CUSP ePortfolio Resources

As part of your first-year experience in the CUSP Discovery Core (DC) sequence, CUSP asks you to create an eportfolio that tells a story about your journey through your first year at the University of Washington Bothell. In particular, we invite you to reflect on how the "artifacts" of your first-year work (essays, reports, projects, presentations, performances, art work, etc.) helped you achieve the CUSP Learning Goals.

Below are a series of video tutorials to explain essential steps in the CUSP ePortfolio creation, sharing and submission processes.

Table of Contents

1. Activating UW Google Apps
2. CUSP ePortfolio Basics
3. Sharing Your ePortfolio site with your instructor
4. First Year Reflection Essay - Description and Prompts
5. Example Portfolios
6. Copying and Sharing the Final Draft of the CUSP ePortfolio
7. Portfolio Privacy
8. Plagiarism and Copyright

Activate UW Google Apps

To create your CUSP ePortfolio, you will use Google Apps. The first step is to activate your Google Apps through MyUW (link to transcript under video):

Activating UW Google Apps from UWB Learning Tech on Vimeo.

Link to script for "Activate UW Google Apps" video

CUSP Portfolio Basics Tutorial

CUSP Portfolio Basics from UWB Learning Tech on Vimeo.

Using the CUSP Portfolio Template (text-based tutorial)

Follow these steps to use the site template:

1. Make sure you have activated your UW Google Apps (see first video above).
2. Go to http://gsites.uw.edu
3. Click the Create button
4. Under "Select a Template to Use," click "Browse the gallery for more"
5. Type "CUSP" into the "Search Templates" search box and click the search button
6. Click on "CUSP Portfolio 2012-2013 Template" for your portfolio
7. Then, click Select.
8. Next, where it says "Name your site," give the site the title that follows this specific naming convention: CUSP Portfolio Lastname, Firstname
   
9. Finally, click "Create"
10. Now, use the video below to share the site with your Discovery Core III instructor.

Sharing your ePortfolio Site with your Instructor

Link to script for Sharing your site tutorial video

First Year Reflection Essay - Description and Prompts

In your you will reflect on your experiences and on the extracurricular experiences you’ve had while enrolled in CUSP by writing a 1000-1500 word cohesive thesis-driven or claim-driven essay in which you respond to one or more of the following prompts and provide specific and persuasive evidence to support your claims. The evidence you use to support your claims must consist of your “artifacts” or “texts” from your courses (papers, peer reviews, presentations, lab reports, graphs or spreadsheets, artwork, webpages, etc.), which you will learn to link within your first year reflection. You will clearly describe, analyze, and connect your artifacts to your thesis by creating a page for each artifact and hyperlinking each page within your reflective essay. Remember, always be specific and both “show” your evidence and “tell” about your evidence to convince your audience to agree with your claims.

When you discuss your artifacts, please briefly identify and describe your CUSP courses, assignments, and activities (the artifacts you use can be from any class you have taken in CUSP).

Prompts for reflective writing:

• How do your first-year experiences and artifacts specifically relate to the CUSP Learning Goals?
• How do your first-year experiences and artifacts specifically relate to your goals for UW Bothell and your career path?
• Of the things you've learned during your first year, which two or three things do you most want to carry forward with you into your next year, and how do these specifically relate to your artifacts?
• What knowledge, skills and strengths are you developing in extracurricular and community experiences and how can you connect these specifically to your artifacts and to what happens in the classroom?
• In what ways have academic services or resources enriched your first year at UW Bothell (The Writing Center, QSC, The Campus Library, IT, Digital Media Lab, Career Services, etc.)? and how did these resources specifically influence your artifacts?

Example Portfolios

Jane Smith

https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/cusp-portfolio-doe-jane/

Copying and Sharing the Final Draft of the CUSP ePortfolio

When you have completed your CUSP ePortfolio at the end of Spring quarter and are prepared to submit it, follow the steps explained in the linked below:

NOTE: when sharing your site with the CUSP program, you must use cuspport@UW.edu, NOT @UWB.edu

Links to More Tutorials

• For more information about basic ePortfolio construction, visit the student tutorial page.
• For advanced ePortfolio techniques, visit the advanced ePortfolio page.

Portfolio Privacy

Privacy Notice: You can control the access to your Google Site at all times. During the time when you are designing your portfolio, you probably want to share it only with your DC III instructor (you actually make your instructor an "owner" of the site) and peers who will give you feedback. Once you feel that your site is ready for "primetime" at the end of your DC III, you can change the share settings to UW-only (which will allow everyone with a UW Net ID to view your site) or open it up to the public Web (everyone in the whole world can see it). Here is information on how to control the access to your Google Site: http://www.google.com/support/pages/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=90594

Plagiarism and Copyright Resources