The College Portfolio Handbook: Student Success to Global Citizenship
Dominick & Funk, 2003
| Description | Pedagogy | Market | Competing Books | Physical Characteristics | Supplemental Materials |
Description of the Book
The College Portfolio Handbook: Student Success to Global Citizenship is primarily,
for first-year college students in the institutional foundation course. The
mission of the text is to assist the first-year student in honoring, understanding,
and connecting their learning for themselves, for academic direction, for aligning
the mission of higher education which is to produce productive citizen leaders,
and to inspire the life-long learning process of archiving, understanding, and
showcasing their learning for more proactive career and community connections.
Most of the text focuses on the first-year college student designing and developing
a college portfolio, however, the text takes the student through the college
years and post-university life incorporating technology for the design and development
of every stage of the college-learning portfolio. A companion Website has been
designed to support the college student and course facilitator using the text.
This “hands on” text supports the role of higher education in mirroring what a productive citizen needs to do to succeed in the role of future global citizen leader. One way the text addresses this is to show students how to archive their learning, understand what they have learned, plan for their future learning, and connect their talents and skills to the needs of society. Since more college students today will be living and working in an entrepreneurial, globally diverse, and technologically evolving environment, the text shows them how to take care of their learning history through the use of college student portfolios which provide a map for understanding the college learning experience as well as a learning template for continuing the process in their post-university life. The college student portfolio text mirrors the current culture of the workforce and higher education which demands that our college graduates be able to manage their learning, plan for continued education to keep current with the necessary expertise development in their technologically global worksites and communities.
Rationale for textbook
College portfolios have become an integral part of the learner-based culture focus of higher education. One reason is for college student learner empowerment in preparation for living the 21st Century Society, which is more entrepreneurial in nature. By that is meant, today’s college student's live in a world that demands lifelong learning, cultural diversity, technology savvy, and an independent spirit of taking care of the learning needs of the self and others.
College students across the nation are currently using portfolios. Why? The portfolio showcases the student work beyond the college transcript, while assisting in academically aligning their career and citizenship goals. Alverno University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Iowa are just a few institutions that have adopted the portfolio system for students. These universities assist students in tracking their learning, systemizing their accomplishments, and producing a “best of show” portfolio upon graduation. The college students at Alverno University use a Diagnostic Digital Portfolio to track their learning.
Portfolios have become such an important part of academic life, that the American Association of Higher Education has developed a The Portfolio Clearinghouse database. This academic database showcases the various methods of portfolio development across universities. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education produced a state-by-state report card for Higher Education entitled Measuring Up 2000. The report called for universities across the nation to move towards ways to assess college student learning beyond the transcript. Creation of student portfolios is a solution which helps students track their learning, understand what they have learned, prepare for career, and understand their role as future leaders in the local, national, and global arenas.
With this discussion as a backdrop for proposing this textbook, currently what is needed is a text designed for college students entering university life which immediately begins the lifelong learning process that is necessary for making sense of one’s learning for self and the greater good of society. College student portfolios do just that. However, there currently does not seem to be a text that focuses on acculturating the important role of productive citizenship, university success, and career development within the framework of a college student portfolio.
Therefore, the authors are proposing this text to fill a need in the academic textbook market, thus providing a way for first-year college students to honor, understand, and connect their learning as productive global citizens. The text will include an extensive chapter on maintaining the college learning portfolio process in the sophomore year, junior year, senior year, and in post-university life.
Distinctive Features of Textbook
The textbook provides a concise direction for the design and implementation of a college portfolio, which focuses on the mission of higher education, which is to educate productive citizens, prepare students for career development and university success. That mission of higher education and the self-development of the college student are threaded throughout the production of the college student portfolio process.
The College Student Portfolio has five continual phases of development which help you design, deliver, and continually assess your learning history and learning plans: Reflect, Assess, Collect, Connect, and Express – RACCE Portfolio Process. By going through these continual phases of development of your College Student Portfolio you will have (1) a distinct archived history of your learning and plans for your future learning, which results in a Reflective Portfolio/Private Portfolio and (2) have the baseline to design and develop a Best of Show Portfolio/Public Portfolio to present your learning story and learning plans to society for career search, graduate school, community work, entrepreneurial endeavors, and community service.
