Formative Evaluation of Electronic Portfolios:
Constructing A Bridge Between Writers and Readers

by
Randy M. Brooks, Ph.D.
Millikin University

When we open the doors of visual rhetoric into our writing instruction, the students realize that they are no longer writing just for the teacher, just for the grade—they are writing and using the full range of visual rhetorical means available to build a bridge between themselves and readers.

Our job is to stay out of the way and to coach the students as they build their bridges of meaning out of the contemporary tools of communication—video, digital images, hypertext, web sites, and of course, text.

An effective web portfolio is not just a gathering of digital exhibits; it is a carefully designed online experience of exhibits. It builds on principles of web design—including a home page, clear previews of the whole web site, clear navigation within the web site and clear labeling of each page.

An effective web portfolio is a carefully designed rhetorical act, because it is the portfolio's guiding elements—the introduction, the exhibit annotations, the shared reflection—which help the readers understand the context of each exhibit and the overall significance of the portfolio.

Formative self-evalutaion—otherwise known as "reflection"—is a central method of the portfolio approach.

How can the visual and verbal elements of a web portfolio work together to provide a means of self-evaluation, a method of reflection about one's work, a way of expressing the significance of each artifact in the portfolio, and a means of conveying a sense of the unity of the whole work, the synthesis of work into a larger collection, the web portfolio?

Web design principles.

Following the emerging principles of web site design, the short answer is that the web portfolio needs to establish a "publication style" which provides visual unity, appropriate interaction, clear navigation, and ongoing orientation for readers. The elements of publication style include consistent backgrounds, colors, titles, headers, font choices, navigation buttons, and graphic icons or layout guides. These presentation choices are made through a process of reflection—deciding to deliberately convey attitudes, personality and professionalism through the web portfolio's design.

Exhibit 3 --> web design principles

Rhetorical strategies.

Following principles of rhetorical theory, the short answer is that the web portfolio needs to be built by careful consideration of purposes, audience, and genre expectations. The overall web portfolio is a rhetorical act—a construction of writer, reader and meaningful texts. The student needs to evaluate their overall rhetorical purposes, especially the continuum of entertainment versus information values of their portfolio. These rhetorical choices will establish the overall design of the portfolio, the categorization of exhibits into various areas of the portfolio, and how each element is introduced to readers.

Exhibit 4 --> graphic design portfolio

Annotations, welcome statements and previews serve the writer as a means of reflection AND they serve the reader as rhetorical cues for understanding the exhibits they are viewing.

Exhibit 5 --> lack of verbal guides