UT pilots new online portfolio system with some colleges

A new computer program was introduced to the University of Toledo for the fall semester, allowing students to build a digital portfolio to market themselves for potential employers.

Seelio is a website that will allow students to create and design a portfolio online that will display their accomplishments and allow potential employers to view their work via the web.

Lakeesha Ransom, dean of the honors college, described the program as being a similar, but more dynamic version of LinkedIn.

“It’s a professional way to network with people, but I would say the difference is this certainly focuses on the student,” she said.

Students start by listing their skills, career interests and uploading a photo of themselves. Then they are able to start uploading projects or essays they want to feature for potential employers to view.

Once their work is uploaded, students are able to connect with other students who also worked on the project and professors are able to feature their students’ work on their own pages.

Ransom said the tool also goes hand-in-hand with Intern in Ohio, an internship match program piloted at UT last year. People hiring on the intern site can view the student’s work through Seelio and make a better informed decision about who they want to employ, she said.

“They’ll certainly have your resume, but a resume is sort of two dimensional,” Ransom said. “So to be able to showcase with pictures and having access to papers or specific works really allows the work to come alive.”

At this time, students from the Jesup Scott Honors College and the College of Communication and the Arts, or CoCA, are piloting the program in several first-year experience courses and a few advanced communication and art courses.

Melanie Munoz, a fifth-year communication major, has set up a profile on the site and said she sees the value to both online and paper versions of resumes.

At this time, Munoz said she thinks the program is still very new but it will be a beneficial tool once it becomes better known.

“I think it’s a better form than the typical, traditional portfolio,” Munoz said. “Honestly, I would like a hard copy as well, not just online. But being online does help you reach employers and lets them see your work right then and there rather than having to meet them in person.”

Debra Davis, dean of CoCA, said programs that require a lot of projects and portfolios, such as CoCA and engineering, will use the program most effectively.

Davis said the first-year experience classes are using the site as a “learning tool” to become accustomed to the campus and to online resources at UT.

“Some of them are doing really well with it,” she said. “I think we’ll see in the end if it’s a piece that benefited the process or if it’s another piece that just became too much to handle.”

Davis said she really enjoys the hands-on approach and the company’s ability to “push boundaries” to further innovation while working with UT.

“I think this is a great opportunity and we’ll see where it’s going to work, and where it’s not going to work as well,” she said.

This article was edited to correct the spelling ofMelanie Munoz’s name.