BIS 300F

Interdisciplinary Inquiry:

The Aims of Education

David S. Goldstein, Ph.D.

Learning Portfolio Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with a chance to reflect upon what you have learned, to critically analyze your work, and to practice the selection of and presentation of your work to an audience.

You will submit your portfolio electronically, using the Catalyst Portfolio tool.  I use electronic portfolios for several reasons:

• They eliminate the use of paper, because I can read and comment on your portfolio's comments online;
• You do not have to worry about printer problems, which are much more common than other computer problems;
  
• You and I can work on portfolios from anywhere in the world where we have Internet access, without having to haul papers around;
• Your portfolio will remain archived, so you will have access to it when you need to complete your graduation portfolio in your senior capstone course;
• You can submit your portfolio without being on campus on the due date;
• Neither you nor I can lose your documents.

• The guidelines for what to include are listed below. I strongly recommend downloading the learning portfolio items from the Catalyst Portfolio tool (see "Downloading and submitting the portfolio," below) so you can see what you will need to respond to.  That will give you time to think about and draft responses.

• Downloading and submitting the portfolio: When you are ready to submit your portfolio, log onto the Portfolio tool at <
  http://portfolio.washington.edu/optin.cgi?owner=davidgs&id=4374>. You will need your UW Net ID to log on.

• Under "Choose a portfolio location," please choose the default location and then click the "Continue" button. After receiving a confirmation that your portfolio was installed, you will see the main portfolio page. You do not need to click on the instructions, because that link will just take you to this page.
  

• First, click on the "Preferences" link at the top of the page.  Enter your full name and any valid e-mail address, and then, under "Portfolio Preferences," click on the box next to "Notify me when a submitted portfolio is returned."

• Then, one by one, you will add content to your electronic portfolio. Refer to the specific instructions below for each item.

1. Essay. Your essay is the first component of your midquarter learning portfolio. To submit this artifact, click on the blue "Essay" phrase from the main portfolio menu. Click on the blue "Attach artifact" button. In the pull-down menu following "Artifact type," choose "A file from your hard drive." Then use the "Browse" button and locate the file on your computer. In the next box, name your artifact "Lastname BIS300 Essay," using your last name in place of Lastname and omitting the quotation marks. Don't change the artifact location (leave it "My Artifacts"). Then click the "Create Artifact" button.  You do not need to write anything in the "Your reflection" text box; just leave it blank.  IMPORTANT: Be sure you have named the Microsoft Word document properly according to the learning portfolio assignment sheet, and be sure that you attach the artifact (the essay) correctly.  If your artifact is attached correctly, an icon with a "W" on it (for Microsoft Word) will appear on your Essay page of the portfolio.  With this item and all of the others, you can click the "Save" button periodically to make sure you don't lose your work, but when you are all finished, you must click on the "Finished" button. That should take you back to the main portfolio menu.
2. Contribution Self-Assessment. To begin your contribution self-assessment, click on that blue phrase. In the provided dialogue box, write two substantial paragraphs that explain (a) which of the participant profiles described in the course's contribution document at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Partic.html> best fits you so far, and why you think so, matching specific elements of the descriptions to your own observations about your contributions so far; and (b) which of the small group roles, described in that same document, you have already tried.  Please note that I expect this short response to be carefully written and proofread. I recommend composing your short response in Word so you can edit, proofread, and spellcheck, and then paste your finished response into the space in the portfolio.
3. Research Proposal. Leave this page empty but include it in the midquarter portfolio by clicking on that blue phrase and then on the "Finished" button.
4. Reflective paper. Leave this page empty but include it in the midquarter portfolio by clicking on that blue phrase and then on the "Finished" button.

