Tagging Conventions

What are tags?

Tags are words you associate with an object to make items easier to find. You can search for items with specific tags, and other people in ePortfolio can use your tags to search for items. Like file naming conventions, it's important to use a consistent system, so you can always find what you need, quickly.

Tagging within ePortfolio

ePortfolio provides a couple different options when tagging:

• To create a single word tag: type an @ symbol in front of the tag.
  

• To create a tag which is multiple words, place quotations around the phrase. "History 302 Revision" will make those three words a single tag. Remember to add the @ symbol in front of the quotations. @"History 302 Revision"

Tagging tips

The best thing about tags is that you can tailor them to your own needs. Here are some considerations when thinking about how you might want to describe an item:

• Keep tags simple. Tags that are shorter in length will be easier to remember than tags that are long and specific. If you need to describe a specific assignment, consider breaking it up into several smaller concepts rather than one large tag.

For instance, your final research paper with revisions for your History 302 class may be easier to remember and find if it's tagged multiple times with: class information ("History 302"), Assignment: ("Final Research Paper") and Version (Revisions) rather than something unwieldy and too specific, such as, "Final Research Paper History 302 with Revisions".

Not only may ePortfolio not be able to find the assignment if you forget a word, but it eliminates the possibility of finding items tagged by a common theme, something which you may wish to search for in the future.

• Be consistent with your descriptions; don't describe a concept two different ways. For example, don't describe an item as a "Test" in one instance, and then describe it as an "Exam" in another instance. Picking one term and sticking with it will cut down on effort and confusion.

• Consider adding a tag which describes the subject content. If you've written multiple research papers over the course of a term, it's likely those papers were about different subjects. Adding in tags which describe those subject differences may help differentiate between them when searching for them in the future. Thinking back to the History 302 example, you may tag one paper as "Slavery" and another paper as "Revolution".

• Consider adding in the semester and year in which you took the class, as one tag. "Fall 2012" will be an easier tag to find than if you were to break it into two tags: "Fall" and "2012", which would return results from ANY Fall semester, or ANY course taken in 2012.

• Remember to check your spelling. A misspelled tag may lead to difficulties searching for items in the future.