Course Portfolio: Making Pedagogy Visible

Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Queensborough Community College, CUNY

Spring 2008

Course Portfolio: An Introduction

A course portfolio is a means of documenting the intellectual work of teaching a particular course

It is a comprehensive and efficient way to document and design the execution of a course, including student learning

Making pedagogy visible: Collect, Select, Reflect, Connect

Assignments

Course Portfolio

Goals &

Objectives

Media

Clips

Reflection

Notes

Imag

es

LinksPr

ojec

t Pl

anReview & Feedback

Stu

den

t W

ork

Critica

l

Analysis

Pedagogical

Research &

Scholarship

Support

Materials

Professional Development (Pedagogical Research, Scholarly publications, presentations, etc.)

Course Components

Course Artifacts and the Institutional Context

Storage and Information Mgt. (QCC- CUNY, Epsilen, etc.) for greater accessibility of data

Student Work

Reflection

Critical Analysis of Key Assignments

Guidance & Mentoring

Communication ( World wide web, blogs, podcast, learning communities)

A Course Portfolio connects People, Data, Systems,

Institutions

Course Portfolio

Feedback and Review Course Portfolio

Examples of Course PortfolioFrom CASTL Higher Education gallery

The sites in this collection include web based portfolios on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects. They display the inquiry, processes, and reflections of faculty from various disciplines. At the same time, they reveal some unique ways of representing individual faculty investigations of teaching, collaborative inquiry, and disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/castl_he.html

http://www.courseportfolio.org/peer/pages/index.jsp?what=showcasedList (Peer Review of Teaching and Learning)

Examples• Advanced Mathematics for Secondary Teachers: Course Portfolio

For the Fall 2000 class taught at Michigan State University Curtis Bennett http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/castl_he/cbennett/index.html

• Western Civilization: A Course Portfoliohttp://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/castl_he/mkelly/welcome.htm

• An Alternative Approach to General Chemistry: Addressing the Needs of At-Risk Students with Cooperative Learning Strategies Dennis Jacobs

• http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/castl_he/djacobs/index2.htm

• Learning Interdisciplinarity: A Course Portfolio Sherry Linkon http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/castl_he/slinkon/CoursePortfolioHome.htm

What are the benefits of creating a Course Portfolio?

By identifying and documenting teaching effectiveness, a course portfolio ensures that quality teaching is recognized, valued, and rewarded

Teaching can be understood and presented as a form of scholarship, utilizing the accountability through peer review that already exists in higher education

What are the benefits of a course portfolio?

For Faculty

Exhibit and reflect on pedagogical issues

Cultivate scholarship Convey one’s work to

appropriate audience (to review committees-

for promotion & tenure, faculty awards, etc.)

For Students

Access to previous semester material

Materials adapted to diverse learning styles

Identify common mistakes

Familiarity with past student experiences

Provide a source of information to improve courses

Provide useful accreditation and assessment documents

Access to course materials from previous semesters

Identify supplemental material to enhance the previously collected material

Benefits to administrators and departments

Components of Visible Pedagogy

Approach

Rationale

Overview

Suggested Artifacts

Pedagogy

Course Development Course Content and goalsLearning Objectives

Plan for accomplishing goalsStudent Learning

Student work samples; ReflectionRelevant Data

Reflection & Critical Review

Institutional Context Collaboration and feedback

Enhancing current materialImproving teaching strategies

Support for new faculty

Types of Course Portfolio

Benchmark Course Portfolio: focuses on documenting a snapshot or range of activities

and learning from a course Inquiry Course Portfolio:

focuses on exploring a specific issue or question in a course Developmental Course Portfolio:

focuses on a study or research conducted over a period of time, and may be directly tied to outcomes or rubrics.

Representational Course Portfolio: focuses on student achievements in relation to particular

developmental goals and is, therefore, selective. Adapted from PRTP project in documenting, assessing, and improving student learning (University of

Nebraska, Lincoln) http://www.courseportfolio.org/peer/pages/index.jsp?what=rootMenuD&rootMenuId=2

1. List of items included in the course portfolio2. Teaching materials

2.1 Syllabus; Learning Objectives2.2 Course manual; Lecture notes2.3 Additions and revisions

3. Support materials4.1 Computer files, programs, and documents4.2 Departmental resources and workshops4.3 Additions and revisions

4. Assignments4.1. Expected format for assignments4.2. Homework; Quizzes and exams4.3. Laboratory experiments and in-class exercises

5. Student work5.1. Samples artifacts; projects/papers; presentations5.2. Graded assignments;

6. Personal reflections and student feedback6.1 Reflections before/after the first day6.2 Reflections during/after the semester6.3 Critical review of assignments 6.4 Summary of relevant e-mails

7. Future Issues

Course Portfolio Contents