CIS Portfolio

What is a portfolio: A portfolio is a structured collection of your work and your achievements. It is evidence of your knowledge and skills and of your professional development. It should also be representative of your work and what you want to achieve professionally and your progress toward achieving your goals. It will be used to demonstrate your progress at BCC to your professors and it will be used when you are looking for a job in the field.

Value of a portfolio: Your portfolio will be a marketing tool that you can use when you are job hunting. Surveys have shown that prospective employers want to know about: your knowledge of the subject matter you studied, your skills, your ability to use your knowledge and skills productively and effectively, your ability to think critically, your ability to analyze a problem effectively and develop a well thought out and workable solution, your learning style, your ability to communicate, your ability to collaborate and to lead, your creativity and your understanding of your professional development and professional goals among other things. A portfolio will help you to think about your education, your goals and your professional development and to collect information in an organized and presentable fashion.

Creating a portfolio: You will start creating your portfolio with material (called artifacts) from your first class or classes. You will use HTML or XHTML to create the structure. After the first course, you will have artifacts from the beginning of your learning experience. As you learn and develop other skills, you will undoubtedly eliminate some of your early work and include the more complex and sophisticated work you produce in your more advanced courses. Your portfolio should not just contain artifacts; it should also contain your thoughts about what you are learning, how you use the information and how it applies to other things that you have learned. It is your responsibility to maintain the portfolio throughout your courses at BCC so that you can produce a meaningful product at the end of the capstone course. Again, remember that this is a pilot project; we want you to develop your own portfolio that is about you and will represent you and the college well when you apply for a job. Please remember that the contents should be totally professional and something you would be willing for any employer or faculty member to review. As you create your portfolio think like the person reviewing the product and decide how they will view your product. Be able to explain to yourself and to them why you included certain artifacts and be sure that the explanation and comments allow the portfolio to be viewed and understood when you are not there. Your portfolio should highlight your competencies in a way that relates to the career you are pursuing.

Contents of your portfolio: Your portfolio is about you, so it should be your work. Choices about content should reflect instructor requirements and work you feel represents you well. Below is a list of things to consider for your portfolio (some are required and some are optional). Remember that both this assignment and your portfolio are works in progress so the faculty reserves the right to add content requirements during the capstone course. Changes will also be posted to www.pgrocer.net/portfolio/requirements.html.

• Title Page (required): Title page containing name, major and option, description of the option and what it has prepared you to do (added during capstone course), professional goals and contact information including an email address that is viable after graduation. Be careful to use a professional sounding email address. During development, you may use your BCC email.
• Table of Contents (required): The table of contents should provide a structure for your portfolio. Information should be organized and easily accessible. Remember you are creating a web site and the organization should make it easy for the user to find things and to move around your site.
• Resume: (an up-to-date professional resume)
• Courses (required): List the courses you are taking or have taken – this should be updated each semester. You should also describe the courses with information like the material covered, what you learned and how you can apply what you learned. Remember to keep your comments informational and professional. If you have criticisms they should be phrased constructively.
• Evidence of learning in the following areas (required): This section should contain artifacts that show the competencies that you have developing and an explanation of the artifact.
• Computing skills (this should be the major part of your portfolio with evidence of the computing skills you have learned – it should be subdivided by categories that are specific to your option)
• Critical thinking (problem identification, evidence gathering, analysis, options and solution)
• Research and projects: (include information about projects that involved research and analysis and the approach you took in design and development)
• Communications (writing, speech or presentation)
• Teamwork: (cooperation, ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts)
• Leadership: (if you have been involved in a leadership position either academically or professionally, you should include this section)
• Creative: (creative solutions to problems, innovation, design)
• Community: (if you have been involved in Service Learning, tutoring, a volunteer project, school organizations etc., you should include this section)
• Professional Activities (optional): This section should include information on professional activities including internships, conferences, workshops, professional organizations, and certificates that you have earned.
• Self-awareness (required): Information about your learning style, what you enjoy, your goals, your plan for achieving your goals. Things to consider in writing this essay are:
• What led you to choose your major and your option?
• What learning experiences have been important to your professional development?
• What is your learning process and how has it grown and changed while at college?
• In what areas have you grown the most – explain?
• Have you been able to apply your knowledge in your current work environment? If so how?
• How has the field you have majored in changed and how do you see it changing in the future?
• How has your education prepared you for a career?
• What are your learning goals for the future, both short-term and long-term? Do you see yourself as a life-long learner?
• Interests, outside activities, recognition, awards (optional): This section can include your interests, outside activities and hobbies, any recognition that you have received including honors and awards that you have received.
• List of references (required): A list of people that have agreed to serve as a reference with a line about the context in which they have seen your knowledge and abilities.

Artifacts:

The artifacts you choose to include can be from these categories or other. They should be assessable on the web.:

• Written assignments which demonstrate your ability and knowledge in particular areas (they should span a wide area showing a range).
• Examples of your work such as programs, games, web site, network design.
• Comments and evaluations from work and school.
• Presentations.
• Audio and video.
• Blogs and/or wikis.

Evaluation: You will need to work with your instructor/professor in the initial course (CIS17) and your instructor/professor in the capstone course about specific content and artifacts that will be required. Instructors/professors in other CIS courses may also require that certain assignments and/or evidence of specific knowledge and skills are included. They may choose to make portfolio evaluation a grade in the CIS course they are teaching.