This document provides information on academic portfolios, including what they are, their goals, and how to create one. An academic portfolio is a collection of materials that showcase a faculty member's academic work, including teaching, research, and service. The goals are to demonstrate accomplishments, reflect on experiences, and illustrate the learning process. There are four basic steps to create a portfolio: collection, selection, reflection, and making connections between work. A portfolio evolves over time as new items are added and others removed. Advantages include stimulating self-reflection to improve teaching and research, and providing evidence of expertise for career advancement. The portfolio includes items such as a teaching philosophy, curriculum materials, evaluations, advising records, administration duties,

1. Academic Portfolios
Sarina Schrager, MD,MS
University of Wisconsin
Department of Family Medicine

2. What is an academic portfolio?
 Collection of materials that describe your
academic work
 Different than a CV—includes some
reflection and evaluation
 Not just publications and presentations

3. Goals of an Academic Portfolio
Demonstrate breadth of learning,
teaching, and research
Range of achievements. Collecting and
connecting your various
accomplishments; a creative
representation of your work and of you
Evaluate achievement of
intended outcomes
Opportunity to showcase your
accomplishments. Your best work
Reflect, assess own educational
experience
Representative pieces; written reflections.
To make connections between where
you were, where you are, and where
you want to be
Illustrate the learning process Multiple drafts -- a process. To document
teaching and research as it evolved
over time.
Share one’s expertise Legacy of best practices in both teaching
and research.
USC

4. Four Basic Processes for the Creation of an
Academic Portfolio
Collection A relatively short collection of materials that summarizes
and highlights an individual’s activities as a teacher and
researcher.
Selection Why are you creating the portfolio? Who is reading it, and
why?
Reflection Thinking critically about your total learning, teaching, and
research experiences
Connections Making personally meaningful connections between
 Your teaching,
 Your field of research, its body of knowledge, and its
applications
 Your service and community experiences
USC

5. A Document that Evolves Over Time
Remember: The portfolio is a living collection of
documents and materials which change over
time
 New items are added, others are dropped.
 Once each year, when the research and service
section of the curriculum vitae are updated, the same
is done for the portfolio’s teaching and research
sections.
USC

6. Advantages of an Academic Portfolio
 The Section on Teaching
• Provides the stimulus and structure for self-reflection about
areas of teaching (including those needing improvement)
o Concentrates on reflective analysis, action planning, and
assessment of student learning.
o Provides evaluators with hard-to-ignore information on what a
professor does in a classroom and why he/she does it.
 The Section on Research
• Provides the stimulus and structure for self-reflection about
areas of research that may lead to inter-disciplinary collaboration
• Provides colleagues with the opportunity to contribute to the
portfolio’s creation through feedback and file exchanges
 Excerpts of Portfolio can be used in successful grant
applications
 Used as credentials for those seeking academic
positions
USC

7. What is in an educator’s portfolio?
 Philosophy of Education - Personal
theory of learning and teaching
 Curriculum Development/Instructional
Materials - Design, development and
evaluation of curricula/programs
 Teaching Skills - Documentation of
teaching by target audience, year and
topic
www.mcw.edu

8. What is in a portfolio (cont.)?
 Assessment of Learner Performance -
Construction and implementation of
examinations/methods of assessment
 Adviser - Lists of formal and informal
advisees
 Educational Administration - Leadership
and management in education
 www.mcw.edu

9. Portfolios (cont)
 Educational Scholarship - Leadership
and management in education
 Continuing Education - Evidence of
growing knowledge and skills as an
educator
 Honors and Awards - Recognition by
peers and students
 Long Term Goals - Reflection on portfolio
and future plans
www.mcw.edu

10. How to get started
 Clarify teaching responsibilities.
 Select items for the Portfolio.
 Prepare statements on each item
 Arrange the items in order.
 Compile the supporting data.
 Incorporate the Portfolio into the curriculum
vitae.
 Physical presentation considerations.
www.utexas.edu

11. When should you start your
portfolio?
 On day one of your job
 Should be a “work-in-progress”
 Can use as a storage space
 Should evaluate yearly

12. Philosophy of education/clinical
work
 Articles
 Personal experiences
 Fiction, quotes
 Spend some time thinking about why you
are in academic medicine vs. private
practice
 Can evolve over time

13. Curriculum
Development/Instructional
Materials
 Copies of talks (include student groups,
CME, community, etc)
 Curriculum—paper, online
 Handouts
 Manuals

14. Teaching skills
 Resident/student evaluations
 Lecture evaluations
 Teaching awards
 Direct feedback from students and
residents
 CME evaluations

15. Assessment of learner
performance
 Test questions
 Related to curriculum development
 Pre and post tests

16. Advisor
 Medical student
 Resident
 Colleague
 PA/NP/Nurse

17. Educational/clinical administration
 Course director
 Rotation coordinator
 Med school or residency committees
 Make notes while you are on committee
(frequency of meetings, outcomes, etc.)

18. Educational/clinical scholarship
 All research goes here—grants, student
projects, papers
 All innovative curriculum/lectures/new
models, etc. should be evaluated.
 Study what you do (and document it here)

19. Continuing education
 Conference brochures
 Specific talks or workshops that directly
relate to your area(s) of interest/expertise
 Listservs, journals

20. Honors and awards
 Include a description of the award

21. Long term goals
 Re-evaluate annually
 Work-in-progress
 Sort of like a professional development
journal

22. How to get started?
 Accordion file
 Web-based accounts (i.e. file all lecture
evals, e-mail feedback from students,
residents)
 Make 10 electronic folders with the same
headings as the paper ones

23. Examples
 http://medschool.ucsf.edu/academy/memb
ership/categories.aspx#cat1 (UCSF—
website has specific examples of how to
document material for portfolio)
 http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/teach
folio.html (University of Texas at Austin- a
handbook of “Preparing a teaching
portfolio”