Portfolio Project
FAQs for Incoming Students | Current Prompts | Instructions for Students | Faculty Guidelines | The Book of Fours
For other questions or comments, please e-mail Dr. Scott Alberts, the Director of the Portfolio Project, or call him at 660-785-7649.
Instructions for students submitting a senior portfolioWhat do I need to do for the senior portfolio project?
In short, you need to submit 6 sheets, explaining your best work asked for by each prompt. Along with the sheet, you are asked to submit an electronic artifact, which may be a copy of a paper, media file, or a description of what you had done. Although some prompts (like interdisciplinary) tend to always include papers, others (like most satisfying experience are often not a paper at all. You are also asked to submit a reflective cover letter, where you talk about your experience completing the portfolio as well as your overall experience at Truman.
You should begin by reviewing your collection of materials saved throughout your time at Truman. Then, read the prompts describing exactly what we are asking for. After reading the prompts, you should pick your best work in each area. For each item you submit, we request that you tell us about when, where, and why it was part of your learning and why you decided that it represented you. Please take the time to read each prompt and to respond thoughtfully to the questions on each prompt.
When you complete the prompt for each submission, think about your audience: faculty readers from all ranks and from diverse disciplines. Be generous with specific explanations, descriptions or assessments of your work. What is obvious to you when you created the ideas and products is not always as obvious to faculty outside your discipline. The repeated requests for information on prompts make the reading sessions work smoothly and efficiently as the readers take up one category at a time.
How do I go about completing the senior portfolio project?
There are two ways to complete the portfolio:
1) Online, through the web page
2) CD submission, using the prompts from the web page.
We prefer online submission during the regular semester, but leave it up to you in the summer. Your capstone professor may ask you to use CD submission. Also, since the webpage can be ornery, feel free to submit yours by CD if you have problems with the online site. Be sure to ask your professor or us for help as you need it.
Most papers can be directly submitted as Microsoft Word or rich text format. If you are using a less common format (at Truman) such as Word Perfect, Microsoft Works, LateX, etc., please export/re-save the file in either .pdf or .rtf format before submitting.
Paper documents that are not available in digital format should be scanned and saved in portable document format (pdf). Scanners and document conversion software are available in computer labs in Pickler and in Violette Hall. Please contact the ITS Help Desk (ext. x4544) or the lab staff members for further assistance with technology issues related to image scanning and conversion.
Images, Audio and videotapes may be appropriate to submit, but they may also require more explanation to show how your thinking was demonstrated. The prompt for the item should still be submitted electronically. Photos and other images are fairly straightforward to convert to a digital media (.jpg is preferred). Audio and videotapes can be converted to digital format (Quicktime, WMA, MPEG, MP3, etc.); however, this is a fairly daunting task if you do not have the appropriate equipment and software. Contact the Help Desk if you would like to try this. If you have something more interesting to submit, please contact the portfolio office for help.
Portfolios are due at least five weeks prior to graduation. For the fall, portfolios must be received no later than November 7 to ensure smooth graduation in December 2008.
Online Submission:
Go to http://assessment.truman.edu/components/portfolio/login.asp
Enter your username and password, and you will get into your own page.
Each category is in its own row.
Clicking “Edit” will allow you to read the prompt and complete the sheet.
— If your paper is from a Truman course, clicking that box will allow you to enter the name and number of the course.
— The link to the catalog will help you look them if you forgot the course number.
— Complete the rest of the information buttons and boxes as best you can.
— In the first box, do your best to describe the assignment. If you have the assignment prompt online, you may wish to include it or link to it. If not, just write in a couple of sentences to help us understand the context of the assignment.
— Finally, explain why you think this item fulfils the prompt and demonstrates the requested kind of thinking. In addition, comment on whether you think this work really is your best work in this area, if you have lost a paper that might fulfill the prompt better, or if you never did work in this area of thinking in college.
— After you have uploaded the document, come back to this page and click “ready to submit.”
Clicking on “Upload Document” will allow you to submit your paper or artifact to go with the prompt.
For the cover letter, you may either upload a document directly, or enter text into a textbook.
CD Submission:
The prompts are available individually on the Portfolio Project website (http://assessment.truman.edu/components/portfolio/index.asp). They are located under "Summer 2008 Prompts." Each prompt should be downloaded to your computer and then filled out with as much information as possible. When an item is taken from a course, it is important that you include the specific course number and name. For the reflective cover letter, simply create your essay as a word processing document (preferably in rich text format, Microsoft Word, or a pdf file) and submit it. Be sure to include your name and Banner ID number on the cover letter as well.
To prevent confusion regarding the identity of submitted items, please use the following naming convention for all files: begin the file name with your Banner ID number, followed by the category of the submission (critical thinking, aesthetic analysis, etc.). For example, if you submitted a Word file for the cover letter, it might be named as follows: “000010552cover.doc.” Additional information to include in the file name is up to you.
The prompts may be incorporated directly into those items that are documents (place it at the front of the document). The prompts may also be completed and submitted as a separate file.
If you are enrolled in a capstone course, be sure to speak with your capstone experience instructor. He or she may wish you to submit items from separate prompts individually or all at once. For the final product you should copy the files to a CD-R with all items included. Mark the disk or CD with your full name and Banner ID number. If you do not have a capstone experience, you may submit your materials directly to the Office of Assessment and Testing. In any case, it will take at least two days to confirm that there are no readability problems with your CD or disk.
Why do we make you do this?
As you prepare to leave Truman State University, we ask you to leave behind a portfolio that gives us some “snapshots” of your learning and growth. We ask you to reflect on your experiences here and to share that reflection with us through the process of selecting and organizing items for a Liberal Arts and Sciences portfolio. The portfolio cover letters written by seniors have told us that the process of self-assessment and reflection was beneficial because it provided them with feelings of integration and closure. Furthermore, the portfolio you submit benefits the University in many ways.
Portfolio assessment provides a “thicker” description of the learning experiences of students and rounds out the data we acquire through standardized exams. When they review portfolios, faculty can assess the nature and quality of the liberal arts and sciences experiences of graduating seniors. Faculty members from across the disciplines gather in May and June to read items in every portfolio. Our goal is not to make judgments about individual students but to learn more about patterns of student learning experiences, growth, and achievement and to learn how seniors assess their time at Truman.
The quantitative and qualitative data we accumulate while reading student work provide information about the liberal arts and sciences curriculum, environment, and culture at Truman. Such data influence the continued evolution of the Liberal Studies Program. Individual faculty members who participate in portfolio readings report that they use the information to reflect on and refine their syllabi, courses, classroom practices, and advising. Faculty in several disciplines have worked together to add, revise or fine-tune core and major courses in light of the portfolio findings. The information has been used by groups of students, faculty, staff, and administrators to monitor the effectiveness of Truman and to set goals for continuous quality improvement.
If you would like to see more on the evaluation of portfolios, including the descriptors for the various categories, please examine the Assessment Almanac (follow any of the links labeled “Portfolio Results”). You will find a description of the process we use, along with results and excerpts from student cover letters.
We keep portfolios ten years to conduct “longitudinal” research about the University and its effectiveness. We use the aggregate data for improvement, but occasionally contact a graduate for permission to quote from the cover letter or a cover sheet for our reports about the assessment project. Be sure to complete and return the “Permission for use” document.
Thank you for your serious response to our requests and for your assistance in examining the liberal arts and sciences environment at Truman. We look forward to reading your portfolio.
Sincerely,
The Liberal Arts and Sciences Portfolio Project Team
contact daette@truman.edu for problems with this site