Unit 4 Reflection: The Web folio Assignment
Now that Unit 4 is almost done, and the term is coming to a close, I need to reflect on the last big assignment of this course: the web folio. The whole course has basically been building up to this assignment apart from the formal report, and it was much more flexible of an assignment than what I’m used to. To be honest, I found creating the web folio to be a bit outside of my comfort zone compared to the other things we have done in the course. I’m not incredibly tech-savvy, and designing a web page was quite daunting to me. I’m also not as artistic as I used to be when I was younger, so I had some trouble with layouts and how I wanted my pages to look. In the end though, I found setting up my web folio to actually go better than I thought, and I even enjoyed it a little more than the other assignments we’ve done (although my favourite was definitely the definitions, because I got to talk about polymers!). With all that said, I’ll quickly talk about each page and my process in designing them.
The home page was a fairly easy page to create. I added a picture of a polymer (I believe it’s polyethylene?) at the top to show my interests, which I felt was important for the type of people that may look at my blog. Adding the hyperlinks to each page was a good touch, since it makes it easier for the reader to go to different pages, and they’re easy to put in. I also added some information about the course, since it’s the reason I made this web folio, and readers may be interested in why I created it.
Making the Applications Package was also fairly easy. I’ve had a lot of practice with designing resumes and cover letters since I started in co-op, and I have also learned a lot about asking for references from previous employers. I mainly just reviewed this page to double check that my formatting was okay for each document, and then I touched up my introduction for the page to make it look and sound better for the reader. The same can be said for my Resume page, although this page was more fun to make since I got to add hyperlinks to some of the entries, like company websites. This really helps with my marketability, since now people can look at websites that show where I’ve worked, and really cement my experience. Overall, these pages have provided me with more practice on designing my resumes and cover letters, and learning how to market myself better to employers. I would say that they are the more important parts of the web folio, and also my favourite parts of the assignment since they’re the most applicable.
Having a LinkedIn page was a good idea, although I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that page. A picture and the link to my profile was all I included, but that is really all that was needed in my opinion. The picture was more to liven the page up, since without it there isn’t much to look at. I definitely enjoyed updating my profile, since I find a LinkedIn profile can be very useful for my career. This course has also reminded of the importance of staying active on my profile, which is something I plan to do in the future.
The Biography page was actually a bit difficult to do for me. I really had to think about what I wanted to say about me, and I ended up focusing on my academic interests, work experiences, and where I’d like to go with those things. I rewrote almost the entire thing from what I originally had, and I feel much better with the final outcome. I really feel with what I’ve written captures me both academically, professionally, and personally.
Finally, there’s the Best Works page. This page was easily the most effort to create out of all the other ones, because I had to collect and format my documents from throughout the term, edit them based on the peer reviews that they received, and and introductions for each of them. The whole process of putting this page together really reminded me of how much editing is important, and how I’ve gradually improved with my proofreading during this course. I also enjoyed putting together the little introductions, since it gave me a chance to market the skills I developed for each assignment. I think these assignments show the diversity of skills I’ve acquired or honed in English 301, and I am proud to post them for others to read.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with my web folio. I feel that I’ve put in some really good effort to put it together considering my apprehension, and I’m quite proud of what I’ve written and posted here. Having all my representative work in one place is very satisfying and I think this web folio paints a great picture of who I am. I would also like to try and update this web folio as I go, so it can be a useful tool with my career.
