Final ePortfolio

 Published  Edit 

Final ePortfolio with Cover Letter

Peer Review: Draft by 4/21, Reflection by 4/25 at 11:59pm
Due: 5/3 at 11:59pm
Why:
This semester is focused on developing your writing and skills as a writing researcher. Over the coming weeks, you will create a personalized ePortfolio of your various assignments to
catalogue the development of your writing process and the progress of your researched scholarly article. According to the Portfolio Keeping section of your book EasyWriter, a portfolio is
“a meaningful collection of selected artifacts or documents, collected over time and across interests” (Reynolds & Davis, 2014, p. 1). This final assignment calls on you to use this
material to tell a story about your learning in this course. This gives you a chance to reflect on how your work demonstrates your evolving understandings of writing and inquiry as they
are situated within particular communities, situations, and genres.

The audience for the ePortfolio is multifaceted. Within UCF, your audience would be me (your professor), your classmates, as well as other faculty, administrators, and students across
the university. Additionally, your ePortfolio can serve purposes outside of the university as you apply for jobs or internships. As a result, your ePortfolio is a living text that shows your
skills as a writer and professional, and if you maintain it as you continue your career as a student you’ll have a great set of writing and other materials to use. For the purposes of this
class, we’re going to focus on developing the ePortfolio to showcase your writing and work for this semester. Keep the range of possible audiences in mind as you conduct your
reflections. This being said, these reflections call for careful and honest self-evaluation, reasoning, and evidence-based claims. One attribute of successful writers is self-awareness, and
that's exactly what this project aims to encourage.

What:
Create an ePortfolio that represents a cumulative collection of your work over the course of ENC1102. You are welcome to choose whichever platform you’d like for your ePortfolio.
This document talks through some pros and cons of popular ones (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZfUaQ3wwRn83a3Zq1dsAYFLjfoAyQXhn/view?usp=sharing) though you are
welcome to use different ones entirely or to code your ePortfolio by hand. It’s up to you!
Provide clear navigation and organization of the materials in the ePortfolio with appropriately labeled tabs. Utilize a unifying metaphor, scheme, word, or phrase in a design
scheme to pull together disparate pieces (see “metaphorical thinking” section beginning on p. 66 of Portfolio Keeping). Your unifying metaphor, scheme, word, or phrase should
be strongly tied to the design of your ePortfolio by considering ways to make that evident through use of color, fonts, graphics, images, video, audio, etc. Ultimately, think through
how you want your audience to experience your ePortfolio.
Introduce readers to your ePortfolio and learning in ENC 1102 through a reflective outcomes-based cover letter. This section of the ePortfolio is probably best saved for close to
the last thing you complete because of its objectives, this should also serve as your portfolio’s home page.
Write a short cover letter (at least 750 words) for your ePortfolio in which you reflect on your learning about writing and research this semester. Specifically, make a claim
about how your writing as a whole responds to ALL of the ENC 1102: Composition II course outcomes . This is not about making a grade claim, but rather an
accomplishments claim. Use the language of the course outcomes and evidence from your own assignments in ways that support your claim. Remember: You are not
describing that you accomplished certain outcomes, but you are arguing for how your work accomplishes the outcomes.
Course Outcomes (Also Listed in the Syllabus and DWR Website (https://writingandrhetoric.cah.ucf.edu/first-year-writing/enc1102/) )

Outcome 1: Students will be able to analyze and synthesize complex texts in ways that demonstrate an understanding of the situated and intertextual nature of writing and
research.

Outcome 2: Students will engage in a recursive, inquiry-based writing and research process that is meaningful for a specific community.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to interpret their research findings in order to produce arguments that matter to specific communities by addressing real-world
exigencies.

Outcome 4: Students will examine their own conceptions of writing and research in response to their inquiry, reading, and writing throughout the course.

Since this is a 1000-level course, it would make sense, too, to highlight areas where you feel your learning is still in-development. How do you hope to build on the knowledge and
experience you've gained in this course in your future classes and other potential undergraduate research opportunities? Keep the focus on your learning and why you feel
particular aspects of that learning matter to you.
Clearly labeled sections that organize and contextualize your artifact choices within your overall process/product argument and the guiding metaphor you have chosen.
*Note: You must have submitted all major projects in the course or else you will receive a 0 for this assignment. No late ePortfolios will be accepted.

