Collect, select, reflect to demonstrate learning and professional development ...

UIC College of Pharmacy

Advising Program

Portfolios

Portfolios are vehicles by which students can plan for and provide documentation of their learning and development.  ACPE Accreditation requirements recommend the use of portfolios for student reflection to "assist them in assuming responsibility for their own learning and for measuring their achievement." (ACPE Standards 11, 15)  The College implemented the electronic portfolio during the summer of 2007, for implementation with the P1 class in the fall of 2007.

 

What can potentially be gained from work on an electronic portfolio? (Banta et al.)

 

• Occasions for focused student-instructor/mentor discussions of areas needing improvement

 

• A means of demonstrating a student's commitment to accountability and effectiveness

 

• An easy, accessible medium for communicating with stakeholders about accomplishments and effectiveness

 

 

The rationale promoted by ACPE includes the need to prepare future pharmacists to take responsibility for life-long learning through continuing professional development planning (http://www.acpe-accredit.org/pdf/cpd_acpewebsite.pdf) and reflective practice:

 

"CPD is a self-directed, ongoing, systematic and outcomes-focused approach to learning and professional development. Pharmacists who adopt a CPD approach accept the responsibility to fully engage in and document their learning through reflecting on their practice, assessing and identifying professional learning needs and opportunities, developing and implementing a personal learning plan, and evaluating their learning outcomes with the goal of enhancing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required for their pharmacy practice." (Adopted by CPD Pilots May 2006)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, the College faculty accepted a set of General Education Outcomes, one of the goals of our program being to promote "self-learning abilities and habits" with the following expectation: The student shall effectively self-assess and satisfy his or her learning needs on an ongoing basis. (General Outcome Abilities, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy)

 

The College Experiential Education has begun requiring reflective exercises as part of each Introductory and Advanced Experiential Program experiences. Advisors have been asked to take on the task of reviewing and rating these reflections, using a rubric developed by UIC Experiential Education.

What are portfolios and why use them?