By Michelle Durham

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Temple Business students have to complete a mandatory project for one of their core courses. It’s an assignment that could have a big impact on their future and their ability to gain employment in today’s tough job market.

Department Chair of Management Information Systems at Temple’s Fox School of Business Munir Mandviwalla explains what an “e-portfolio” is.

“You can put your resume on there. You could put information on there about what you have done. So you could write a little blog post about a recent job you’ve had. some students have created a video resume.”

He says it will give students a leg up in the job search.

“What we want our students to do is take control of their on-line identity since they are going to be evaluated by potential employers.”

Jennifer O’Malley is a Junior and she has already put the e-portfolio to work.

“I currently have an internship at SAP and another project based internship at Merck and I had to send my E-portfolio to both of these places. They were able to look at me and say, ‘she has pretty good credentials, let’s bring her in for an interview!’”

Both say students need to take advantage of every available tool to make that quantuam leap from student to employed professional.