end. Keep Toolkit will also re-format images when you upload them. This will result in a change in file type and a reduction in quality. 7. Get rid of that empty space at the bottom of each box For these reasons, many students choose to either write their own HTML within Keep Toolkit or choose to use another system altogether. More information on that is available in the "next steps" section.
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