Your Professional Portfolio — How to Use It

The Dashboard is your home base. Every time you open the portfolio, this is where you start. It shows your progress across all five APEX Standards at a glance, your recent check-ins, and quick links to your course playbooks.

You don't update anything here directly — it reflects what you've already done in your Standard pages and daily check-ins. Think of it as your running scoreboard.

Each of the five APEX Standards has its own page. Standards 1, 2, and 5 use a kanban board — columns of artifact cards organized by strand (a specific focus area within that standard).

Each column has a row of progress pips at the top. They fill in as you complete cards in that strand. You don't need to complete every card — pick the ones that match the real work you're doing.

Artifact cards are where your actual work goes. Each card has three parts you fill in: a link to your evidence, a reflection, and a status.

Click any card title to open it. The brief at the top tells you exactly what kind of evidence belongs there — read it before you start writing.

The default cards cover the most common APEX experiences — but your experience won't always fit neatly into one of them. That's expected. If you did something worth documenting that doesn't match an existing card, create your own.

Hit the + Add Artifact Card button at the bottom of any column. Give it a title that would make sense on a resume. Be specific — "Led kickoff meeting for WesleyLife brand project" is better than "Team meeting."

Standards 3 (Career Exploration) and 4 (Technical Skills) work differently from the others. Instead of open kanban columns, they're guided processes with phases you move through in sequence.

Each phase has a set of steps and activities. Complete them, then reach a checkpoint — a moment to reflect, get feedback, or demonstrate your work before moving on. Phases unlock in order; you can't skip ahead.

The daily check-in is a short standup log — three minutes, at the end of every session. You answer four questions: what project you worked on, what you accomplished, what's next, and whether anything is slowing you down.

Your check-ins appear on your Dashboard and give your instructor a real-time pulse on the course — without requiring a status meeting.

You can also link a check-in directly to an artifact card — this is the fastest way to get evidence into your portfolio while the work is still fresh.

Up Next is your personal focus queue inside the portfolio. When you see a card you want to come back to — but don't have time for right now — hit + Up Next in the card footer to add it to your list.

Click Up Next in the nav bar to open the sidebar panel and see your queue. You can remove items as you complete them.

It's not a to-do list for life — just a short list of the portfolio cards you've committed to working on in your next session.

Before each performance review, use the Review Prep page to gather your evidence and write your self-assessment — before you walk in the door.

The left panel lists all your completed artifact cards, grouped by standard. Click any card to select it as evidence you'll reference in the conversation.

The right panel walks through each standard:

When you're ready, hit Copy Text or Print / PDF to share with your instructor.