An Automated Online Portfolio for Engineers: Planning and Tracking Student Activity – A Tool for Job Interviews

Abstract

Abstract:Engineering programs across the country are increasingly offering outside-the-classroom programs and opportunities that strengthen and increase the value of an engineering education. Such opportunities support students in practicing their knowledge, further developing their ideas, better understanding contemporary world challenges, becoming more engaged with their communities, and experiencing first-hand the potential impact of engineering solutions for which they have the opportunity to participate while pursuing their undergraduate degree. Many of these activities are extracurricular or co-curricular and while engineering students look forward to participating and taking full advantage of all what is offered, demanding engineering curricula make the individual student planning of enrichment activities, and the tracking of overall student success, a project of its own.To complement and support academic and college-level enrichment program for engineering students at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), we implemented a new approach for following and recording student participation and performance in curricular and non-curricular activities that are relevant to their engineering education. We developed and implemented an automated on-line portfolio for engineering students that is personalized to each student and contains a full record of all courses, activities, and achievements throughout their undergraduate years. The IIT engineering portfolio is prepopulated with general information on curriculum requirements and enrichment programs and opportunities. As a student completes a specific requirement or participates in an enrichment activity, the individual student portfolio information is automatically updated. Each event or activity is fully described in the portfolio with relevant background information and accompanied with visual aid (photos or videos as appropriate) displaying the event and student work. Students are encouraged to further personalize their portfolios by adding all activities and projects that are relevant to their education, including those not facilitated by our institution.The IIT engineering portfolio provides students with a platform to plan, document and quantify their undergraduate experience. Students are able to track their progress, design their own academic path to graduation, and develop their own enrichment activity plan that best fits their specific interest. The engineering portfolio also assists students to prepare their resume for job interviews and, when used as a tool for interviewing, the portfolio highlights tangible experiences outside what is normally found in transcripts and conventional resumes.Our approach focuses on capturing the entire breath of each student's educational experience, while setting the foundation for students to build an open-ended self-guided career plan that draws from their skills, experiences, and achievements that comprise their engineering portfolio.Page 26.4.3 3 A key feature of our portfolio project for engineering students ...

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