How:
Follow guidelines outlined in Portfolio Keeping to help you get started.
Organize your course assignments systematically, beginning the semester with the end in mind will make compiling your ePortfolio much easier later. Save each separate draft under
a different name.
Example File Title System:
ENC1102_LastNameFirstName_Assignment_Draft#
Create your ePortfolio website shell. Your URL will be public, so be professional.
It is up to you when you want to do this part. You can create your shell early on and add documents as you go throughout the semester and polish it at the end, or create the
website once you have completed all of the course assignments. Do what will work best for your time-management skills. If you struggle with procrastinating, consider the first
option.
Determine your unifying metaphor/word/phrase to develop your portfolio design. Again, keep your audience in mind as far as professionality is concerned, this is a resource that you
could throughout college and in interviews.
Label the sections of your portfolio appropriately, your final projects should connect to your drafts, peer reviews and conference memos.
Required Artifact types: (Get creative applying your metaphor for naming and organization here!):
Reflective Introductory Cover Letter (Home Page)
5-8 Total Assignment Examples, at least 3 different assignment types
Major Assignments (3)
Log of Reading Reflections (choose from 8)
 Peer Reviews (one for each major assignment, and your ePortfolio)
Drafts
Consider including Revision Memos for resubmitted draft
Conference Memos (2)
Embed your assignments in your portfolio, make sure the navigation is easy to follow and operational
Each artifact should be presented in the context of your argument from your Cover Letter and explained as it relates to your metaphor by a framing statement. There is no specific
length requirement here, but, you should have reflective writing on each webpage that introduces your selected artifacts and connects back to your Cover Letter. Don't just drop-in
documents without explaining their importance.
Upload the URL to the ePortfolio to the correct Webcourses assignment by the deadline. I strongly suggest that you also have a backup of your materials offline, such as in a Word
document on your flash drive or hard drive, to protect you from technology problems that may arise. When I grade the assignment, I will use the “rubric” and “comment” functions on
Webcourses to provide feedback and comments.

Additional Resources & Tips:

This seems really overwhelming, help!

My best suggestion is to break this assignment down into chunks, use this assignment prompt as a “checklist” and schedule time for yourself to complete each step. See my suggestions
for creating your website shell early on and “plug-and-chugging” your drafts and assignments in as you complete them. Do what makes sense to you to make this task more manageable,
but remember you won’t be doing all this work at once. By the time you are sitting down in week 14 you should have all the materials you need to create a fantastic ePortfolio.

Is it worth paying for a “better” website?

No. Plain and simple, there is no reason you should have to pay to create your ePortfolio for this course.

I have never created a website before, I’m nervous that it won’t be “cool.”

I don’t expect you to have had experience creating a website before, but there are many website builders freely available that are fairly simple to use. For example, Wix, Weebly, and
Wordpress are all fairly user friendly and reasonably customizable. Remember here, the course goals focus on your development of a recursive and reflective writing process--not
creating the “coolest” website. While I do want you to make an effort to make your portfolio attractive and adhere to a unifying metaphor/word/phrase, your tech savvy is not my principal
concern when it comes to your final grade. If you have any questions about this element, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for individual assistance.

What are good places to save my work?

OneDrive: You have a UCF OneDrive available but may also have your own personal account. This saves documents to a cloud that can be accessed from different computers. (I
know the terror of having a laptop explode during midterms, OneDrive saved me!)
GoogleDrive: Google Drive is great for group projects and is also very easy to organize into folders for different assignment groups to use for your portfolio. Just be careful that you
have your documents saved as accessible file formats (pdfs or docx.)
USB drive or External Hard Drive: These are great back-up formats, however, the issue is they could be lost (speaking from personal experience here--in print labs especially).
Your computer itself: If the internet goes out (think hurricane season) or you lose your external drive, having a copy saved to your desktop is a good idea too.

See Also:

Professor Thames’ ePortfolio (https://sarathames-teachingportfolio.weebly.com/first-year-composition.html)

Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students, located in EasyWriter PK-1 through PK-39