• It does not matter when you submit items into your portfolio.  You can submit them one at a time, or all at once.  I will not be able to see any of them, though, until you submit the entire portfolio to me for review.  This means that you can change things, add things, edit things, etc., without worrying about me seeing your work until it is ready for me.  It also means, though, that even if items are in your portfolio by the deadline, they do not count as "on time" unless the entire portfolio is submitted to me by the deadline.  It is like putting things into a folder to turn in to a professor.  He or she does not care when you put your work into the folder.  He or she cares only when the folder gets submitted.  Please make sure you do not submit the portfolio until it is ready, and when you do submit it, please make sure that it contains everything that is supposed to be included.
  

• When you have submitted both of the elements of your portfolio, you need to click on the green "Submit" button to submit the entire portfolio to me for review. When you click on that button, you will see a list of the artifacts that you have submitted. Click on the "Check ALL pages" button just below the list. PRINT THIS PAGE! The printed list will be the only proof you have that all of the documents were submitted in the portfolio! Then click on the "Submit" button. You should get a pop-up confirmation that your portfolio has been submitted. Then log out and close your browser window to protect your UW Net ID. Important: Once you click the "Submit" button, you cannot go back to add anything, so make sure everything is in its final form and that all of the documents are included before clicking on "Submit."

Your midquarter learning portfolio is due online at 5:35 p.m. sharp on Thursday, Nov. 9. There is no grace period for the midquarter portfolio because there is no significant penalty for not submitting a midquarter portfolio.  You just will not get comments on your portfolio's contents.  I also will not confirm receipt of midquarter portfolios for the same reason--they just are not crucial like the final portfolios are.  However, you can check the submission for yourself:

• After submitting your portfolio, from the main page, check to see if an icon with an "S" (for "Submitted") appears next to each page that you wanted to submit. Then, open each page. The top of each page should say, in red letters, "This page has been submitted, and currently cannot be edited." That tells you that the page was, indeed, submitted with the portfolio.

• Then scroll down to the bottom of each page that is supposed to contain an artifact (e.g., a paper that you were supposed to attach) to see if the bottom of the page shows the artifact that you were supposed to attach. That tells you that the submitted page had the attached artifact. Print this page for each of the pages of the submitted portfolio. This is your assurance that (a) every page was submitted, and (b) every page that is supposed to have an attached artifact does have an attached artifact.  Also, be sure to open every artifact to make sure it is the right document.
  

• About seven days after you submit your midquarter portfolio, I will return your portfolio (follow the same link as the one you used to get to the Portfolio before), with my comments.  I will not comment on midquarter portfolios submitted after the deadline, so please do not bother to submit a late midquarter portfolio.  I will deduct ten percentage points from the score of final portfolios that did not have a corresponding midquarter portfolio submitted.  If you activated e-mail notification as instructed above, you theoretically will receive an e-mail message when your portfolio is ready for you to pick up although it seems that students do not always receive this message for some reason.  (I think the messages might go to some junk mail folders because they are misidentified as spam.)  I will read, comment on, and return midquarter portfolios in the order in which I receive them, so the earlier you submit your midquarter portfolio, the more time you will have for revisions.
  

• Important:  When you re-open your midquarter portfolio to re-read my comments after the first time you get your midquarter portfolio back, it will look like my midquarter comments have disappeared.  To make my comments re-appear, you have to click on the "View previous comments" link which is nearly hidden at the bottom of each portfolio page.
  

• If you want assistance, the best people to ask are the computer lab consultants (who are trained in the Catalyst tools), or me, or both.  The librarians in the Campus Library often can be very helpful, but they have not been specifically trained to help with Catalyst tools, so the computer lab consultants are a better bet.  Click on this link for more information about the UWB Computing Helpdesk: <http://www.uwb.edu/infosys/helpdesk.html>.

Final Portfolio

• First, gather all of your work that is to be included in your course-end learning portfolio. The guidelines for what to include are listed below. I strongly recommend downloading the learning portfolio items from the Catalyst Portfolio tool (see "Downloading and submitting the portfolio," below) so you can see what you will need to respond to.  That will give you time to think about and draft responses.