Your Reflective Portfolio includes the following three sections (1) Reflect: Mapping Your College Learning Self-Assessment Instruments (2) Assess: Self-Assessment + Faculty Assessment + Peer Assessment + Stakeholder Assessment, and (3) Collect: Set up Reflective Portfolio Supporting Evidence File which archives both your learning history and incorporates future learning plans.
Your Best of Show Portfolio is designed based the on information provided from the Reflective Portfolio, which include using the self-assessment learning instruments and the supporting evidence files. There are two phases of the Best of Show Portfolio. (1) Connect: Develop the Mission, Design, and Format of the Best of Show Portfolio, and (2) Express: Present Portfolio to Public. The three phases of planning for the Best of Show Portfolio are deciding on the mission of the portfolio, creating the design of the portfolio, and selecting an effective format for the portfolio.
Once completed, your College Learning Portfolio: Reflective Portfolio and Best of Show Portfolio will help you honor, understand, and connect your learning for yourself and for your emerging role as college graduate and citizen leader. Part of a national academic movement in higher education, the College Learning Portfolio takes your learning beyond the college transcript and provides an empowering assessment format for your to archive your learning, assist your in better understanding the breadth and depth of your skills and talents, help you make better decisions about your future plans, and help other understand your talents, learning history, and your future potential as a citizen leader.
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Pedagogy
The mission of this text mirrors the mission that drives our academic work which
is to have our students: “Honor, understand, and connect their learning
to support their development as productive citizen and college graduates through
the design and development of a college portfolio. Weaving technology through
the college learning portfolio process which effectively strengthens the vision
and understanding of the college student learning process, while efficiently
connecting the student to their role as productive citizen.”
Every aspect of our work is anchored to our scholarship mission. Our scholarship goal is, first and foremost, to empower the student's learning experience through the use of portfolios thereby enriching their institutional foundation and institutional capstone experience, while aligning their learning to the mission of the institution, which is, becoming a productive citizen. Secondly, we take every opportunity to continue to develop and improve our scholarship work through creating a colleague network that extends across campuses, linking those currently working in the areas of college learning portfolios and institutional foundation and capstone courses.
Learning strategies
The learning strategies that underlie the approach of the text are based the theoretical paradigms of Adult Education and On-line Distance Learning, which are the authors’ disciplines.
The learner-based approach to the text design assists the college student in beginning the lifelong process of reflecting on learning, archiving learning, assessing learning, and showcasing learning. The reflection process provides the student with self-reflection as well as transformational learning, which helps the student grow and develop into a productive citizen. Keeping the theme of citizenship in the forefront of the college portfolio process assists the student in focusing on self-development and the importance of connecting that to the greater good of society. The Micro-View/Detailed View of Your College Learning and the Macro-View/Overview of Your College Learning keeps the student focused on key learning events, while staying connected to the necessary attributes of a productive citizen. Productive citizens develop the general and specific skills for career success and community leadership, continually concerned with the well being of our global community.
Learning Exercises and Companion Website:
Includes copies of all RACCE College Student Portfolio materials, samples of Reflective Portfolios and Best of Show Portfolios, E-portfolio templates for storyboarding, Table of Contents.
3. File Tab System
- Reflective Portfolio Filing Tab System
- Reflective Instruments: Mapping Your College Learning Instruments
- University Resource Learning Spreadsheet
- General Education Learning Spreadsheet
- Micro-View/Detailed View of Learning
- Macro-View/Overview of Learning
- Assessment Forms for Reflective and Best of Show Portfolio
- Best of Show Storyboards
4. Best of Show Templates for E-Portfolio
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Description of the Market
The target audience for The College Portfolio Handbook: Student Success to Global
Citizen are primarily, for first-year college students in the institutional
foundation course. The mission is to assist the first-year student in honoring,
understanding, and connecting their learning for themselves, for academic direction,
for aligning the mission of higher education which is to produce productive
citizen leaders, and to inspire the life-long learning process of archiving,
understanding, and showcasing their learning for more proactive career and community
connections. Most of the text focuses on the first-year college student designing
and developing a college portfolio, however, the text takes the student through
the college years and post-university life incorporating technology for the
design and development of every stage of the college-learning portfolio.
