ePortfolio

Trainees cap off their traineeship experience by creating/curating a portfolio that combines academic work from the courses in the Certificate program and research results from their dissertation/thesis work, with reflections designed to transform such materials into broader impacts for diverse audiences.  Dr. Amy Kaleita has created a video describing the goals.  You can find it on the DataFEWSion Canvas home page or here: https://iastate.box.com/s/iyw4jpfpkndwc4psrza5zwlhffd4khxj.

Requirements/expectations:

1. Each portfolio will have a minimum of 6 artifacts.  Artifacts or links to artifacts should be added to the appropriate assignment located in Cybox. https://iastate.app.box.com/folder/127827968160?s=m7p43h3pl6ad5mrcrsvsfn9h2i5mtdyr
2. A reflection piece should accompany each artifact in the portfolio.
3. The final step is to share with two DataFEWSion peers who will read and provide comments on each artifact. 

Timeline

1. It is recommended that the semester you take the Certificate coursework, a course product is submitted as the artifact, with a reflection piece. Other products can be submitted if they fit the “targeted objective” see the tracking form below.

1. Once you submit an artifact and reflection, you should contact the two peer reviewers.  A spreadsheet showing who will review each artifact is in CyBox.
2. Within 2 weeks, the peer reviewers should provide a short review of the content related to FEWS and post it in the same folder as the artifact reviewed.  See Peer Review below for the process.
3. Within a week of receiving the review, the author should provide a brief response to the reviewer addressing the reviewers’ comments.

Artifacts

Note: Selection of the artifact should show the trainee’s breadth of knowledge and ability to work & communicate with people in other fields.  Below are examples.

 

 

• Technical report
• Formal oral presentation
• Publishable academic doc.
• Poster
• Elevator speech
• Audio abstract
• Coursework product
• Multimedia product

 

 

Reflection

The reflection should be less than one page.  Suggested reflection questions to address:

• Purpose and context of the artifact.  Why did you select it?
• Describe the intended audience, primary goals, and objectives.
• How does the artifact reflect your strengths, interests, or career pathway?
• Describe what you learned from the assignment, paper, or project as related to FEWS.

Peer Review:

The purpose of the DataFEWSion Artifact peer review is two-fold:

1. Provide feedback to the author as it reflects on their participation in the DataFEWSion program.
2. Reviewers gain insight into various FEWS-related content and the opportunity to interact.

 

Review Guidelines:

Comments should have a professional tone.  The following should be addressed:

• How does the artifact meet the targeted objective listed on the DataFEWSion tracking form below?
• Is there another outlet (i.e., LinkedIn) where all or part of this artifact could be highlighted?
• You may not be able to validate the science from another field, but you can evaluate the artifact on many levels.  You are not checking grammar or writing style.  In general, the product has been graded or submitted to a journal.

NOTE:  the fact that a paper has been published doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have flaws, conceptual or otherwise.  Evidence of this is that many journals publish errata and comments to the original papers.  In addition, as it recently happened, it widely publicized COVID19 studies, journals retract articles if warranted.  If the review finds flaws, it may provide useful information for the portfolio holder, as they may decide it is better to change the artifact.

• Examples of other students’ artifacts, reflections, and reviews can be found in Cybox under each person’s name.  As an example, Cohort 1 reflections and reviews were complied —  https://iastate.app.box.com/folder/127827968160.
• Peer review training is offered in many places.  Elsevier, a reputable general publisher, has a “Certified Peer Reviewers Course” https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/navigating-peer-review/certified-peer-reviewer-course and other related training and content, as does Wiley https://authorservices.wiley.com/Reviewers/journal-reviewers/how-to-perform-a-peer-review/step-by-step-guide-to-reviewing-a-manuscript.html.
• Creating your peer-review style will be based on your field and the journals where you publish.  Reading each other’s reviews will give you examples of the many styles. 

 Artifact Tracking Form

Artifact	Semester Submitted	Certificate Curriculum Knowledge Area	Targeted Objective from NSF proposal
1		ABE 690 Biosystems for Sustainable Development	Understanding of the interactions among food production, renewable energy generation, and water quality (O2.1)
2		Economics, Policy, or Sociology of FEW	Knowledge of the economic, social, and policy contexts of those interactions (O2.1)
3		Data acquisition, visualization, and analytics	Effective use of systems modeling to represent & illuminate FEWS interactions (O2.1)
4		Complex systems modeling for decision support	Ability to use decision science and analytics in FEWS to interpret heterogeneous data from a variety of processes (O2.2)
5		GR ST 566 Communications in Science	Ability to communicate across disciplinary boundaries (O3.2)
6		Open	Ability to work effectively in teams (O3.2)

NOTE: The identifier in parentheses is the outcomes and goals of the proposal.