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Description
Your learning portfolio is an organized collection of your 1112 assignments, exercises and activities along with material from your courses studied at the Mount and any other material that an employer might find interesting. You put your portfolio together in a form that readily showcases a cross section of the contents, and, more importantly, demonstrates your learning throughout the term.

While your portfolio will share many things in common with those of your 1112 classmates, it will still be an individualized document, presenting your insights about your learning and how you can distinguish yourself to potential employees.

Your portfolio has two essential components. One is a selection of content (see below). The other is your reflective learning statement. This statement provides a unifying commentary or narrative where you offer observations on your learning experience and illustrate your points with specifics from 1112 (See examples below).

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Portfolio Process
Fittingly, your completed 1112 portfolio is the final assignment for the course. However, because your portfolio is meant to be a "work in progress," during the entire term, we will discuss its ongoing development. We will also have time set aside specifically to consult with you on the content, organization and fine tuning of your portfolio. With the exception of the reflective learning statement, you will complete the other pieces that make up the portfolio as separate assignments (for individual grades). Those standalone assignments will provide the essential raw material for your portfolio. Your thoughtful, well-written reflective learning statement will preface your portfolio.

Purpose
Your portfolio assignment is structured to help impart some continuity and cohesiveness to 1112, other course work and your professional experience. Your portfolio clearly puts your academic content in a tangible form. Your portfolio will serve as a helpful reminder to keep yourself organized and to plan ahead. Your portfolio prompts you to take ownership of your learning. Your learning portfolio becomes a most noteworthy contribution to your overall academic and career portfolio.

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Evaluation
The portfolio is worth __% of your total grade. Most of the portfolio grade, __%, is allocated to the reflective learning statement. The remainder, __%, is allocated to the organization and effective presentation of the corroborating contents for your learning statement.

Contents
Your portfolio's contents will contain a rich sampling of the various assignments, activities and exercises from all your class, professional and volunteer work. We do not expect you to use everything since an all-inclusive file of material would be neither engaging nor effective for purposes of your portfolio. We are looking for work that illustrates the best you have to offer in your academic, professional and volunteer activities..

Choose your portfolio items from those listed below. Those items that you must include are highlighted in bold.

  • A resume including any reference letters that you may have
  • Your reflective statement on learning insights and revelations
  • Table of Contents - either at the start of the binder or in the first folder with the reflective learning piece 
  • An academic plan noting what courses you wish to enroll in and what career aspirations that you have. Support this with information from your course, other academic endeavors, work or volunteer experience 
  • Your main Business 1112 assignments 
  • Examples of from your life, work, education, volunteer experience that illustrate unique abilities or accomplishments. 
    • For example: If you were/are a member of a club or team - a photo, certificate, etc 
  • Your course outlines from other courses and any work that illustrates your abilities including assignments, exercises or activities 
  • Copies of cover letters 
  • Certificates, Awards, diplomas, degrees 
  • Records of community service/volunteer work (brochures, letters of reference, etc) 
  • Transcripts 
  • Professional or other membership service 
  • Networking contacts 
  • Photographs
  • Other relevant content as designated by the professors during the term

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Examples

  • If your resume states that you have computer experience illustrate this with specific assignments · If you have attended the career fair, business conferences, etc the agenda, list of contacts you made, etc · If you feel that you have great team skills - evidence from academic or sports teams that you have played on · Etc.
  • In addition to those pieces itemized above, you do have some scope to add materials to personalize your portfolio. These might include photographs, e-mail messages, or other items that help define your academic outlook.

Format
Your portfolio could take on various formats: three ring binder, coil bound report, or indexed accordion file folder. It should still meet several criteria, though. The portfolio should clearly present your learning-even for a reader not immersed in 1112. The portfolio should effectively summarize your reflections for later reference. The portfolio should inexpensively compile your documents. This means putting the emphasis on the thought and contents first, the packaging second.

Example 
of materials that could be used: Three ring binder, sheet protectors, high quality paper, photosheet holders, plastic pouches

Tips
Do not include original documents · Don't punch holes in documents · Use quality paper · Number sheets · Be creative · Present in chronological order

Reflective Learning Statement

Introduction: 
In past weeks, you have been working on the individual assignments, exercises and activities that make up the course content for Business 1112. Now, it is time to revisit those various assignments, reflect on them and articulate some of your learning revelations in a reflective learning statement.

The learning statement, you will recall, is the introductory paper you write to describe and explain the contents of your portfolio. Thought of in another way, the reflective learning statement is the portfolio's preface, the collected assignments the supporting documents, or organized appendix. Together, the two components make up your portfolio.

