The Course Portfolio

For many of us who have taught for some time at Georgia State, having our teaching performance evaluated primarily by student ratings of courses raises the concern of having an incomplete picture of what happens in our classes. The most obvious omission is that the student course evaluation system does not assess student learning. Even items that ask students to rate how much they learned or whether the course was worthwhile are dependent on student perceptions captured in a momentary judgment.

This is not to say that student evaluations are not a critical part of evaluating our teaching—they are—but to get the total picture of the effectiveness of our teaching, one needs to examine other evidence. The course portfolio is designed to provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of faculty teaching.

The teaching portfolio is a collection of information and materials and interpretations about those materials. Portfolios may be used to improve teaching performance as well as to document the effectiveness of teaching an individual course (i.e., course portfolio) or a pattern of effective teaching (i.e., a teaching portfolio). Typically, the course portfolio contains the following elements: a framework for examining teaching the course (typically a statement of teaching philosophy), material to document what happened in the course (typically the course syllabus, course evaluations, products of student learning, and any other supporting information), and a reflective statement interpreting the material that is presented and possible changes and goals for the future. An important aspect of the course portfolio is that the elements are integrated into a whole. That is to say, teaching philosophy should be reflected in the course syllabus (e.g., course activities), efforts at course modification, and resulting student products.