University Writing

Resources || University Writing

How to Use this Page

Below are resources that University Writing has developed to support students and instructors across the disciplines in their writing and writing instruction. We define writing broadly, so you will find resources on ePortfolios, visual design, professional communication, and presentations in addition to traditional writing tasks like reflective writing, literature reviews, peer review, and editing and proofing.

Please use the keywords on the right-hand side of the page or the search bar above to navigate these resources. If you would like to use these resources in your course, please follow the Creative Commons information located at the bottom of each resource. If you plan to use the source in its original format, we ask that you leave the University Writing branding intact.

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Tagged Entries: Technology

Accessibility and Writing

As you write and communicate with others, it is important that you consider accessibility, or the ability for diverse audiences to engage with your writing. The commitment to accessible and inclusive practice is ongoing and demands recursive critical reflection, education, and feedback, but we hope these resources get you beginning to think about diverse readers and audiences for your work. 

Materials designed by Christopher Basgier, Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, and Layli Miron. 

This guide articulates University Writing's practices for accessibility and inclusivity. We use this guide for internal training within our program

This handout guides discussion facilitators in enacting inclusive practices like inclusive introductions, rapport building, and strategies for encouraging conversation

This handout helps mentors learn how to build mentor-mentee relationships that take account of meaningful differences across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual identity, and academic major 

 

This handout helps writers create accessible Word and PDF documents with an emphasis on visibility, audibility, and mobility  

 

This checklist helps you evaluate the accessibility of a specific form of digital writing, ePortfolio websites, by reviewing the accessibility of your content and digital design.

Artificial Intelligence and Writing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT offer new opportunities and challenges for teachers and for students. The documents in this section offer guidance on how to respond to AI in ways that center thinking and communication.  

Materials designed by Christopher Basgier

 

This document represents University Writing’s most up-to-date guidelines for faculty response to AI. It is organized according to four modes of response: prohibition, permission, pedagogy, and engagement

This document represents University Writing's most up-to-date information and guidance for students on AI. It defines artificial intelligence, describes large language models like ChatGPT, and guides students in deciding when and how to use AI in their courses

This handout suggests ways in which writers can practice critical thinking while using generative artificial intelligence

This worksheet invites users to plan the elements of a successful prompt for generative artificial intelligence

Delivering Oral Presentations and Visual Design

In order to effectively share our research findings with others, we must be able to deliver presentations clearly and impactfully. These resources include tips about oral and visual communication as well as visual design principles that will help engage and inform your audience. 

Materials designed by Christopher Basgier, Katharine H. Brown, Amy Cicchino, Carly Cummings, Megan Haskins, Layli Miron, Annie Small, Heather Stuart, and Parker Wade 

This brief handout outlines elements of oral communication 

Once you have a draft of your oral presentation, this peer review worksheet can help you self-assess or get feedback 

This handout will help you decide the best way to visually represent your data 

This handout introduces you to four principles for visual design: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity 

This worksheet is meant to help you put together a presentation. It has been designed for students in aerospace engineering 

This handout will introduce you to scientific posters and analyze example posters

This worksheet will help you self-assess a draft of your scientific poster or gather feedback from a peer

This worksheet is designed to help you articulate how you “see” visible materials and what you expect students to do with visible materials in your courses 

Finalizing Your ePortfolio

Before you publish, use these resources to review and revise your ePortfolio. 

Materials designed by Amy Cicchino, Heather Stuart, and Savannah Harrison

Once you have completed a draft of your ePortfolio, this worksheet can help you get feedback from professors, mentors, supervisors, family members, or peers

This worksheet can guide students in a peer review activity as they offer each other feedback on their ePortfolios

This checklist will help you self-assess whether additional changes need to be made to your ePortfolio before it is published 

This checklist helps you evaluate the accessibility of your ePortfolio site by reviewing your content and digital design.

ePortfolios: Artifacts & Reflection

Artifacts show evidence of your experiences, knowledge, and skills and can be anything: videos, photos, internship experiences, study abroad experiences, research posters, and course projects. You’ll want to contextualize your artifacts with reflective writing, which can connect your specific artifacts to your larger professional goals and personal brand.  

Materials designed by Amber Simpson, Heather Stuart, and Parker Wade.

This handout offers examples of artifacts that you might potentially include in your ePortfolio. Remember, artifacts can be any kind of media  

This worksheet will help you brainstorm artifacts and connect your artifacts to the skills that you are trying to showcase 

Reflective writing allows you to articulate why an experience is important, what you learned during the process, and how you plan to apply your skills to future projects or endeavors. This handout gives you questions that you can use to begin drafting reflective writing for artifacts in your ePortfolio 

This worksheet will guide you in drafting reflective writing for an artifacts in your ePortfolio 

You can see how students at Auburn share and contextualize their artifacts by visiting our ePortfolio gallery 

ePortfolios: Design

Not everyone is an expert in visual design, but these resources will help you learn some core principles for an effective and accessible ePortfolio design.  

Materials designed by Heather Stuart and Parker Wade 

This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to four basic design principles: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity

This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to introductory concepts of accessibility like navigation, use of heading styles, color choice, alternative text, link embedding, and captions. If you would like to learn more advanced strategies for accessible design, please see our entry on Accessibility and Writing  

ePortfolios: Ethical Practices

When creating and designing your ePortfolio, you will want to respect the safety, privacy, and creative works of others. In addition to these resources, we encourage you to also visit AAEEBL’s Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios, which University Writing was active in creating.  

Materials designed by Toni Carter, Amy Cicchino, and Heather Stuart  

This handout walked ePortfolio creators through considerations for legal and ethical ePortfolio practices. 

