SUMMARY

The Capstone Portfolio class is two courses, CEP807 and ED870 taught together. The goal of these courses was to help each student develop a web portfolio that shows in a rich, thoughtful way the work they completed in their masters program (MAET or MAED). Students developed these portfolios for an authentic audience, not just the instructors in the course. As they developed their portfolios, they kept in mind their peers, students, (potential) employers, and significant others so that their portfolios would have life beyond the course, and not collect dust after they graduate.

This course was taught in summer 2013. I no longer want to maintain the full website for the course (because so many wordpress installs becomes difficult to manage from a security standpoint). Accordingly, I have archived the portfolios that students have created, and the syllabus below. If you’re interested in the full version of the course, http://capstone.matt-koehler.com/ should take you to the most recent version.

PORTFOLIOS

Below are the names of the students making portfolios this semester. Click on a name to see their portfolio (no guarantee it still exists or is maintained).
 

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTORS (and their portfolios)

OFFICE HOURS & CONTACTING YOUR INSTRUCTORS

There are many ways to get a hold of your Capstone instructors: office hours & email are the most popular. Use the “Communicate” menu at the top of the course website to reach an instructor promptly. Make sure you put “Capstone Portfolio Course” in the title of any email, so that we can easily find your message in our inboxes.

EXPECTATIONS

We do not know of any better way to explain the course expectations than to say that our total focus in this class is to help you each end the course with a web portfolio that shows in a rich, thoughtful way the work you have done in your Master’s program, and which is written for your authentic audience, not just for us or for meeting the requirements of the Capstone Portfolio Course. We want you to look good in the eyes of your peers, your students, your (potential) employers, and your significant others. So please be thinking of this as your portfolio, not your instructors’. Also, think of your portfolio as something to be shared with others into the future, not one that is put away in some dusty file cabinet when this course is over.

Because we are focused on you and your audiences, we encourage you to feel free to be creative and diverse in the portfolios you create. This makes our job harder (and our expectations perhaps a bit ambiguous at times) but we really do want you to complete the Capstone Portfolio Course with a portfolio you are proud of, a deeper understanding of the power of the portfolio concept, and an expanded set of web publishing skills combined with some deep reflection about the power of web publishing in the lives of others you teach. That is not to say, however, that there are not some common requirements and guidelines that will help structure the great diversity, creativity, and originality that will span the range of portfolios that are possible. We’ll say more about that later as we go along.

There are a couple of things we’d like you to keep in mind.

• First, each of you comes to the course with differing levels of technical expertise for web publishing.  Several members of the class have never published web pages, but not to worry…many students during in previous semesters also began without this expertise. Other members of the class are experts in web publishing, and one has taught web design courses at a community college. We will be asking you to help each other, especially asking those who are experienced in web publishing. (More on this later)

• Second, we are sure some of you would like to work quickly and complete your portfolios and be done. And in fact this course is strongly product oriented…our goal is for each of you to complete the course with a superb portfolio on the Web that showcases your work in the Master’s. We really want you to look good on the Web… and you will. But equally important in this course is for you to discuss your ideas with others in the class and to give lots of feedback and encouragement to your study buddies. And that won’t work if we don’t work through the assignments module by module.You know this dilemma we face as teachers. Students naturally would like to know what is expected in the course, but as teachers we recognize the value in unveiling or rolling out assignments week by week, or in this case, module by module. So when this week we give you the opportunity to see the scope of requirements and the kinds of work the previous class did, you will have a detailed look at what the semester has in store….and you can begin thinking about and gathering the information you need to complete your portfolio, and even work ahead if you want to. But realize, there are times when you might have to “work back” to the rest of your classmates to complete group-oriented mini-assignments. Not everyone may be as far ahead as you.

• One other conceptual idea we would like you to keep in mind is that the power of web-based portfolios comes from the sharing of good work via the Web over time with a community of learners. You will learn a lot this week because the students before you left their work up on the web for you to see. And related to this idea is our obsession with your doing authentic work for an authentic audience. Your portfolio should not be designed for the master’s requirement, but should be designed for your fellow teachers, parents, prospective employers, etc.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

Good news! There are no books are any other materials you need to purchase. All readings are available online.

YOUR VIRTUAL HOUSE & PEER FEEDBACK

Early in the course, you will be placed in a ‘virtual house,’ or large group of students who you will interact with frequently. The nexus of this interaction will be about giving and receiving good feedback from one another as you complete portions of your portfolio. In every course module, you will post something in your house about the work you did, and then provide feedback to two others in your house about the work that they did. You also receive feedback from two others.

