[Portfolio] Turning in form instances for assignments

[Sean Keesler]

Many programs have "key assessments" that faculty envision as having a
special role in portfolios for different audiences.
For example, a School of Education is likely to ask students to design
lesson plans, try them in the classroom and then analyze/reflect on
the experience.
A series of lesson plans is something that is useful to hold up as
evidence of student learning for program assessment, a useful teaching
a learning experience and as a showcase piece for a resume-like
portfolio. One document type with multiple uses.

The typical course instructor will probably create assignments in
their classes requiring students to create these special artifacts,
but if they are turned in as Word, PDF or other form of document
attachment, they are not readily available as portfolio content.
(well...that isn't true...you could attach files to your
portfolios...but it might be nice to render them as HTML...)
If faculty were able to agree on a consistent (across the program)
format for a form that would represent that type of special assessment
and REQUIRE students to turn in work by filling out a form (instead of
attaching a .doc or .pdf), multiple templates could be created that
would anticipate and nicely display those documents for different
purposes. Custom view renderers could make it more "professional" than
the default renderer might. When added to a portfolio, the document
contents could be styled like the rest of the portfolio.

Has anyone asked students to attach form instances to assignments? Any
pros? cons?


Sean Keesler
130 Academy Street
Manlius, NY 13104
315-682-0830
sean.keesler at threecanoes.com