The Learning-oriented Purpose of the Portfolio: 
Our approach to the portfolio is compatible with that of educator Nedra Reynolds. Reynolds (2000) describes various types and purposes of student portfolios in her textbook, Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students. Students keep portfolios "to show the instructor, at semester's end, what they have learned from the course and applied to their portfolio's contents." Learning portfolios, Reynolds further explains, give students the opportunity to create and to collect a range of selected items "that best represent their experiences and engagement with the learning process in a particular subject area."

In the case of Business 1112, Reynold's "particular subject area" becomes the all-inclusive subject of learning that we have explored from a number of approaches and directions. Your assignment is to draft and rewrite an individual reflective learning statement that best demonstrates your own learning process. Along the way, you will document some of your learning revelations, illustrating them by referring specifically to the contents of your portfolio.

We provide guidelines and a proposed outline below. These directions will help you through the portfolio process.

Length of the Reflective Statement: 
We are looking for a piece that is about 1,000 words in length. This is the equivalent of four pages, double-spaced. Most likely, your challenge will not be in meeting the word count, but writing concisely enough so as not to vastly overwrite. Indicate the computerized word count at the end of your statement. 

Tone and Focus of Writing:
I want you to write your reflective learning statement in a personalized, conversational tone. You should use the "I" and "me" personal pronouns to project your writing voice. It may help you to view this statement as a sharing of your personal thoughts, observations and insights to a curious reader who wants to know about your learning experiences. You are striving for a writing tone that directly engages your reader's interest in your revelations while also explaining some meaningful aspects of your learning. Consider the writing tone in the following way. Although your tone will be relaxed and reader-friendly, it will not be as informal as an electronic chat you might have with street slang and colloquial expressions of the day. Nor would it be as formal and conventional in tone as, say, a letter for a job application.

Probably the best way to find an appropriately comfortable tone is to draft the reflective statement as if you were writing a thoughtful letter to yourself or a classmate.

Adopting a suitable focus is vital for the reflective learning statement. Your focus is on what you have learned -and how-in Business 1112. The reflective statement, as its name suggests, is an exercise in explanation analysis and interpretation. It is not an exercise where you simply describe the nature of the assignments that you completed during the course. Having already completed the assignments collected in your portfolio, you now need to revisit them from a critical intellectual perspective.

Proposed Outline for Reflective Statement: 
Use the following categories as headings for your statement. Even if your choose not to go with headings, you will still need to address the questions they pose.

  • Name:
  • Program of Study: 
  • Why Chose to Attend University: (briefly) 
  • Current Career Goal: (briefly)

Overview: 
In a paragraph or so, identify a major theme(s) of your learning in Business 1112. Choose points that are significant enough for you to develop in a substantial way, by making reference to your portfolio contents. Ask yourself this question: How has Business 1112 helped (or changed) my outlook as a university scholar?

Observations on My Learning Process: 
Make reference to specific assignments in your portfolio to illustrate what you learned. Again, this is cumulative, "big-picture" learning, not the learning of facts, details and specifics of any one assignment. Explore the contents of your own portfolio to find connections within your university learning. Reflect on your learning from two perspectives. How did what you learned in Business 1112 contribute to your learning in other courses? And how did what you learned in other courses contribute to your understanding of the content of Business 1112?

General Thoughts on the Class and your educational experience at the Mount: 
What did you like about the content - not professor personalities but the actual makeup of the class? What assignments, activities did you find useful and enjoy? What assignments and activities did you not find useful? WHY???

Examples of good entries are:

  • One of the things I learned in Business 1112 is I am not good at group work. I leave things to the last second and do not communicate well with people I don't know. If I am to be successful in university and in the job market these are skills that I have to work on. I really enjoyed the panels in the class especially the entrepreneur panel. 
  • I always wanted to start my own company and was somewhat shocked over the number of hours each panel member had to work. I must admit I was equally shocked how much each entrepreneur loved working for themselves rather then being their own boss. I really think it is something that I want to pursue. 
  • When I learned about labour relations and unions I constantly thought how much better my job would be with the help of a union. At XYZ store we are not treated well, sent home early without pay if the day is going slow and expected to be on call on off days. With a union and a collective agreement - I don't think we would be treated like that. 
  • I really feel my communications skills have grown this term. I completed two presentations in this class and two more in my other courses. (See Folder A & B for examples) I now know that presentations are easy as long as I practice and prepare. 
  • When completing the free trade assignment I was impressed by the many benefits of the ideology. Up to this point I only heard about the down sides of free trade and now I realize I have to think critically about issues before making judgments. I brought some of the issue up in my Political Science class and learned that …….. 
  •  When we completed the marketing plan in class I learned so much about the university I didn't know before like……

Poor Examples would be:

  • This term I completed an interview with an entrepreneur. It was interesting. 
  • This term I learned about the product lifecycle, marketing mix. I really enjoy marketing. 
  • This term I learned about the ______ I didn't know this before.

Very useful portfolio links are:

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