This handout introduces you to concepts like copyright and fair use. Because ePortfolios can include existing media, ePortfolio creators are at risk for copyright violation. The handout includes key terms, frequently asked questions, and some scenarios to help you apply your growing knowledge of copyright and fair use. 

This checklist helps you evaluate the accessibility of your ePortfolio site by reviewing your content and digital design.

ePortfolios: Examples

Below are links to ePortfolios from Auburn University students and alumni. Here you will find a variety of ePortfolios that include thoughtful reflections and relevant artifacts that showcase student learning to audiences outside the University.

 

Christina Alibozek
Business Administration
Christina Alibozek portfolio
Benjamin King
Biosystems Engineering
Benjamin King portfolio
Allie Collins
Nursing
Allie Collins portfolio
Parker Wade
English Language Arts Education
Parker Wade portfolio
Mitch Carter
Geography
Mitch Carter portfolio
Jessica Gilpin
Biological Sciences
Jessica Gilpin portfolio
Lucas Adelino
Adult Education
Lucas Adelino portfolio
Jake Martin
Graphic Design
Jake Martin portfolio
Xi Lin
Adult Education
Xi Lin portfolio
Jessica Krewall
Chemistry
Jessica Krewall portfolio
Jamie McClintock
Professional and Public Writing
Jamie McClintock portfolio
Michael Perez
Civil Engineering
Michael Perez portfolio
Patience Marsh
Hotel and Restaurant Management
Patience Marsh portfolio
Elizabeth Devore
Electrical Engineering
Elizabeth Devore portfolio
Brent Warr
Environmental Design
Brent Warr portfolio

ePortfolios: Platforms and Technology

You need a space to host and build your ePortfolio site. These resources will help you consider what questions you should ask as you are assessing different platforms regarding content, privacy, and accessibility. Then, you can learn about the benefits and drawbacks of three popular ePortfolio building platforms: Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.  

Materials designed by Lucas Adelino, Heather Stuart, and Parker Wade. 

This brief handout gives tips on helping ePortfolio creators share, protect, or enhance the privacy of their ePortfolio 

This handout compares three popular ePortfolio platforms—Weebly, Wix, and WordPress—to discuss differences in ease of use, customization, storage, support, and settings 

If you’ve chosen Weebly as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started! 

If you’ve chosen Wix as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started! 

If you’ve chosen WordPress as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started!  

As you begin using your ePortfolio platform, try working through this list of tasks to learn about your website builder 

This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to introductory concepts of accessibility like navigation, use of heading styles, color choice, alternative text, link embedding, and captions. If you would like to learn more advanced strategies for accessible design, please see our entry on Accessibility and Writing

ePortfolios: Using ePortfolios in your Course

Faculty interested in learning more about ePortfolios and learning should reach out to universitywriting@auburn.edu in addition to exploring the resources below. These resources can either be moved directly into your course as instructional material or will discuss teaching and feedback strategies for ePortfolios. In addition to these resources, we encourage you to visit AAEEBL’s Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios, which University Writing was active in creating. 

Materials designed by Christopher Basgier, Amy Cicchino, Megan Haskins, Margaret Marshall, and Heather Stuart

This sample curriculum for a 15-week course introduces students to ePortfolios and Professional Brand. It includes a syllabus, course calendar, and ePortfolio assignment sheet

This handout will introduce your students to ePortfolios 

This handout answers Frequently Asked Questions about ePortfolios your students might have 

Use this quiz and analysis activity to help your students test and apply their growing knowledge of ePortfolios 

This handout has a list of low-stakes activities that can help you develop ePortfolio thinking in your courses  

This worksheet will help you as a teacher reflect on what students are and are not doing in their ePortfolio reflective writing and identify appropriate next steps in adapting your pedagogy  

This scavenger hunt activity will take students through exploring an example ePortfolio and analyzing the choices the ePortfolio creator has made 

This worksheet is designed to draw your students’ attention to the ways in which an ePortfolio is designed and arranged to tell a particular story to a specific audience 

This worksheet can guide students in a peer review activity as they offer each other feedback on their ePortfolios

This checklist guides your students in evaluating the accessibility of their ePortfolio sites by reviewing content and digital design.

This worksheet helps ePortfolio creators move from peer review feedback to revision plans

This formative ePortfolio rubric can be used to help students self-assess where they are in the ePortfolio process as they create and refine their ePortfolios. You can also use this rubric to give them in-process feedback 

This summative ePortfolio rubric can be used or adapted to evaluate student ePortfolios at the end of the ePortfolio creation process. We encourage you consider which competency level best fits your context for teaching and learning 

We encourage you to respect your students as creators and authors by not using their ePortfolios in your teaching, marketing, or assessment procedures without their explicit permission. This is the form we’ve developed to retrieve and track student permission. This is not the same as IRB approval through your institution, which you will need to conduct research on students ePortfolios. This form can be personalized to include information about your department or program and completed by students for a record of ePortfolio permission 

ePortfolios: What is an ePortfolio

An ePortfolio is a personal website that communicates one’s professional identity and experiences to a public audience, such as employers, graduate schools, or review committees. The resources below will help you learn about ePortfolios and introduce you to the process of developing an ePortfolio.   

Materials designed by Amy Cicchino and Heather Stuart

Learn about ePortfolios: 

View this short Introduction to ePortfolios Video  

View this longer Introduction to ePortfolios Video  

This handout will introduce you to ePortfolios 

This handout answers Frequently Asked Questions about ePortfolios  

Use this quiz and analysis activity to help your students test and apply their growing knowledge of ePortfolios 

Tour of Example Student ePortfolio with Anna    

You can see more examples of ePortfolios by visiting our ePortfolio gallery