Building a Portfolio

[allisong]

I have a question...I'm trying to build my eLearning portfolio for marketing purposes, but all the projects I have done/am doing are client confidential. I'm guessing most people are in the same boat. What do you do build a portfolio when you can't really show any of the work that you've actually done?

Thanks!

[Patrick_J]

allisong,

Great question, this especially gets tricky with the confidentiality agreements. For my last contract, I submitted to them my what I thought was a great branching scenario I'd recently built but with all proprietary images replaced. I also replaced the content with quick and simple high level explanations of what would go on the page. I quickly recorded audio myself explaining the purpose of the slides. The whole presentation ended up being maybe 5 minutes, but it demonstrated my course design skills...linear telling, scenarios and open exploration.

It took me a couple hours each night working at home. I'm currently revisiting this whole concept also, so I'm curious what others think is important.

[@robkennedy3]

Hi there,

You are definitely right about the confidentiality factor. I am still working through this myself. Every so often, you definitely WILL come up on a client that allows you to put portion of your work for them out there. I would suggest asking about this up front, or even putting it in a contract if you have that leeway. If it is a client that is concerned about proprietary information, you might ask what there concerns are and then when you have completed the project, come up with a shortened version that might showcase your skills without compromising the company's information too much. Ask them if this is acceptable.

You can also come up with a couple of short demos that are done for no-one in particular. Or you can come up with a couple of demos for some prospective clients that you might use as a marketing piece to sell your services to them. I did something similar with real estate agents.

THe thing to remember is that your portfolio piece does NOT have to be a long/full course. People just want to see your skills and if you give them something short and sweet, they can get through it, and either ask for more (or not) :-). But at the very minimum, come up with something out of your own creative mind. I am aiming to do at least 3 of those this year in addition to whatever my clients will allow me to showcase.

Robert

[Justin]

This may not apply to you, but if you can volunteer your time and energy to someone who might need something that doesn't have the resources to pay you much (like a not for profit) you can stipulate that you can use the content created to promote yourself. So you can build your portfolio while simultaneously doing something good.

A portfolio is typically samples of work so you could also create simulations of work. So like create a 5 to 10 minute "course" that demonstrates proficiency in design, etc...

[Jeanette]

Another idea would be to use Screenr to do a tour of just the portions of your work that are not proprietary. Check out this blog post which features Bill Corwin's screencast about his Experian orientation project. He couldn't share a link to the actual course because it was proprietary, but his screencast gave a nice look at what he created, without violating confidentiality.

[Jeanette]

One more idea. I know someone who didn't have any nonproprietary work to share with a prospective employer, so she built a short, campy bit of elearning called "How to Hire Me." It covered four steps: 1) Learn About My Skills (which featured a short description of work she'd done, with a couple nonproprietary screen captures), 2) Get In Touch, 3) Be Smitten, and 4) Make An Offer. It sounds kind of corny but if you do it with a little bit of humor it might be a nice way to distinguish yourself from other candidates and demonstrate your use of elearning development tools at the same time. Almost like an online tour of your qualifications, but built to feel like an elearning program.

[DavidAnderson]

Great question.

Consider breaking out your portfolio into categories. Whether you're trying to get hired by a company or work as a consultant, a lot of times prospects want to review more than finished course. A lot of consultants will be asked to work on course design or development, but not both. If you can do both, consider showcasing samples from storyboards and final product.

If you've worked on more than one course, try including a variety of your writing style(s): Technical, business skills, scenario, job aid and so on.

Same with course designs. Try and show different design styles (corporate, simple, trendy, technical). Even if you dont have full course design samples for multiple styles, try and show something where you can demonstrate you're able to create those styles.

[DavidAnderson]

Thought of something else:-)

A lot of clients won't mind you sharing your work if there's no tie back to the client.

Take a day and go through previous projects and remove all proprietary information, audio and images. After you've cleaned it up, send to your client and ask if you can show the sanitized version in your portfolio.

This might be easier to recreate than building a course from the ground up.

[Patrick_J]

Really good thoughts here. I really like Jeanette's friends approach...a little humor with some cheese and corn, that gives me a great idea.

[doofdaddy]

I'm actually working on a blog post about building portfolios. A few ideas:

Break into different disciplines: project management, visual design, working with clients, course structure, instructional design, interactivity, etc..

You only need small chunks. No one's going to go through an entire course.

Follow a simple structure:

Objective, your efforts and contributions, and outcomes.

Sometimes you can just offer a screenshot and explain what you did or the approach you took in a course.

Do a search for portfolios of graphic designers. They might have some interesting ideas that you can use for inspiration.