This page describes the objectives, project details, recommended approaches, hints and tips, submission guidelines, and evaluation standards for the Professional Portfolio project.
The Professional Portfolio (PP) offers readers/viewers/visitors a sense of your professional identity, values, expertise, and experience through a digital portfolio. The PP project is most challenging because of its scope and stakes. An effective portfolio requires planning, critical thinking, and the highest levels of attention to detail.
Document type: memo, portfolio
Document length: 150 words (memo), 1000 words + appendices (plan)
Project value: 250 points (50, draft; 200 final submission)
Evaluation rubric: _RPW324_Eval_ProfessionalPortfolio.pdf
The Social Media Strategy Kit project asks that you develop a plan for establishing (or refining) your social media presence. You final Kit will include a report that describes your strategic plan and sample posts to execute that strategy for 3 or more social media platforms.
Your final project submission will include the following elements.
A memo of transmittal introduces the accompanying document to its audience(s). Your memo should be addressed from you to me, and should introduce the accompanying project. Your memo should incorporate the following content elements.
Your portfolio should provide a focused and sustained professional narrative. This is your opportunity to craft a document that explores your accomplishments (or elements of them) in a detailed manner.
Design your portfolio as a stand-alone document. The preferred medium is now the web. However, interactive PDF remains a secondary option. I strongly recommend the web for this work.
Your portfolio should incorporate all of the following content elements.
Recommended tool(s): Zine EOOD Bootstrap Studio (or Adobe Dreamweaver), Adobe InDesign (or Scribus Team Scribus), scanning app/device, digital camera, digital video camera
This section offers guidance for how to interpret the project, and for how to proceed with your work on it. Therefore, as you work, consider the following 3 strategies:
The heading says it clearly. Do not invest time in a project without also investing in the professional tools and technologies necessary for producing quality work. You have paid to have access to the proper equipment. Take advantage of that.
Frame your professional narrative so it serves your goals and needs. Construct the story at the big-picture level as well as at the level of smaller details. Consider how all the parts stand alone and how they work together to craft a coherent narrative about you and your professional development.
Examine the portfolio as a design strategist. Consider how visitors might learn from it, and how all of the components coordinate and complement one another. Evaluate how your portfolio might and might not meet audience expectations.
Demonstrate your abilities by showcasing your accomplishments. However, hold your work to high standards. If it is not professional grade, then elevate each project prior to integrating it into your professional narrative.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following 3 hints and tips:
Research portfolios as a genre. You have ample tools and resources for doing so. Develop designs that support your content effectively, and that establish a strong professional ethos.
Observe what makes portfolios effective, complete, and authentic. Incorporate those observations into the construction of your presence and narrative. Strive for high levels of professionalism and consistency in your work. Draw on any design samples that I provide.
The revisions and refinements you make from the draft to the final submission may help you understand your design process, and therefore your professional development in more-sophisticated ways. Archive your drafts of projects throughout your coursework, so you are able to examine your growth and maturation.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in delays in receiving feedback on the draft of your project, or in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a project folder inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside the class folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
However, do not share your project folder with me. I will not accept that invitation to view its contents. As long as you place your project files in the folder you created and shared in response to the Week 1 discussions, you are set for the semester.
Name the folder Professional Portfolio.
Make sure the files listed below are available to me in the project folder by the description and draft deadlines. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Make sure the files listed below are available to me in the project folder by the final deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note that the Feedback file is one you receive from me in response to your draft submission. Move it into your project folder when you assemble your final submission.
This section describes the standards by which your draft and final submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points each for the description and video draft. You will earn points according to the following standard.
There are 200 possible points for the final project. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (40% content development, 20% design execution, and 20% professionalism & attention to detail, and 20% impact of revision; see Policies). The specific areas of emphasis for this project are drawn from the description and discussion of the project, and are detailed in the evaluation rubric (_RPW324_Eval_ProfessionalPortfolio.pdf).
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will post the details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file.
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