Each module we’ll give you specific things to include in your post and in your feedback to others. Together, you and your housemates will help provide cycles of review and feedback that will ensure quality portfolios by the time the course is over.

Please note, this is above and beyond the feedback that you will receive from your course instructors, which will also be a valuable source of input.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

You don’t just create a portfolio from scratch – just as Rome wasn’t built in a day. How do you build a portfolio in one semester then?

• A “figure it out” period – Built into the early weeks of the course is a period of time for you to evaluate different approaches to portfolios and different web-authoring tools. The early assignments in the course will take you through the decision process, so if you’re feeling a little nervous about this, please relax.You’ll get to choose the approach and tools that work for you, only after trying a few out.

• A series of progressive assignments – In this course, we use a series of smaller assignments to slowly build up the portfolio, piece by piece. You start with just making a page. Then, you add a resume. By the time the course is over, you’ll have something to be proud of.

• Cycles of Feedback – At each step along the way, there are many types of feedback to help you build something to be proud of. You’ll be getting feedback every week from members of your virtual house. You also get reviews from the instructors, and from the final portfolio exhibition.  Each round of feedback is meant to provide opportunities to revise your work, and make it better.

• Reflecting on your Experiences in your Master’s Program – Some of the assignments are going to ask you to think critically about your experiences to date in the Master’s program. This is, after all, a capstone course. It is designed to make you think, reflect, and synthesize across all of your course experiences. These will take the form of thoughtful essays that will become part of your web portfolio.

• Minimal Reading, Maximal Doing – The course is designed to have you do minimal outside reading. We will provide you some text to provide context, some suggestions, some food for thought. However, these pieces are very short, and designed to help you place the work you are doing in context, and to help you think about the bigger ideas embedded in the work. They may help you think about these ideas in your own teaching as well.

GRADING

There are two components to your grade.

LATE WORK. We’ve worked hard to design the course as a series of activities, along a timeline, that works towards getting most people a complete a high quality portfolio on time. We hope you stick to the deadline, as we believe it is best for you in the long run. Most of our weekly modules ask you just design “something” – a start, a 1st draft, a placeholder – rather than a finished product. You can always improve on it later. In most cases as long as you do “something,” you’ll get most of the credit for the activity.

We realize, however, that circumstances arise from time to time that may require to you need extra time for an assignment. That is okay, so long as you contact us *before* the due date, to make a suitable alternate schedule that fits the circumstances.

Policy for late work without prior notice – Work received up to 48 hours after the deadline without prior notice may receive up to 1/2 credit. Work received up to 48 hours without prior notice will receive no points.

Keeping perspective – Each of the modules presents a series of activities that moves you towards a final portfolio. However, each module only represents 2% of your grade (modules 9-11 are more). It is okay if you miss a week, or are late, you can still receive a good grade in the course. Habitual lateness, however, can be costly. Together, the module assignments total 30% of your grade, and you wouldn’t want to miss all those points.

FINAL GRADES
Final grades are assigned in the course according to the following:

ACADEMIC HONESTY AND INTEGRITY

Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that “The student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards.”

In addition, the College of Education adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0: Protection of Scholarship and Grades; the all-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades; and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations. (See Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide and/or the MSU Web site: www.msu.edu.)

Therefore, unless authorized by your instructor, you are expected to complete all course assignments, including homework, lab work, quizzes, tests and exams, without assistance from any source. You are expected to develop original work for this course; therefore, you may not submit course work you completed for another course to satisfy the requirements for this course. Also, you are not authorized to use the http://www.allmsu.com web site to complete any course work in the Capstone course. Students who violate MSU rules may receive a penalty grade, including–but not limited to–a failing grade on the assignment or in the course. Contact your instructor if you are unsure about the appropriateness of your course work.

Deliberate alteration or deletion of official course documents on this website, or other misuse of editorial privileges are also considered to be a violation of the academic honesty and integrity policy with consequences for your grade, up to and including a failing grade on an assignment or the course.

See also https://www.msu.edu/~ombud/academic-integrity/index.html

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Patrick Dickson for his thoughtful design and execution of ED870. Much of structure, as well as text, used in this course are his original work. I have also taken inspiration, and assigments from Dr. Robin Dickson’s version of this course, CEP807.  I, of course, have made some changes to suit my own style, preferences, and perspectives. But this course could not have been offered without the hard work of either of the Dr. Dicksons.