Portfolio Development Focus On Learning June 2014 Janis Michael St Lawrence College

What is a Portfolio? A portfolio illustrates learning. It is your personal reflection of what you know you can do. Portfolio development engages reflection of prior experiences. Reflection results in a deeper learning of skills and experience. A portfolio can be comprehensive or tailored to a specific goal. It can take a paper form or an electronic one.

Types of Portfolios Master: holds all items. Career A gathering place for all your materials. Increases self awareness and self confidence. Career Advancement within an organization. Job Search: tailored to a position. Identifies transferable skills. Demonstrates commitment. Keep it to 8 – 10 documents.

Applications Education Reflection Post secondary applications. Prior learning assessment and recognition. Reflection Professional. A record of your accomplishments. Personal growth and healing. Heritage record keeping.

What Goes in a Portfolio? Goals. Chronology. Education. Experience. Competencies. Documentation.

Examples of Documentation Resume Transcript Reference letters Job Descriptions College involvement Illustration of team work Photos of special projects Share your ideas…

Format of a Portfolio A paper portfolio is typically designed in a binder format. Remember to include: Title page: colourful with photo, graphics, quote. Table of contents. Section dividers. Dividers should be oversized or contain extended tabs. Page protectors.

Student Portfolios Students can create a portfolio to demonstrate learning and to make connections between courses. Success can be tracked in a course or in a program. A portfolio is an excellent tool for work placement and career searching. It is a reflective process: reminds the student how far they have come. builds confidence in how much they know. requires students to feed forward assessments. It is an opportunity to demonstrate how essential employability skills were achieved: group work, team projects … Peer assessment as a formative tool is encouraged. A sample assessment is shown on next slide.

Marks Deducted Value Feature 2 Portfolio has an esthetically appealing design with a professional look. 6 Welcome page containing a head shot of yourself. Contains an introduction and contact information. Two or three sentences about yourself and your career objectives. 5 Education page. Program name and date of graduation at the top. 6 – 8 courses listed with a 1 or 2 sentence description of each. Diploma page. Program name and date of graduation at the top. Technical skills page. Soft skills. Describe 3 scenarios demonstrating strong soft skills. Activities and interests page. References page. Work experience page. Include work placement and paid work. Testimonials page. 8 Applied Knowledge page. Description of a project that demonstrates your networking skills. Description of a project that demonstrates your technical support skills. 3 Visually appealing header at the top of each page. Free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.

Additional Resources The Focus On Learning web site (http://www3.algonquincollege.com/fol/resources/) holds workshop resources. This includes an extensive portfolio guide from Loyalist College. Thank you to Mark Gallupe for his expertise and assistance with this interesting topic.

Contact Info Thank you for sharing your insight with me. Feel free to contact me with questions. I would love to hear about your portfolio accomplishments. Janis Janis Michael JMichael@sl.on.ca