Susan Thorne, Associate Professor, History, Arts & Sciences
Students in the new course “Preparing the Portfolio for Preliminary Certification” author and publish web based electronic portfolios. This course supports an innovation in the history department’s approach to preliminary certification of PhD candidates. In place of the conventional written or oral exam, students are required to submit portfolios of work that display the student’s engagement with their three or four fields of specialization as well as their teaching expertise; the portfolio is modeled on the tenure dossier. This course is optional in this, its first year, but it will be required of all graduate students in either their second or third year. The objectives for the course are for students to:
- learn how to write a dissertation prospectus and/or grant proposal
- learn how to revise papers produced in classes and independent studies for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
- learn how to display their work in a web-based portfolio format
A CIT consultant worked closely with Thorne to develop a portfolio template and to provide training for students in web authoring.
Project start date: 5/10/2006
Funding awarded: $5,000