Criteria for Selection of Portfolio Projects

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Criteria for Selection of Portfolio Projects
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Competency

• Select portfolio projects that reflect commitment
  to life long education, excellence in clinical
  practice, leadership and community service.
• Demonstrate the basic components of the written
  portfolio.

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Stuff to keep in mind

• Selection of projects is a personal decision and
  should reflect the students interests in field
  of OT
• May choose to focus on 1 population or aspect of
  treatment (a theme approach)
• Or be diverse and explore many topics
• Portfolio is also the method by which you
  demonstrate that you are prepared to practice as
  an OT

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Key AttributesThe 4 Commitments

• Life long learning
• Community service
• Advocacy and leadership
• Excellence in practice

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Required Projects

• Must select at least one project to address each
  attribute (4 projects total)
• Literature review
• Demonstrating evidence based approach to practice

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Life Long Learning

• Demonstrated through participation in continuing
  education
• Workshops, seminars, conferences held by UAB,
  professional organizations, consumer groups
• Professional presentations by candidates for
  faculty positions, grand rounds, speakers from
  university Centers etc.
• Self paced clinical study courses including
  online courses

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Life Long Learning

• Non-credit education classes offered by UAB
• Introductory sign language etc
• For credit classes taken in addition to the
  electives required for graduation
• Low vision or gerontology certificates
• Must complete a minimum of 10 hours of CE
• May do this through a variety of venues but only
  one portfolio project is written

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Community Service

• Volunteer in some capacity in a project to serve
  persons in the community
• Project may be sponsored by UAB or a private
  organization
• Involvement MUST extend over 4 sessions or 1-2
  days
• Week at camp ASCCA (good)
• Participate as a walker in a walk to raise money
  (no good)

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Advocacy and Leadership

• Assume a leadership role with a professional
  organization such as SOTA or a service
  organization
• Participate in an event
• Promoting occupational therapy, SHRP
• Advocating for needs of a special needs group
• Homeless persons, low vision etc.

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Excellence in Clinical Practice

• Observe in a clinic or shadow a practitioner for
  several weeks to learn how a specific tx is
  applied
• Participate in providing tx to clients under the
  supervision of a faculty member or another
  clinician
• Develop and implement a research project or
  assist in completing a research project being
  conducted at UAB
• Develop a therapeutic tool for tx of a specific
  client population

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In Class Activity

• Divide into groups of 7-8
• Group one-think up 4 examples of projects to meet
• Commitment to life long learning
• Group two-4 examples of projects to meet
• Commitment to community
• Group three-4 examples of projects to meet
• Commitment to advocacy and leadership
• Group four- 4 examples of project to meet
• Commitment to excellence in clinical practice

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Portfolio Contract
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Portfolio Contract

• Serves a formal written agreement between student
  and advisor
• Describes projects to be completed
• Developed during the fall and spring semesters
• Must be signed by end of summer term
• Can be revised after that date if needed

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Components

• Five sections
• 1. Name
• 2. Advisors name
• 3. Itemized list of projects
• 4. Personal/professional goals addressed
• 5. Signature and date lines

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Itemized List of Projects

• Brief description of activities to be carried out
• Timeframe for completion of the project
• Estimated completion date

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Personal/Professional Goals

• List anticipate benefits to personal and
  professional goals
• Example your goal is to work with children with
  hearing impairment
• Project you enroll in a basic sign language
  class
• You anticipate that the class will prepare you to
  work more effectively with children with hearing
  impairment

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Writing up the Project

• The written portfolio

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Written Portfolio

• Formal document describing and summarizing work
  you have completed to demonstrate qualifications
  to receive masters degree
• Reflective piece
• As a capstone project it should reflect your best
  professional writing
• Formal language
• No grammatical or spelling errors

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Format

• Appearance
• Times new roman 12 pt font
• MS word format
• APA format for headings, references etc.
• Sections
• Project description
• Challenges
• Benefits
• Contribution to Professional Growth

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Project Description

• Purpose of project
• Location
• Timeframe
• Persons involved in completion of the project
• Brief description of the sequence of events
• Enough detail for reader to picture how the
  project was carried out and completed

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Challenges

• Describe any challenges you experienced
  completing the project
• Only include challenges that contributed to your
  professional growth
• Avoid superficial generalities
• I couldnt communicate with my client because I
  didnt know sign language
• Be reflective and describe how the challenge
  influenced your participation in the activity and
  what you learned from it

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• My client, B.D. was getting very agitated
  because I couldnt understand what he was saying
  to me and I finally had to get one of the other
  helpers to assist me. After that episode, B.D.
  requested that another helper work with him. I
  was very embarrassed, but more than that, I was
  frustrated because I felt that I could have
  worked effectively with B.D. if I had the skills
  to communicate with him.

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Benefits

• Describe what you gained from completing the
  project
• Varied
• New information
• New skills
• New perspective
• Future contact for networking
• Etc.
• Avoid superficial generalities
• I had a lot of fun and learned a lot

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• Provide specific examples of benefits received
• I have never worked with persons with cognitive
  limitations and wasnt sure that I would know
  what to say or how to help my client J.K.
  complete the activity. But I found that if I
  broke the activity down and gave short, specific
  instructions J.K. was able to successfully finish
  the project.

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Contributions to Personaland Professional Growth

• Analyze the benefits and challenges experienced
  in completing the project
• Example
• Challenge not being able to communicate with deaf
  client
• Benefit to personal growth-you now realize how
  isolating a sensory loss such as deafness can be
  and your effectiveness as a therapist is
  dependent on your ability to communicate with
  your client and the contribution to your
  professional growth is that decided to take a
  sign language class

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• Provide specific EXAMPLES and avoid trite
  statements
• it contributed a lot to my professional growth

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Time Frames

• Rough draft due second week of January
• First attempt but should be best effort at this
  point
• Final draft due to advisor 4 weeks prior to
  scheduled date of oral presentation
• Should only need minor revisions at this point
• Final written portfolio due to advisor a minimum
  of two weeks prior to oral presentation
• Should be perfect!

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Submitting Written Portfolio

• When advisor has approved final copy
• Send to second reader
• 10 days prior to oral, email portfolio to rest of
  faculty
• After portfolio is graded and all corrections
  have been made
• Burn one copy onto a CD and turn it into Julia
  for permanent file

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Assignment Two (2 parts)

• Part one (30 points)
• Read and analyze a selection written by an author
  in a reflective style. The selection is
  Interlude Stephen Hawking from Slow Dance by
  Bonnie Klein. It is posted on the webpage.
• Answer the following questions

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Assignment Two

• Part 2 (70 points)
• Using Kleins piece as an example, write up a
  personal experience following the Guidelines for
  the Written Portfolio describing the challenges
  and benefits of the experience and the
  contributions to personal and/or professional
  growth
• Organize your paper under the following headings
• Description of the experience (10pts)
• Challenges (with examples)(20 points)
• Benefits (with examples) (20 points)
• Contribution to personal or professional growth
  (20 points)
• Do not exceed 3 pages
• Minus 5points for incorrec tformat
• Minus10 points for late assignment
• Both parts due on September 8th