Points 100
Submitting a website url

Due For Available from Until

May 3 Everyone - -

Final ePortfolio Holistic Rubric

 Criteria Ratings Pts

Holistic 100 to >93.0 pts 93 to >89.0 pts 89 to >86.0 pts 86 to >83.0 pts 83 to >79.0 pts 79 to >76.0 pts 76 to >73.0 pts 73 to >70.0 pts 70 pts 70 to >0 pts 100 pts
Score of Outstanding Strong Strong Good Portfolio Good Portfolio Acceptable Acceptable Acceptable Inadequate Incomplete
ePortfolio Portfolio A- Portfolio B+ B B- Portfolio C+ Portfolio C Portfolio C- Portfolio Portfolio
This portfolio
Final exhibits The strong Portfolio meets The good Portfolio meets The acceptable Portfolio meets Portfolio meets A portfolio A portfolio
ePortfolios outstanding portfolio nearly all portfolio also nearly all portfolio is nearly all nearly all will be will be
are graded proficiency in all exhibits criteria of the exhibits criteria of the competent, criteria of the criteria of the inadequate considered
holistically as outcomes strengths Strong Portfolio strengths Good Portfolio demonstrating Acceptable Acceptable when it incomplete if
a full body of categories— clearly A- designation outweighing B designation that the course Portfolio C+ Portfolio C shows no portfolio
work. You situated and outweighing but is lacking in weaknesses, but is lacking in outcomes are designation but designation but serious is submitted
are intertextual weaknesses, at least one but may show at least one basically met, is lacking in at is lacking in deficiencies or if the
submitting nature of writing but may show more less strength in more but the traits least one more several areas in three of portfolio
your work as and research, somewhat less significantly. two of the significantly. associated with significantly. more the four includes only
a culmination recursive and proficiency in outcomes them are not as significantly. course part of the
of the entire community one or two of categories, fully realized or outcomes. required
semester’s specific writing the outcomes perhaps strong controlled. The Alternatively, work for the
work and not and research, categories, research writing can this portfolio class,
as separate research perhaps strong arguments for succeed in the may be error- sometimes
assignments. arguments for in situated and specific academic free, yet missing
specific intertextual communities environment. does not significant
communities that nature of writing that address The strengths adequately portions of
address specific and research, specific and weaknesses demonstrate the work of
exigencies, recursive and exigencies, are about evenly the other the course.
examination of community examination of balanced, but outcomes.
writing and specific writing writing and should be The critical
research and research, research slightly stronger reflection will
conceptions— research conceptions, on situated and be brief and
outweighing its arguments for but less so in intertextual may not
few weaknesses. specific situated and nature of writing indicate
The critical communities intertextual and research, which items
reflection clearly that address nature of writing recursive and in the
indicates which specific and research, community portfolio
items in the exigencies, but and recursive specific writing demonstrate
portfolio slightly less and community and research, the course
demonstrate the examination of specific writing research outcomes or
course outcomes writing and and research. arguments for make an
and makes a research The critical specific effective
compelling conceptions. reflection communities argument for
argument for how The critical indicates which that address how they do
they do so. In so reflection items in the specific so. The
doing, it displays clearly indicates portfolio exigencies as portfolio
thorough and which items in demonstrate these represent indicates that
thoughtful the portfolio the course key facets of the student
awareness of the demonstrate outcomes, and academic may need
writer’s own the course makes an research writing. more time to
writing, using outcomes, and argument for Some parts of be able to
evidence from makes an how they do so, the selected handle the
the course effective although the assignments demands of
outcomes, argument for argument may may be both
assignments, how they do so. display less underdeveloped, academic
self- It also displays thoughtful too general, or reading and
assessments, thoughtful awareness of predictable, or writing as
peer responses, awareness of the writer’s own leave parts of characterized
and teacher the writer’s own writing by using the outcomes in the course
responses by writing, using less evidence unconsidered. outcomes
quoting or evidence from from the course While and
paraphrasing the course outcomes, demonstrating associated
from these outcomes, assignments, knowledge of traits.
materials in assignments, self- conventions, this
support of its self- assessments, portfolio typically
argument. The assessments, peer responses, will not display
selected major peer responses, and teacher rhetorical
assignment and and teacher responses in awareness or
shorter responses by support of its control over
assignments quoting or argument. The revision, editing,
offer an paraphrasing selected major and
outstanding from these assignment and proofreading.
demonstration of materials in shorter The critical
all the course support of its assignments reflection
outcomes argument, but effectively indicates which
through a very may not present demonstrate items in the
highly proficient as clear an the course portfolio
and skillful argument for outcomes, but demonstrate the
handling of the the choices as with less course
traits associated the outstanding proficiency and outcomes, but
with them. The portfolio. The control. The may not make
outstanding selected major portfolio usually as effective an
portfolio will likely assignment and will not display argument for
demonstrate shorter the appropriate how they do so,
some appropriate assignments, risk-taking and one based in
risk-taking, although slightly creativity of the evidence from
originality, less consistent strong and the course
variety, and/or in outstanding outcomes,
creativity. demonstrating portfolios. assignments,
the course self-
outcomes, assessments,
nonetheless peer responses,
Criteria Ratings Pts
offer a strong and teacher
demonstration responses.
of effectiveness There may be
in many traits moments of
associated with excellence, but
the outcomes, in general the
handling a portfolio simply
variety of tasks meets
successfully. successfully the
This portfolio demands of the
engages the course
material and outcomes.
follows the
assignments
given, but may
risk less than
the outstanding
portfolio.

Total Points: 100