Now that my Web Folio is up and running, I have written a reflection below highlighting my thoughts on the process of constructing my Web Folio assignment. The reflection is broken down into the three different stages of the Web Folio process: beginning, middle, and end.
Beginning:
Initially, I was very intimidated by the prospect of building a Web Folio. I definitely struggled to get started. As I was searching the web to view different sites with examples of Web Folios, I noticed that there is not a single template or style for creating a Web Folio. I discovered that Web Folios fulfill many different purposes; therefore, I had to be very careful in designing my own Web Folio to suit my target audience. My application was written for UBC dental school, thus I tailored my writing to a more professional audience that is looking to assess my level of professionalism amongst other things. I know this because my cousin who graduated from UBC dentistry brought to my attention that UBC dental school has a big portion of its syllabus focused around professionalism and preparedness. In fact, a number of students are often held back a year if they do not meet the level of professionalism required of them for the various parts of the program. I tried my very best to write each section of my Web Folio in a very professional tone while also incorporating a personal touch that illustrates my uniqueness and qualifications for the dentistry program.
After my research on Web Folios and identifying my intended audience, I started with the basics of creating all of the relevant pages of my Web Folio. I had some trouble formatting the new pages to appear in an order that I wanted them to. However, I finally figured out how to fix this issue through the menu setting of my website dashboard. It is quite amazing how complex website building applications have made certain tasks so simple. Following that, I created an outline for each section of my Web Folio. This definitely made it easier for me to come back and insert files and texts that satisfied the intended purpose of each section of my Web Folio. Lastly, as the final step in the beginning of my work on the Web Folio assignment, I added a header image to my website to make my Web Folio stand out. I selected a picture of a person sitting down on a bench looking at a beautiful view of the world. I believe this image will illustrate to the readers of my Web Folio that I am ready, determined, and on the lookout for all the opportunities life has in store for me.
Middle:
After setting up the template for my Web Folio, I started to work on each individual page. At first, I felt quite overwhelmed with the amount of information I had to include in each part of my Web Folio. However, since I knew UBC dental school would be looking through the details of my Web Folio very carefully, I had to work very hard to include as much necessary information as possible in each of my web pages. For instance, if UBC dentistry is looking at my Web Folio to assess my level of readiness for admission into their program, they are more likely to reject me if I have some ambiguous or missing information than they are to contact me for further information. Thus, I had to describe the purpose and details of many of my assignments on each page of my Web Folio.
Through the process of making revisions on my assignments according to the peer reviews I received from my classmates, I realized how the structure of this course has really made it easy for me to construct a very strong Web Folio. Throughout the course, I received many thoughtful and effective peer reviews for my assignments. I continually edited my assignments based on these peer reviews multiple times. Thus, there was not much for me to edit when it came down to preparing my assignments for inclusion into my Web Folio. I just had to read through my assignments a couple more times to make sure they were free of any errors of grammar and spelling. The lack of errors found in my assignments made me realize how much my technical writing has improved throughout the course.
End:
At the final stages of completing my Web Folio assignment, I went through my entire Web Folio to make sure it was free of any typos. At this point in the course, I was very confident in my technical writing; however, it was still important to keep in mind that we all make mistakes sometimes. The last thing I wanted was for the UBC dental school admissions team to stumble across a typo in my Web Folio. At this time, I also added some visuals to the various pages of my Web Folio to personalize some of its major sections. I think these visuals will keep my readers more engaged when reading through my Web Folio.
Looking back at the process of creating my Web Folio, it has been a great learning experience for me. I have never constructed my own website in the past. Therefore, I am quite excited with the final product. I believe this has been a major process of self-improvement for me. Once again, just as the methodological approach to formal reports allowed me to create an outline before moving forward with the construction of the body of my formal report, a strategic and methodological approach to the Web Folio allowed me to systematically work through the process of creating an effective Web Folio. This is not to say that I did not struggle through the process. In fact, this has been a major challenge for me. However, I believe that with the amount of hard work I have put towards completing my Web Folio, I have created a very strong piece of technical writing to showcase my outstanding work in English 301 and my life.