Online Participation Portfolio (Preview)
What is the Online Portfolio Assignment?
The online participation portfolio (I'll also refer to as a blogging portfolio) is your opportunity to draw my attention to specific examples of your best online participation, in a framework that identifies what you thought was most valuable about each contribution.
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Some people contribute best when they write a smaller number of longer pieces, while others work best by giving a constant stream of briefer statements. Some students find that the act of writing a blog entry helps them make sense of the material (so they post early), while others feel they only have good things to say after they have had the chance to see what their peers have to say first.
The online participation portfolio (I'll also refer to as a blogging portfolio) is your opportunity to draw my attention to specific examples of your best online participation, in a framework that identifies what you thought was most valuable about each contribution.
.
Some people contribute best when they write a smaller number of longer pieces, while others work best by giving a constant stream of briefer statements. Some students find that the act of writing a blog entry helps them make sense of the material (so they post early), while others feel they only have good things to say after they have had the chance to see what their peers have to say first.
How Do I Submit the Portfolio?
Post an entry on your blog, and in the body of that entry include links to the online work you want to submit.
What Goes Into the Blogging Portfolio?
Select entries that you've posted on your blog, comments you've left on the course blog, and/or comments that you've left on someone else's blog. If you want to include what you've written in J-Web, you should re-post that material in a new blog entry.
How Do I Select What to Include?
Items you include in your portfolio should meet these criteria:
While the number of "coverage" entries should match the number of assigned readings and assigned discussion questions, beyond that, I don't have any strict requirements for how many entries should be in each category. You should include enough that you can be sure that I have seen your best work.
So the Portfolio is Mostly Just a List of Links?
Yes, but 1) write an introduction for the benefit of a person who does not know what a blogging portfolio is, and 2) identify each component of your portfolio as fitting into one or more categories.
Here, a student gives a basic list, with a label marking why she has included each item.
A different student -- who threw her whole heart and soul into the class, and as a result got quite a bit out of it -- chose instead to write an essay, linking all her work together in a narrative that helped her to solidify the course material.
What Purpose Does the Portfolio Serve?
If you missed the deadline for an agenda item or discussion response, the portfolio assignment allows you to demonstrate that you have caught up. It's also a good opportunity for you to review your work, to see how the idea covered by the course fit into one another.
Post an entry on your blog, and in the body of that entry include links to the online work you want to submit.
What Goes Into the Blogging Portfolio?
Select entries that you've posted on your blog, comments you've left on the course blog, and/or comments that you've left on someone else's blog. If you want to include what you've written in J-Web, you should re-post that material in a new blog entry.
How Do I Select What to Include?
Items you include in your portfolio should meet these criteria:
- Coverage (I've asked you to post something for each assigned reading and discussion question)
- Depth (some of those entries that show greater than usual depth)
- Timeliness (entries that you posted on time)
- Interaction (something that sparked a discussion, on your own blog, the course blog, or a peer's blog)
- Xenoblogging (a word that I made up... "xeno" means "guest" or "foreigner," so "xenoblogging" is the online writing that helped out your classmates.) Posting a link to a peer's blog entry, leaving a longer-than-usual comment on a peer's blog, or answering a question that someone else posted to someone else's blog are all examples of xenoblogging. (Blogging is boring if nobody seems to be reading your work, and this category rewards the students who do a good job letting their classmates know which of their online contributions are particularly valuable to the online discussion.)
While the number of "coverage" entries should match the number of assigned readings and assigned discussion questions, beyond that, I don't have any strict requirements for how many entries should be in each category. You should include enough that you can be sure that I have seen your best work.
So the Portfolio is Mostly Just a List of Links?
Yes, but 1) write an introduction for the benefit of a person who does not know what a blogging portfolio is, and 2) identify each component of your portfolio as fitting into one or more categories.
Here, a student gives a basic list, with a label marking why she has included each item.
A different student -- who threw her whole heart and soul into the class, and as a result got quite a bit out of it -- chose instead to write an essay, linking all her work together in a narrative that helped her to solidify the course material.
What Purpose Does the Portfolio Serve?
If you missed the deadline for an agenda item or discussion response, the portfolio assignment allows you to demonstrate that you have caught up. It's also a good opportunity for you to review your work, to see how the idea covered by the course fit into one another.
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help
Our Blog Portfolio should include everything up to Wednesday, January 9 or Thursday, January 10 also?
Good question, Derek.
For the rough draft, it will be OK with me either way -- it could include Thursday's work if you've already finished it, but I'll be happy to review it even if it's just current to Wednesday. The revision (due on Friday) should also include Thursday's readings and discussions.
Great! Thank you for the information!
Hi Everyone! Listed below is my Mid-Point Blogging Portfolio in an essay format. If anyone has any questions I will be happy to help! Website: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DerekTickle/2008/01/midpoint_blogging_portfolio.html
Very nice portfolio Derek, I liked it!
I do have a question for Dr. Jerz. Do you prefer our blog one way or another? Would simply listing each work and perhaps a short heading or comment on each be sufficient? I.E. does our grade depend on the style or depth of the portfolio or is the focus more to highlight our work.
Thanks!
That's a good question, Brandon. No, I don't really have a preference. I've had Derek in class before, and I know that being organized and doing everything *just so* helps Derek to sort through what he's learned and helps keep him on track.
If you choose to write a list, and it's very sparse and the individual items aren't clearly labeled, I get a little cranky because then I have to figure out what entry should count for what category. If you just give me a list of URLs, with no content or explanation, well, then the cover entry is pointless, since I could just click the calendar items on your blog to see what you wrote each day. (But your portfolio should also point me to good comments you left on other people's blogs -- I won't go hunting for them if you don't include them in your portfolio.)
If you write a big long paragraph that's a jumble, something that's just filling up words, that doesn't really help. But if while you start sorting through your entries you notice something about how your thoughts develop, or you realize you've changed your mind about something you wrote, then I always enjoy seeing something like that in your cover entry.
What really matters most is what you've been writing on a daily basis -- the blog cover entry is just a way to present that work.
Does that answer your question? Please feel free to ask for more clarification if necessary. I'm looking forward to reading the portfolios tomorrow.