Archiving and Delivery of Student Portfolios

1
Archiving and Delivery of Student Portfolios
JTS 2007 Toronto

• Dirk Matthews
• Assistant Director
• Portfolio Center
• Columbia College Chicago

2
Introduction

• About Columbia College Chicago
• www.colum.edu
• The Portfolio Center of Columbia College
• Defining Portfolios in Higher Education
• Educational vs. Professional

3
History of Portfolio Center

• Formed in 2004
• Focused on college mission regarding student
  'Body of Work'
• Collection of 500 digital portfolios and 100
  physical portfolios
• Seven full-time staff

4
Portfolio Center Programming

• Educational Material
• Podcasts, workshops, etc.
• Topics include Portfolio Best Practices,
  Archiving Strategies for Students, and
  Compression for the Web
• Instilling need for student responsibility in
  preserving their own work

5
Portfolio Center Programming

• Portfolio Advising
• Portfolio Reviews
• 1 of 4 employers who visit / hire a student
• Portfolio Production
• Physical collection of 200 professional, student,
  and alumna portfolios and press kits
• Archive

6
Portfolio Center Programming

• Created a Wiki for Portfolios
• http//portfolio.wikia.com/
• Winner 2006 National Association of Student
  Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Silver
  Excellence Award in the Careers, Academic
  Support, Service Learning, Community Service
  category

7
Lessons Learned at JTS2004

• Lesson 1 - It is easier to fund a method of
  delivery than a preservation system

8
Lessons Learned at JTS2004

• Lesson 1 - It is easier to fund a method of
  delivery than a preservation system
• Lesson 2 - Collection must be under control
  BEFORE digitizing

9
Lessons Learned at JTS2004

• Lesson 1 - It is easier to fund a method of
  delivery rather than a preservation system
• Lesson 2 - Collection must be under control
  BEFORE digitizing
• Lesson 3 - Labor is more expensive than hardware

10
Lessons Learned at JTS2004

• Lesson 1 - It is easier to fund a method of
  delivery rather than a preservation system
• Lesson 2 - Collection must be under control
  BEFORE digitizing
• Lesson 3 - Labor is more expensive than hardware
• Lesson 4 - There is a difference between an
  archive and a collection

11
Lessons Learned at JTS2004

• Lesson 1 - It is easier to fund a method of
  delivery rather than a preservation system
• Lesson 2 - Collection must be under control
  BEFORE digitizing
• Lesson 3 - Labor is more expensive than hardware
• Lesson 4 - There is a difference between an
  archive and a collection
• Lesson 5 - Toronto is a great city

12
Defining Needs for Preservation

• No digital repository on campus at start of
  project
• Worked closely with college Library
• Dublin Core Metadata standards
• Uncompressed copies of original files from
  students
• Only preserve the present, including current
  seniors and recent alumna
• Keep collection relevant
• Redundancy

13
Defining Needs for Digital Presentation

• Power of the web in finding work in Arts Media
• Professional level web portfolio standards
• Content-driven websites

14
Stage OneFall 2004

• Archive Management
• FileMaker Pro Database
• Stored on Mac G5 desktop
• Back up with DV tapes and silver coated CDs and
  DVDs
• All digital assets stored in uncompressed
  original formats
• Created workflow for digitizing and cataloguing
  assets

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Stage One

• Web Presentation
• Menalto Gallery (version 1.4)
• http//gallery.menalto.com/
• Static Web Galleries
• Formats JPEG, MOV, MPEG
• No native audio formats
• Audio must be converted to QuickTime
• Mac G4 desktop as Webserver

16
Stage Twoor, How to stop worrying and learn to
find the moneyCommenced Fall 2006

• Limited Funding
• Faculty act as consultants
• Programming by advanced student worker

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Stage Two

• Archive Management
• Extensis Portfolio
• Migrate local storage to server
• Archive both uncompressed originals and web files
• Copies of each portfolio on silver CDs and DVDs
• Allows for export of asset and metadata in XML
  format

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Stage Two

• Web Presentation
• WebPublish Beta
• Programmed in PHP with a MySQL database
• Dynamically updatable portfolios at admin level
• Unique URL for each site
• Example portfolio.colum.edu/firstlast
• Design as a standalone website
• Variety of styles for students to choose between
  (currently 20)
• Sites searchable through Portfolio Search Page
• http//portfolio.colum.edu/search

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Stage Three (Fall 2007 Release)

• Funding within Student Affairs secured for hiring
  professional programmers and additional staff
• Archive Management
• Upgrade of Extensis Portfolio into MySQL database
• Continue to Archive both uncompressed and web
  files
• Export of each portfolio into an XML file for
  archive and presentation
• http//portfolio.colum.edu/mfaircloth/
• http//portfolio.colum.edu/zacklitwackdvd/dvdCase0
  4.swf
• College Library starting Digital Archive in
• Fall 2007 (Fedora)
• Migrate asset management into Library's
  repository once complete
• Purchase back up server

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Stage Three

• Web Publish 1.0
• Sites are dynamically updated through user
  interface
• Sites customizable at a student level
• Sites searchable through Portfolio Search Page
  and metatagged for recognition by search engines
• Sites archived upon completion through HTTrack
• Store statistics of visits to site

21
Stage Three

• Web Publish 1.0
• Additional functionality
• Storage area for internal documents as well as
  for public web pages. This will allow students
  to store optional work samples prior to posting
  to page
• Faculty login page allows faculty to comment on
  students design, layout, and choice of work.

22
Stage Three

• Web Presentation
• Purchase and set up of backup server to mirror
  current server
• Provide streaming server for quality and speed of
  media delivery
• Commenting features for faculty
• Integration of assessment questionnaires

23
Conclusion

• Completion of system dynamically updated sites
  with interchangeable templates
• Symbiotic interface between archive and delivery
  of student work
• Exploring open source options

Dirk Matthews Portfolio Center Columbia College
Chicago dmatthews_at_colum.edu http//www.colum.edu/p
ortfolio