MODULE 1 – Review Past Portfolios – (Jan 12-18)

The capstone course is taught by Dr. Matthew Koehler (professor at Michigan State), often times with one or more teaching assistants.

We teach as an integrated instructional team. When faced with a decision, we employ group decision making. Specifically, the whole team meets frequently to talk about the course, make decisions, and troubleshoot any issues that have arisen.

What does this team approach mean for you? Mostly, you will experience the team approach in the way you converse with us. For example, we that you include *all* instructors on any email you send. Only one person may answer your email on behalf of the entire instructional team, but the entire team has received it and thought about it.

Deadlines. Although we say “deadlines”, the course is designed to be flexible with pacing. Our “deadlines” are firm suggestions on how to stay on track in this course. Unless stated otherwise, the “deadline” for all work in a given module is due at 11:59 PM Michigan time on the last day of the module. The only true deadline in the course is that the final online portfolio is firmly due on the last day of class with no exceptions.

Early Work. The course dates we have laid out are minimum pacing requirements. Please feel free to complete the course faster than these required dates. The only minor hiccup may be around the final exhibition (Module 11), which is scheduled during a specific week. If we have enough people wanting to finish faster, we can likely have an early exhibition (or two).

Late Work. we have worked hard to design the course around modules and due dates that keep you on pace to complete a high-quality portfolio on time. We understand that life happens—getting sick, busy times at work, technology troubles, global pandemics, just to name a few—and things don’t go according to plan. If this happens, we expect you to communicate with your instructor before you miss a due date. In this communication, let your instructor know when you will have the work completed. If you aren’t sure, communicate the uncertainty and then communicate again when you do know. We are happy to work with you, but it is your responsibility to proactively communicate.

The portfolio you make in this class has several components. The first component is the technology used to create and display your online portfolio (Weebly, Wix, WordPress, Google Sites, etc.). The process of deciding what technology to use is a scaffolded choice that happens throughout Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3, although you can revisit this decision at any time.

Once you have chosen a technology, this course helps you build 7 required pages that go in your portfolio, although there can be great flexibility and individuality in how these required pages are implemented in your portfolio. These seven pages are:

• A home page (Module 3) – You create a landing page, or the first page that viewers see when visiting your online portfolio.
• A resumé / vita (Module 5) – You create a page that highlights your professional preparation, appointments, skills, and goals.
• A showcase (Module 6) – You create a page that shows examples or artifacts of your best work from your master’s program.
• An annotated transcript (Module 8) – You create a page that lists the courses and topics covered as part of your master’s program.
• Three reflective essays – You reflect upon your past, present, and future learning in the form of three essays:
  • Goal Reflection (Module 4) – You reflect upon your learning goals you had prior to entering the program.
  • Future Learning (Module 7) – You reflect upon goals you have for your learning after you leave the program.
  • Synthesis (Module 9) – You reflect upon what you learned from your master’s program.

In addition to the seven required pages, you will add three or more components that are specifically tailored to you and your portfolio. We call these Pieces of Flair, and you mix and match these components in a way that adds breadth and depth to your portfolio. You might, for example, add a page that describes your classroom (that would be one Piece of Flair), or connect to your presence on LinkedIn (that would be another Piece of Flair).

One website technology, PLUS 7 required pages, PLUS 3 (or more) pieces of flair will give you a website that will be uniquely yours and that you can be proud of.

In Module 1 you look portfolios from the previous semester, and you may also consider looking at these portfolios at other times. Why? There are several reasons.

• Better picture of the goal — You may have only a vague understanding of what a capstone portfolio might look like at this point. By looking at some finished portfolios, you will develop a much better understanding of your final goal in this course: a portfolio to be proud of!
• Appreciation of features — By looking in depth at portfolios, you will be able to think about what features go into making a good portfolio. Is it aesthetics? Easy navigation? Good content? By looking somewhat analytically at the evaluation of “good portfolios,” you will start to develop your own design sensibilities.
• A source for ideas — Looking at past portfolios will likely give you plenty of good ideas that you may want to use in your own portfolios. If you see something you like, bookmark it!
• Accolades for previous students — Students who finished the course would love to have some feedback and praise from you if you liked their portfolio as part of this review process. When you’re ready, contact the author of your favorite portfolio. That email will reward that previous student for all their hard work. Hopefully you’ll receive an email next semester, too!

There are any number of ways (perhaps an infinite number!) to design a course such as this one.

In this course, we have embraced an “open” approach to education — an approach that removes barriers to access, making as much of the course open and available to all whenever possible. We’ve also embraced an idea that every course should be different — no “cookie cutter” courses! A portfolio course should look different than a science course or an English course.

In our efforts to be open, we’ve chosen to go with the most widely-used web-authoring (and blogging) platform in the world—WordPress. It’s easily customizable and can (with some work) be repurposed from a blog to be a course management site. In doing so, we often have to mimic basic CMS functions with plugins, use of 3rd party sites, and sometimes our programming (in PHP). What this means for you is you will be using many different sites that together do what closed sites like D2L can do out of the box. Let’s walk through them, and we’ll explain why we’re using each:

• Team – Teams is a way for us to interact and share through asynchronous video conversations. We use the site to post thoughts about our work and provide feedback to each other.
• Google Drive – We use googleDocs and GoogleSheets to securely share feedback and course progress with you. These aspects are private and not open to the public.
• Zoom – This runs our online office hours (also known as the Capstone Coffeehouse) and our end-of-semester exhibitions. We would need something like this even with D2L.
• D2L -We use D2L to securely handle grades. Now that we follow an “un-grading” philosophy, the gradebook will only have one entry (your overall grade in the course). D2L has no other use in this course.

The good news is that you’ll be using a site that is open—you’re joining the open education movement, seeing several examples of “repurposing” technology, and hopefully learning how to use technology flexibly in your own educational settings.

You should be seeing a site that isn’t like other courses you’ve seen before (in a good way, we hope). Moreover, you’re getting a site with what we think is a thoughtful combination of the best technologies for different purposes. We welcome your questions and comments and hope you enjoy this approach.