Build an Evidence Inventory

A portfolio is a collection of evidence about tasks you can perform. It may contain a document, a spreadsheet, a website, a script, or a community project. You do not need paid employment to have useful examples. Coursework and personal practice count when you label their context honestly. The purpose is to help another person inspect your work and understand your contribution.

Start with actions someone can check, rather than general labels about your personality. "Reliable" is difficult to assess alone. "Checked a budget against its source brief and corrected two errors before handover" describes behavior. Each claim needs its own evidence.

Alex, a fictional learner, completed the Digital Confidence practice pack. An evidence row says:

The expected total for 20 notebooks at 1.50, five marker packs at 3.00, and 20 guides at 0.75 is 60.00. Alex can demonstrate changing the marker quantity and explain why the balance updates. Another person can watch the calculation and check the claim. "Managed financial operations for an academy" would misrepresent a small fictional exercise.

1. Spend 15 minutes listing five things you made or improved.
2. Choose three examples you can open and locate their original files.
3. Spend another 20 minutes writing an evidence row for each example. Include whether it was individual, collaborative, guided, or AI-assisted work. Distinguish the team's result from your own actions.

Use the remaining time to reopen an artifact, reproduce one result, and check that you understand it. Remove private details from any copy intended for sharing. Keep the original private. If you have not completed a project yet, choose an earlier course assignment and finish one small task before making a claim.

Your artifact is an evidence inventory with three rows and links or filenames you can actually open. Add a "next evidence needed" column for skills you want to develop.

Question: Can someone verify every claim from the named artifact?

Answer: If a row says "I built the whole website" but you only wrote its contact page, correct the scope.

Question: Does a claim describe an action rather than only enthusiasm?

Answer: Replace "excellent communicator" with an actual message or explanation you produced.

A sound limitation might be "Used a supplied template; changed the layout and tested keyboard navigation." Naming a limitation strengthens accuracy. It does not cancel the useful work.

Save evidence-inventory-v01 and choose one example for your case study. Record one result you can demonstrate independently and one unanswered question. You will use both in the next lessons.

Next lesson: Write a Case Study Someone Can Inspect.