MSW Portfolio Overview

What is the MSW ePortfolio?

The MSW ePortfolio is designed to help you to integrate, on an ongoing basis, knowledge and skills you learn throughout our curriculum. The ePortfolio is generally comprised of selected assignments from your Concentration Year coursework, along with your brief written reflections on what you learned through each of these assignments. Making your portfolio "electronic" involves using special technologies that allow you to include various types of online Learning Products, ranging from electronic word processing documents to audio and/or visual representations of your work. Students will be provided specialized training in creating their MSW ePortfolios.

You will work with a faculty member in developing your ePortfolio while you are completing your Concentration Year coursework. You will formally present your ePortfolio to two faculty members as one of the final steps before graduating.

The Components of MSW ePortfolios

The MSW ePortfolio consists primarily of Learning Products, Reflection Statements, and a final Summary Reflection:

• Learning Products are “A”, “B”, or “S” graded assignments, generally from Concentration Year courses, that you have selected as evidence of your having met each of the Department’s 13 Concentration Year learning objectives (possible exceptions are Social Work with Diverse Populations and American Indians & Social Policy; both are ePortfolio-eligible courses which some students may take during their Foundation year). Before an “assignment” can become a “Learning Product,” your primary ePortfolio Reader will need to review, and approve of the graded assignment that includes your instructor’s comments. If you would like to include materials other than course assignments, you should discuss this with your ePortfolio Primary Reader whose role is explained later in this document.

If you would like to include an assignment for which you received a grade lower than an "A", or "B" (or, if its an "S"/"N" course, an "S"), you can potentially do this. However, your instructor and primary reader have to both agree to this. You would need to submit a corrected version of the assignment to the course instructor within 6 weeks after the first day of the semester following the course; and the quality of your revised work must be such that it merits raising the grade on that assignment.

• Reflection Statements (These reflections should be done immediately after the learning product is completed - you do not need to wait until it is graded) are 1-2 page papers that connect each of the Learning Projects with the particular Learning Objective you are addressing. You should include, 1) why the Learning Product was chosen, 2) how it demonstrates your Advanced Generalist, MSW-level competency in the associated Learning Objective, and 3) how you will be able to apply what you learned from the Leaning Product to your anticipated primary area of professional practice (e.g., child welfare, mental health, community organization). The second of these requirements is very important since a central purpose of the ePortfolio is to ensure that you achieved the level of competency in all departmental Learning Objectives that is necessary for effective MSW practice. You will need to follow the Departmental writing guidelines in composing Reflection Statements. These guidelines are included in the MSW Student Handbook, as well as on the departmental website.

• The Summary Reflection is a 2-4 page integration of your entire ePortfolio. In it you will discuss how the ePortfolio project has contributed to your overall professional growth and development--especially in relationship to your primary anticipated area of professional practice. In doing this, you will need to make some specific references to particular Learning Projects and Refection Statements you included in your ePortfolio. As with you individual Reflection Statements, you need to follow the Departmental writing guidelines in writing your Summary Reflection.

Besides Learning Projects, Reflection Statements, and a Summary Reflection Statement, your final ePortfolio will include a Table of Contents and your resume.

Your Primary and Second ePortfolio Readers

• Your ePortfolio Primary Reader is the faculty member with whom you will work most closely in putting together your ePortfolio. She/he also chairs your Final Oral Examination which is focused partly on your ePortfolio (see below for a description of your Final Oral Examination). Your ePortfolio Primary Reader reviews your ePortfolio at mid-year. Your Second Reader is the second member of your Final Oral Exam committee. Your Academic Advisor has to serve as your ePortfolio Primary Reader.. If your current Academic Advisor is not someone who you would like to serve in this role, you should change your Academic Advisor through completion of a simple Advisor Change Form available in the Student Support Assistant’s office in the SW Suite.

Currently faculty able to serve as ePortfolio Secondary or Primary Readers are: Lynn Bye, Priscilla Day, Denny Falk, Johanna Garrison, Janet Haynes, Kathy Heltzer, Mike Raschick, Melanie Shepard, and Anne Tellett.

The Final Oral Examination

The Final Oral Exam consists of your presenting a brief overview of the knowledge and skills you have learned in the program, followed by a discussion of your ePortfolio. In discussing your ePortfolio, you will need to demonstrate how it reflects your achievement of departmental Learning Objectives. You should emphasize how your Learning Products and Reflection Statements have meaningfully contributed to your competencies in the area of practice you’re most interested. Your ePortfolio Primary and Second Readers will ask questions about both parts of your presentation.

The structure of the Final Oral Examination is delineated on p. 46 of the MSW Student Handbook available on the Department’s website.

After you complete your Oral Exam, a copy of your ePortfolio will be kept on file at the Department. As a scholarly product, others (e.g., future students or interested members of the community) will have access to it upon request. However, you have the right to delete portions of your ePortfolio that you consider to be private. You should discuss this option with your Primary EPortfolio Reader if it is relevant to you.

The ePortfolio Process

• As you begin your Concentration Year, review attached Learning Products Associated with Concentration Year Learning Objectives and start thinking about what Learning Products you want to include in your ePortfolio.

• Each of your Concentration Year instructors will discuss which of their assignments you can include in your ePortfolio, and which Learning Objectives each could address.

• You should meet with your ePortfolio Primary Reader sometime in September to discuss the above, as well as the ePortfolio process in general.

• You should present a preliminary draft of your ePortfolio to your ePortfolio Primary Reader by the second week of the Fall or Spring semester following your having completed at least 12 credits of Concentration Year coursework. Your ePortfolio Primary Reader will provide written and oral comments on this. The draft of your ePortfolio at this point will obviously will be far from complete because of your having a great deal of remaining coursework from which to pull Learning Products. However the feedback should be helpful to your completion the remainder of the ePortfolio process.

• If you are planning on doing your Oral Exam in the Spring, throughout that semester you should: 1) write Reflection Statementsfor your Spring semester Learning Products as you complete the Learning Product (Do Not wait until the Learning Product has been graded); 2) submit your Reflection Statements and "draft" Learning Products to your Primary Reader as early in the semester as possible; and 3) after your Learning Products have been graded, submit the graded paper/product to your Primary Reader. Your Primary Reader must see the comments and grade written on your paper by the instructor of the course from which the Learning Product was taken.

• The Final ePortfolio Oral Presentation will generally take place in the final week of the Spring semester (during which Concentration Year courses will not be scheduled) through the Wednesday of Spring Final’s Week. You will, in consultation with your two ePortfolio Readers, be responsible for scheduling your Oral Presentation.
At least 3 weeks prior to your Oral Exam, you will need to submit your complete ePortfolio to your ePortfolio Primary Reader—with the exception of any Spring semester assignments you are using that have not yet been graded or, if you are taking Summer Field II, your Learning Products associated with it. At least one week prior to the Exam, you must submit all relevant Spring semester assignments that your instructors have graded and returned to you.
If a Spring instructor is not able to grade a Learning Product assignment before your Oral Exam, you will need to include a rough draft of the assignment and a completed Reflection Statement. Under these circumstances, you will not be able to completely “pass” your Oral Presentation until you submit your graded assignment(s) to your Final ePortfolio Reader and they approve it as an acceptable Learning Project.
If you make your ePortfolio Presentation before completing Field II, your Field II faculty liaison can evaluate any Field II Learning Product assignments and do the final sign off on your ePortfolio.

For more information or assistance with using ePorfolio

Knowledge Management Center
http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/
Room 42 Solon Campus Center
726-7089