May 2022 update: Portfolium will be undergoing changes that will change how you experience and interact with Portfolium in 2023. Stay tuned to find out how these changes will help you make the most of your time at UTS. Meanwhile, you can continue to build your personal digital portfolios with Portfolium.
In the subject Transdisciplinary Practice at the Cutting Edge, students are at a critical point on their journey to becoming transdisciplinary (TD) practitioners in their chosen fields. This subject provides the opportunity for students to deep-dive and reflect on their unique strengths and skills as emerging transdisciplinary experts who will be able to provide advice on impactful projects in an ever-changing world. To capture and showcase their work, students were given the option of using Portfolium to curate artefacts of their work and develop their pitches for a target audience including future employers, clients and collaborators.
Getting started
Subject coordinator Alex Baumber designed three major assessment tasks to scaffold students through the process of positioning themselves as transdisciplinary practitioners in their chosen fields. The first task focused on moments of transformative learning in their degree, which helped them understand what a TD approach involved. The second task focused on helping students draw out and identify their strengths as TD practitioners and explain these to potential partners facing complex challenges. The third part was to showcase their work, highlight their achievements and build a strong portfolio intended for future employers.
To help students navigate their way and become familiar with the Portfolium tool, Alex provided a clear set of instructions in his Canvas subject site on how to set up an account in Portfolium and guidance around curation of artefacts – for example, what to showcase and how to target the intended audience for their portfolios.
Additionally, Alex set up his own portfolio in Porfolium and shared with his students as an example to get them started, which helped students to understand the task. Clearly defined requirements, along with examples, helped to ease students into Portfolium and on to creating their portfolios.
Developing reflexivity
The students’ journey to becoming reflexive transdisciplinary practitioners began with self-reflection. It consisted of two stages:
- The first major assessment component of the subject asked students to reflect on the path which led them to consider becoming TD practitioners, and guided them in understanding and appreciating the values of TD.
- Students then worked in pairs to provide advice based on TD principles to each other. This helped students self-reflect and work with purpose, as well as develop confidence in providing feedback based on their knowledge to their peers.
Weaving stories as transdisciplinary practitioners
With the students on the verge of becoming practitioners in their fields, they were encouraged to tell the story of their journeys through a portfolio. The portfolio’s intended purpose is to help students set themselves apart based on their personal narratives as TD professionals and for them to pitch their value propositions to potential employers.
Students were asked to develop the following:
- Part A: A 3-minute video pitch telling their story and highlighting their TD strengths and philosophy.
- Part B: Curated artefacts that express their TD expertise, achievements and philosophy.
- Part C: A rationale that identifies the student’s target audience, context, research, feedback and critical evaluation, and the narrative behind Parts A and B.
Parts A and B were developed in their portfolios, while Part C was submitted (along with a link to their portfolio) in Canvas. Asking students to provide a rationale to explain their thinking process behind the development of their portfolio (for example, the intended purpose and audience of their portfolio) helped students to reflect, curate and showcase with purpose.
Reflection on the experience
Students appreciated the opportunity to reflect on their journey to date and articulate to diverse audiences what makes them unique as transdisciplinary practitioners. Just over half of the students chose to use Portfolium as their portfolio tool in the first year it was offered. These students cited benefits such as the simple user-friendly design, the range of privacy and sharing options, and the potential to re-use their portfolio for other purposes after they graduate. The students who chose not to use Portfolium tended to be those who already had their own websites that could be used for this purpose and/or had strong design skills that they wished to showcase through their own individualised portfolio format.
My advice for other subject coordinators looking to use Portfolium is to give students a choice of platform while also showcasing Portfolium and the key features it offers. The various instructions and help guides provided by UTS and Portfolium can be easily linked to within a subject in Canvas. Another tip is to be very clear with students about the privacy settings they will need to use in order for their tutors to be able to view their Portfolium pages, and if possible have a testing session during class to ensure that the pages are accessible to tutors. The opportunity for students to obtain peer feedback on the elements they are including in their portfolios is also valuable.
Alex Baumber
Coming soon: a new Canvas template
Keep an eye out for a new Canvas template that will enable you to easily provide instructions and guidance to your students on using Portfolium. This template is currently in development.
You can find more examples of how Portfolium can be used here.