BUSA 4101 Leadership & Professional Development Student Portfolio Instructions

Purpose A portfolio is a collection of work that a student would use to showcase his/her skills, talents, work, and learning. It should be evidence of only a students best work and examples of leadership or evolving skills/talents over a period of time. It is compiled and used to display accomplishments and inherit ability to prospective employers or to assess learning and/or learning potential. Contents A students portfolio will contain completed assignments that illustrate COBAs learning objectives as described below: 1. Ethical Awareness COBA students will demonstrate the ability to recognize ethical issues confronting them and the ability to use ethics-based reasoning. 2. Communication COBA students will be able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing. Students will demonstrate ability to collect, organize, interpret and coherently present information in writing & oral format using situation appropriate grammar, language and professionalism. 3. Technological Expertise COBA students will demonstrate ability to conduct data searches, secondary & primary data analysis, and presentation of findings as well as an ability to use common software packages for database design, Website development, quantitative, analysis, etc. (e.g. SPSS, Excel, Access, HTML, Java, etc.) 4. Professional Competence COBA students will acquire knowledge of the functional areas of business and demonstrate the ability to apply disciplinary knowledge to problem solving situations. Students will adhere to high behavioral standards and show ability to inspire and enable others to create and achieve a shared vision of the future 5. Critical and Analytical Thinking COBA students will be able to think critically and to use analytical skills in making decisions. Specific skills to illustrate include identification of a problem/opportunity, conducting an appropriate analysis to generate information, use of that information to develop suitable potential solutions based upon available resources. 6. Cultural Diversity COBA students will demonstrate an understanding of diversity and multiculturalism in a business context. Students must demonstrate awareness of the diverse beliefs, values and perspectives held by others, enabling informed judgments and actions.

7. Teamwork COBA students will demonstrate the ability to work effectively in a group. Students should demonstrate mutual respect, effective communication and flexibility. Be able to identify benefits and difficulties of working in teams. Format Traditionally, portfolios have been stored in boxes and three-ring binders. Although this format works fine for paper and other print-based materials, it misses many other ways of communicating ideas. Therefore, your student portfolio will be submitted in digital format using one of the following methods: 1. posted online 2. recorded on a zip disk 3. burned onto a CD A complete portfolio must include all of the following: 1. Students resume 2. Cover letter 3. References 4. Table of Contents 5. Professional Agenda 6. Professional Development Plan/SWOT Analysis 7. Artifacts for each of the 7 objectives including a description of why item was included Your portfolio should be logical and organized! A good idea is to have each item in the table of contents hyper-linked to the various projects & papers which are represented in a separate digital file (e.g., .doc, .ppt, .xls, .pdf, etc.). The initial table of contents could also provide hyper-links to alternative references as well.use your imagination to determine what will best "tell your story." How should you go about constructing your portfolio? Your portfolio is a public presentation of you. It could be the one thing that seals the deal with a prospective employer. Therefore, it is important to be thoughtful about the materials you select and how they are organized. Identify your primary and secondary academic objectives (career path(s), academic prerequisites for the relevant career path(s), co-curricular interests and the linkage between those interests and career choices). Perform a personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to determine what you have accomplished in your academic career to date and what learning experiences will be most effective and important in achieving the objectives identified in #1, above. (Note: "challenges" may be a better word than "threats" in this context.) What are you good at? How do you know? What do you like to do? Note that it's important to be as objective and

honest as possible here. Puffery and exaggeration will be discovered sooner or later, typically to one's detriment. Compile an inventory of significant academic and co-curricular work to date, including but not restricted to term papers, semester projects, class presentations, case analyses, student leadership positions and internship/work experience. How do your co-curricular achievements reinforce your academic accomplishments? Examine existing portfolios (a Web search will get you lots of hits) and learn to constructively critique what others have done in order to better display your own work. Remember that you are looking for both content and appearance. What sorts of artifacts do you find that really enable you to get a sense of a student's capabilities? Determine how best to represent your accomplishments to date using selected artifacts to show both development (i.e., evolution) and achievement of skills and abilities. You will need to provide a brief description of why you have selected each item. What role does it serve? How does this artifact demonstrate your improved ability in, say, written communication? Assemble your portfolio!

Remember that a portfolio is a dynamic entity--just as your capabilities evolve and change with each new experience, your portfolio should evolve to reflect those changes. (School of Business, Pacific Lutheran University; www.plu.edu) You may use the following websites to learn more about the development of electronic portfolios: www.electronicportfolios.com (go to Resources page) www.ddp.alverno.edu/index.html www.physics.uci.edu/~jeff/index.html Portfolio Submission A submission schedule will be published by October 15th. No late submissions will be allowed.