Dear Senior Seminar students,
The Senior Portfolio is a graduation requirement. If you do not submit your portfolio, you will not receive your diploma, nor can you receive transcripts or other verification of graduation. I have put headings on each paragraph so you can find the parts that you need easier.
The Portfolio System
The Portfolio System (http://portfolio.truman.edu) is working well, but it is still fairly new, so some of you may not have used it before. In addition each Fall, the prompts get tweaked a little, for easier reading (hopefully!), so you might want to check it out again, if you have not looked recently. Please contact the Portfolio Office if you have any issues.
Deadlines for Submissions
The deadline for December 2014 graduating seniors to submit their portfolio is Friday, November 14, and for May 2015 graduating seniors the due date is Friday, April 3. As in the past, we ask that you set an earlier deadline on your calendar, so we can ensure smooth clearances, especially for those graduating this semester. Remember that the portfolio is a graduation requirement, and students who do not submit their portfolio will not receive their diploma, nor can they receive transcripts or other verification of graduation. All students will be getting an e-mail from the Portfolio Office soon, as the university usually send at least one e-mail to the students each semester; once you are done with your portfolio, you can self-righteously ignore those emails! You will also get pestered by the registrar, so sooner really is better.
Accessing the System and Other Information
All submission information can be found on Truman’s portfolio page, which is located at: http://portfolio.truman.edu
Required Items
The first time you logs in, you open your Welcome page where you are asked some general information. Once you submit that form, you go directly to your own Portfolio Summary page that shows the full list of prompts. The list includes the seven prompts that are required for all students: Critical Thinking and Writing, Interdisciplinary Thinking, Civic Engagement, Quantitative Reasoning, Most Personally Satisfying, the Transformative Experiences Questionnaire, and your Letter to Truman. You can also access a list of these required prompts, along with your Descriptors (Scoring Rubrics, if you have them), by clicking on the Current Prompts link on the left of the main page of the Portfolio; again that is located at: http://portfolio.truman.edu.
The Vault
All student files are kept in your own “Vault,” and you can start putting files there as soon as you arrive on campus. You just click on the vault image above the Required Submissions Table on your own Portfolio Summary Page. This link takes you to the page where you can upload files.
Civic Engagement
Last year’s new prompt, Civic Engagement, looks very similar from the student’s perspective, but the scoring rubric has been significantly streamlined to emphasize what faculty deemed important during our reading sessions this summer. It asks you to describe and reflect upon your most meaningful or significant civic engagement experience you had while in college. This prompt has boxes in which you write your reflections, and it does not require a document attachment, although you can attach one if you have one. The rubric associated with this prompt can be found both on the Current Prompts page and from a link within a student Civic Engagement prompt.
Quantitative Reasoning
This year’s new prompt is Quantitative Reasoning. It asks you to submit a document that includes your best example of Quantitative Reasoning. As usual, you are asked to reflect upon your growth in this area while in college. The rubric associated with this prompt can also be found both on the Current Prompts page and from a link within a student Quantitative Reasoning prompt.
Experience and Course-Embedded Prompts, and Major-Specific Submissions
These two sections include many items that are not required for all students. Students actually enrolled in those classes (predominantly) should complete the “course-embedded” prompts. Being seniors, you are unlikely to be enrolled in WACT, for example, so you can just skip that one. The Capstone and Resume/CV submissions are there for use by your department or program as you prefer; they are basically slots where students can file these documents for your convenient reference and review. The JINS review has been completed, so this prompt has been removed.
Misc. Other Issues
If you started the portfolio several years ago, you may have used the old system, although this is increasingly rare. If you started in the old system (any address starting with “assessment.truman.edu“), but didn’t finish, you can contact Portfolio Office to help move your files and reflections to the new system. We sometimes have problems with students who have changed their name or were gone for a while, so please let us know as soon as you can so that we can help you.
• If you have any questions, you can email the office staff at portfolio@truman.edu or Dr. Anne Moody at amoody@truman.edu. The Portfolio office has drop-in hours weekdays in MG 3163, or appointments can be arranged by e-mailing the office. Their office hours for the Fall 2014 semester will be posted at the Portfolio main page soon!
Best wishes for a successful senior year at Truman!
Ping Xu
September 9, 2014
** Since the University Portfolio is both a requirement for graduation and for completion of Senior Seminar, you will need to complete your Portfolio this semester, even though the University deadline for Spring graduates is April 3, 2015. You do not have to submit all of the Portfolio materials to your Senior Seminar instructor, but you must verify that you have submitted your Portfolio by the Senior Seminar due date (Nov. 14, 2014). In order to get credit for completing your Portfolio for Senior Seminar you must:
Submit your Portfolio in accordance with the deadlines, and
Submit an electronic copy of your cover letter with your name in the file name of the letter (example: SeniorCoverLetter – John Smith.docx)
* You can always add and replace work in your portfolio at a later date as long as your final submission is by the University-established submission deadlines.