• Then, write a formal, reflective paper of about 800 words (no fewer than 600 and no more than 1000) that discusses, in an order that makes sense as the best way to present your thinking:

• your reflections upon what you feel you have learned in this course, with a focus on your performance rather than on the course itself
• how you think you learned what you learned
• how you feel about the various aspects of your work, including, but not limited to, the degree to which you have made progress in the following areas:
  • critical reading
  • formal writing
  • small-group and full-class discussions
  • understanding of the aims of education and your relationship to them
• what you feel you will carry into your future courses and into your lifelong learning
• what your priorities are for continuing improvement and learning

• As a formal piece of university writing, your reflective essay should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times New Roman) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. By "formal," I mean that I expect carefully considered and carefully written work, which should be formally formatted, including double spacing. This probably requires some writing and revision before you can produce a high-quality, final product to include in the portfolio. First-person ("I") statements are fine. Please re-read "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html> after getting your main ideas down on paper but before submitting your final version of your reflective essay. Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Reflective Essay" but rather a short hint of your paper's main point or thrust) and a standard academic heading (as described in T20 in "Tips for Better Prose").

• Just before you submit your reflective paper online, do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) to make sure you meet the 600- to 1000-word parameters. You do not need to type the number of words; I will be able to do my own word count of your paper.

• Needless to say, your work must be entirely original. Using another person's ideas or words without proper attribution, whether intentional or accidental, constitutes plagiarism, and will result in a zero on this assignment. Please re-read "Maintaining Academic Integrity" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.

• Downloading and submitting the portfolio: When you are ready to submit your portfolio, log onto the Portfolio tool at <http://portfolio.washington.edu/optin.cgi?owner=davidgs&id=4374>. You will need your UW Net ID to log on.

• Under "Choose a portfolio location," please choose the default location and then click the "Continue" button. After receiving a confirmation that your portfolio was installed, you will see the main portfolio page. You do not need to click on the instructions, because that link will just take you to this page.
  

• Click on the "Preferences" link at the top of the page check to make sure that your full name is still entered from when you completed the midquarter portfolio.
  

• Then, one by one, you will add content to your electronic portfolio. Refer to the specific instructions below for each item.

1. Essay. Your final version of your essay is the first component of your learning portfolio. Attach the final version here.  To submit this artifact, click on the blue "Essay" phrase from the main portfolio menu. Click on the blue "Attach artifact" button. In the pull-down menu following "Artifact type," choose "A file from your hard drive." Then use the "Browse" button and locate the file on your computer. In the next box, name your artifact "Lastname BIS300 Essay Final," using your last name in place of Lastname and omitting the quotation marks and including the spaces exactly as shown.  Don't change the artifact location (leave it "My Artifacts"). Then click the "Create Artifact" button.  If your artifact is attached correctly, an icon with a big "W" on it (for Microsoft Word) will appear on your Essay page of the portfolio.  Please leave the original document(s), too.  Then, in the "Your reflection" text box, type either "revised" or "not revised" to indicate whether the final version of your essay is different from the one you submitted in the midterm portfolio ("revised") or if it is the same ("not revised").  If you do not indicate that the essay was revised, I will assume that it is not, and I will not bother to open the new artifact.  Then, click on the "Finished" button. That should take you back to the main portfolio menu.
   