Additional target audience are (1) the first-year college students that are required to set up a baseline college portfolio through the institution, career services, or the student counseling areas, (2) as a companion text for general education courses, (3) as a companion text for discipline capstone and institutional capstone courses, (4) as a stand alone handbook for college students to use independently, and (5) for other settings of postsecondary education, such as, technical schools and continuing education programs.
General Profile of Student Taking Course using this Text:
As more and more universities begin to use career portfolios, this text would also serve as a companion resource for the process.
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Description of Competing Books
After reviewing comparative texts on the topic of portfolios or electronic portfolios,
there appears to be two elements that differentiate this proposed companion
text from others in the market. First, this proposed companion text targets
first-year or students in the early stages of their collegiate experience. We
are not limiting the audience to a particular discipline such as education,
business, or career advancement. The market appears to be saturated with texts
or chapters within texts geared toward educators developing a teaching portfolio,
or using a type of authentic assessment – portfolio assessment with their
students. The following examples demonstrate this narrow market audience.
Text |
Author |
Publisher |
Discipline / Career Specific |
| Portfolio Development and Adult Learning | CAEL | Kendall Hunt | X |
| Introduction to Using Portfolios in the Classroom | Danielson & Abrutyn | ASCD | X |
| The Portfolio Planner: Making Professional Portfolios that Work for You | Martin | Merrill | X |
| Creating Your Career Portfolio: At a Glance Guide for Students | Williams & Hall | Prentice Hall | X |
| The Reading Portfolio | Bosco & Buchner | Houghton Mifflin | X |
Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices Student, Faculty, and Institutional
Learning Volume Editor: Barbara Cambridge AAHE General Portfolio in Higher Ed.
The closest text to our proposal is Creating Your Career Portfolio: At a Glance Guide for Students by Anna Graf Williams and Karen J. Hall. This text outlines the use of the portfolio to showcase a variety of strengths, but does not connect the evidence contained in the portfolio to the student learning at the college level.
The second distinguishing factor of this proposal is the creative integration of technology throughout the text rather than being a pull-out topic or a “how to” guide. In the 21st century, competent technology use is a critical academic and professional skill. This proposal introduces technology within the context of an appropriate academic and professional use rather than from a skill development standpoint. Although best practices research in teaching technology indicate this approach yields the most effective learning results, current texts on this topic do not employ the integrated approach from a topical perspective.
Text |
Author |
Publisher |
Discipline Specific |
Heavy on How To |
| The Web Portfolio Guide: Creating Electronic Portfolios for the Web | Kimball | AB Longman | X |
|
| Portfolio to Accompany Becoming a Master Student | Walden | Houghton Mifflin | X (Accompanies Text) |
X |
| How to Create a Professional Electronic Portfolio: A guide for the Preservice and Beginning Teacher | Dice & Goldenhersh | Kendall Hunt | X |
X |
| A Framework of Portfolios for Freshman Composition | D J Henry | Kendall Hunt | X |
X |
Based on a review of similar texts, it is clear this proposal captures a unique niche that enables students to track their college learning from the first academic day through graduation and beyond. Furthermore, in addition to the first-year audience, this proposed text is appropriate for use as a companion text within academic disciplines or general education courses, as a career services resource, or for students who independently seek to more effectively leverage their learning experiences.
After a thorough review of the comparative text market, The College Portfolio Handbook: Student Success to Global Citizenship, provides the following information that is missing in the current portfolio textbook market:
1. Acculturates the concept of global citizenship with career development, thereby, directly aligning with the mission of higher education.
2. Tracks college student learning from the first academic day to post-university life.
3. Assists students in understanding their learning through the use of learning assessment instruments spanning from using university resources, general education, academic discipline, learning beyond the university, such as, employment, volunteer work, military service, and their life before college.
4. Provides a self-directed way for college students to manage the learning data, showcase the learning data, and utilize technology to efficiently and effectively develop and showcase their portfolios.
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Physical Characteristics of the Book
The proposed text contains five chapters and a companion Website:
Practical Experiences from the Field - In Class Use
Student-to-Student Feedback
First-year student excerpts from the RACCE College Student Portfolio Process Self-Assessment Instruments:
Unsolicited testimony from a graduating senior:
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The authors will have a companion Website for the text that will provide access
to materials supporting the design and implementation of the RACCE College Student
Portfolio. The companion Website entitled “Tech Connect for the College
Portfolio Handbook is provided in this section.
The mission of the companion Website is to:
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