Thank you for your willingness to incorporate the Vocation Portfolio into the learning experience you are leading. We want the Vocation Portfolio to be a helpful tool for students to reflect upon significant learning experiences throughout their time at Augsburg University. We also want it to be easy and useful for instructors. For this tool to be helpful to our students we will need to make sure we are incorporating good design, good strategy, and good follow through. It is important to take the time to design reflection exercises well, to understand how they fit into your overall strategy of the learning experience, and then to follow through with your plan. What follows should help you do those three things.
I am an instructor using the Vocation Portfolio in AugSem
During the 2023 fall semester students will be introduced to the Vocation Portfolio in their AugSem. If you are an AugSem instructor who has been asked to use the Vocation Portfolio, please follow these steps to ensure a successful experience for your students.
1. Have students set up their Vocation Portfolio
On the student page of the Vocation Portfolio website, there are instructions on choosing a platform and setting up the Vocation Portfolio. Instructors are not expected to spend time helping students with this process but please familiarize yourself with this process so you understand what the students are doing. They should complete this before their Journey Map assignments are due.
2. Complete the Journey Map Assignment with your students
You will be given instructions to use when leading the Journey Map assignment with your AugSem Students. Plan to lead this exercise within the first few weeks of the semester. The assignment is designed to help students identify and articulate the people, places, things, and events that have played a role in their journey to where they are at this moment in time. Have the students turn in their Journey Map assignment by sharing the link to their Vocation Portfolio with you. You can give feedback to the students in whatever way works for you, but having them share the link with you will help ensure they upload it to their Vocation Portfolio.
3. Share your feedback
At the end of the semester, we will ask you to help us assess this experience by sharing your feedback on how the process worked for you and your students.
I am an instructor using the Vocation Portfolio somewhere other than AugSem
We have been using the Vocation Portfolio in places other than AugSem since 2020. We will continue to use it in these other learning experiences. If you are an instructor who has been asked to use the Vocation Portfolio somewhere other than AugSem, then please follow these steps to ensure a successful experience for your students.
1. Have students set up their Vocation Portfolio
If your students have already set up their Vocation Portfolio, then just have them review and revise it based on the instructions on the student page of the Vocation Portfolio website. Students who have never set up a Vocation Portfolio can find instructions on how to choose a platform and set up their Vocation Portfolio. Instructors are not expected to spend time helping students with this process but please familiarize yourself with this process so you have an idea of what the students are doing.
2. Have students complete or revise their Journey Map and Vocation Definition
Your students may or may not have already completed and uploaded a Journey Map and a Vocation Definition to their Vocation Portfolios. If they have already completed these exercises, then have them review and revise these assignments based on the instructions provided on the Vocation Portfolio website. If they have not completed these exercises, then have them complete them using the instructions on the Vocation Portfolio website.
3. Have students complete your custom designed Mid-Point Reflection Exercise
Each instructor using the Vocation Portfolio will create a reflection exercise for students to complete and upload to their Vocation Portfolios around the mid-point of the learning experience the instructor is facilitating. If the learning experience (i.e., internship, course, etc.) is one semester long, then this will happen at the midterm. If the experience is a full academic year, then this will happen at the end of the first semester. These mid-point reflection exercises should be designed to help students reflect on how this learning experience with you is helping them understand their own sense of vocation more deeply. Please be sure to refer to the Vocation Statement when creating this reflection exercise to ensure consistency in how we are talking about vocation across our institution.
4. Have students complete a Final Reflection Exercise
(TBA)