2. Contribution Self-Assessment. To begin your contribution self-assessment, click on that blue phrase. In the provided dialogue box, type a line, using a row of hyphens, below your midquarter assessment.  Then type "FINAL SELF-ASSESSMENT" right below that line.  Underneath that, write two substantial paragraphs that explain (a) which of the participant profiles described in the course's participation document at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Partic.html> best fits you now that we have reached the end of the course, and why you think so, matching specific elements of the descriptions to your own observations about your contributions so far; and (b) which of the small group roles, described in that same document, you have tried this quarter.  Please note that I expect this short response to be carefully written and proofread. I recommend composing your short response in Word so you can edit, proofread, and spellcheck, and then paste your finished response into the space in the Portfolio (although the formatting will be lost, which is o.k.).  It is o.k. if your final response is identical to, or nearly identical to, your midquarter response, or to a response you wrote for a portfolio in a different course of mine, as long as it makes sense right now.  When ready, click on the "Finished" button.
3. Research Proposal. Your final version of your research proposal is the next component of your learning portfolio. If you completed your proposal as part of a group, every group member's name should appear on the document itself, but each person who collaborated on a single proposal must submit the proposal individually in his or her portfolio, even though those documents are identical. To submit this artifact, click on the blue "Research Proposal" phrase from the main portfolio menu. Click on the blue "Attach artifact" button. In the pull-down menu following "Artifact type," choose "A file from your hard drive." Then use the "Browse" button and locate the file on your computer. In the next box, name your artifact "Lastname BIS300 Proposal Final," using your last name in place of Lastname and omitting the quotation marks. Don't change the artifact location (leave it "My Artifacts"). Then click the "Create Artifact" button.  Write in the dialogue box whether or not you have revised the research proposal since the version that you posted in Blackboard.  A simple "Revised" or "Not revised" is sufficient.  If you do not indicate that the research proposal was revised, I will assume that it is not, and I will not bother to open the new artifact.  If your artifact is attached correctly, an icon with a big "W" on it (for Microsoft Word) will appear on your Research Proposal page of the portfolio.  When ready, click on the "Finished" button.
4. Reflective paper. Your reflective paper is the next component of your learning portfolio. To submit this artifact, click on the blue "Reflective Paper" phrase from the main portfolio menu. Click on the blue "Attach artifact" button. In the pull-down menu following "Artifact type," choose "A file from your hard drive." Then use the "Browse" button and locate the file on your computer. In the next box, name your artifact "Lastname BIS300 Reflective," using your last name in place of Lastname and omitting the quotation marks, and using exactly the spacing as shown. Don't change the artifact location (leave it "My Artifacts"). Then click the "Create Artifact" button. When you get to the next screen, click on the "Finished" button. That should take you back to the main portfolio menu.

• It does not matter when you submit items into your portfolio.  You can submit them one at a time, or all at once.  I will not be able to see any of them, though, until you submit the entire portfolio to me for review.  This means that you can change things, add things, edit things, etc., without worrying about me seeing your work until it is ready for me.  It also means, though, that even if items are in your portfolio by the deadline, they do not count as "on time" unless the entire portfolio is submitted to me by the deadline.  It is like putting things into a folder to turn in to a professor.  He or she does not care when you put your work into the folder.  He or she cares only when the folder gets submitted.  Please make sure you do not submit the portfolio until it is ready, and when you do submit it, please make sure that it contains everything that is supposed to be included.  If you submit one page later than other pages, the entire portfolio will bear the date and time of the last thing you submitted.
  

• When you have submitted all of the elements of your portfolio, you need to click on the green "Submit" button to submit the entire portfolio to me for review.
• When you click on that button, you will see a list of the artifacts that you have submitted. Click on the "Check ALL pages" button just below the list. PRINT THIS PAGE! The printed list will be the only proof you have that all of the documents were submitted in the portfolio!
• Important: Once you click the "Submit" button, you cannot go back to add anything, so make sure everything is in its final form and that all of the documents are included before clicking on "Submit."  When everything is ready, click on the "Submit" button. You should get a pop-up confirmation that your portfolio has been submitted.
• Then log out and close your browser window to protect your UW Net ID. 

Your final learning portfolio is due online at 5:35 p.m. sharp on Tuesday, Dec. 5. Because I have provided the maximum amount of time to complete this assignment, because I need to return graded portfolios before grades are due, and because I need to ensure an equal amount of time to be fair to everyone in class, I will accept late portfolios submitted after 5:35 p.m. on Dec. 5 but no later than 5:35 p.m. sharp on Dec. 6, with twenty-five percentage points deducted from the learning portfolio score (no deduction from the score on the interpretive research paper).  However, I will be an absolute stickler for that grace period.  Let me be clear:  A portfolio submitted at 5:36 p.m. on Dec. 6 is not one minute late, but rather is twenty-four hours and one minute late, and I will not accept it.  I will accept no portfolios after 5:35 p.m. sharp on Dec. 6 for any reason, which probably will result in a 0.0 for the course, so I strongly recommend finishing early to avoid any unforeseen problems.  Try not to count on the twenty-four hour grace period.  Think of the deadline as 5:35 p..m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

• Check the submission for yourself:

• After submitting your portfolio, from the main page, check to see if an icon with an "S" (for "Submitted") appears next to each page that you wanted to submit. Then, open each page. The top of each page should say, in red letters, "This page has been submitted, and currently cannot be edited." That tells you that the page was, indeed, submitted with the portfolio.

• I am aware that the importance of submitting your final portfolio properly can lead to anxiety.  I am willing to assist with submission if you want, and confirm receipt of your final portfolio:
  

• If you want to submit your portfolio with me at your side, please meet me in UW1-120 any time between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5.  Bring all of your documents on a flash drive, CD, or floppy disk (not a Zip disk), or e-mail the documents to yourself, or both (as an extra precaution).  I recommend having the documents with you in two different forms to increase the chances that at least one of them will work.  Bring a printout of these instructions!
  

• To help you relax after you submit your final portfolio, I will confirm receipt of your portfolio the morning after you submit it.  At midnight every night, Catalyst will send me an e-mail message that lists everyone who submitted a portfolio in the previous twenty-four hours.  In the morning, I will look at each one of those portfolios and, by 9:00 a.m., I will e-mail each student (using the student's official UW e-mail address) to indicate whether or not everything looks o.k.  I will do this every day.  So, it is very much to your advantage to submit your portfolio early so you can correct any problems.  If you want me to check your portfolio in time for you to fix any problems, then submit your portfolio by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 4, so I can e-mail you the next morning (Tuesday, Dec. 5) and you will still have several hours to fix any problems.  Regardless of when you submit your portfolio, if you do not get an e-mail message from me by 9:00 on the morning after you thought you submitted it, please e-mail me immediately.
  

Basis for grading your learning portfolio:

Completeness (responds appropriately to the assignment in form and content)	20 percent
Depth of response (quality of detail and support; sophistication of ideas and argument)	70 percent
Quality of writing (organization; spelling, grammar, diction, punctuation)	10 percent
TOTAL	10 percent of final course grade

• Note that the score on the learning portfolio is entirely independent of your score on your interpretive research paper. Your paper will be graded separately and the grade and comments will be returned to you as part of the returned learning portfolio.
• If you activated e-mail notification as instructed above, you will receive an e-mail message when your portfolio is ready for you to pick up, although students sometimes do not receive this message.  (I think the message sometimes goes to a junk mail folder.)
  
• I will read, grade, and return final portfolios in the order in which I receive them, so the earlier you submit your final portfolio, the earlier you will get your grades.  My goal is to return each portfolio within ten days of its submission.  Please do not e-mail me to ask when your portfolio will be returned.  That really slows me down as I am trying to read hundreds of pages of documents in the portfolios.  Just count on picking it up (at the same link, above, that you used to submit the portfolio) ten calendar days after submitting it.  (Portfolios submitted during the grace period might take longer than ten calendar days.)
  
• Let me emphasize that I expect your best effort in this and every exercise. My expectations are high because your ability to produce outstanding work is high.

• Some additional advice:

• Save your work often (maybe every ten minutes) so you do not lose everything when your computer freezes.
• Visit the Writing Center (see <http://www.bothell.washington.edu/writingcenter/>).
• I do not have time to read rough drafts, but I am very glad to discuss your portfolio or its components as you work on them. You would be wise to visit me during office hours (see syllabus) to make sure you are on the right track, and to get advice about any particular difficulties you might be encountering.
• Re-read this assignment sheet just before assembling the final portfolio to make sure it meets all of the requirements.

This page last updated November 8, 2006.

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