EXPERIENCES ON THE USE OF THE STUDENT PORTFOLIO AT UPV

The student portfolio is used as a tool for assessing student progress in learning and transferable skills. This tool is integrated to help students organize their work, reflecting on their learning and evaluating their results.

The Portfolio is a method of teaching, learning and assessment that allows contributions of various kinds by the student. In the case of projective subjects generated useful documentation and varied, both theoretical and practical, creating a document that binds. This tool lets you organize, plan and create a 'portfolio' which to judge the student's abilities within the subject matter.

With this organization it can bring the personal process experimented by the student, allowing them (both students and teachers) to know student’s efforts and achievements. Establishing the previous evaluation criteria is used to relate the learning objectives and assessment more clearly, leaving evidence of progress. It is the student who raises their learning and the portfolio as a teaching-learning model is grounded in theory. The students organize and manage their time and tasks, and all this is reflected in this process that appears the portfolio, enabling the teacher to monitor it at all times.

We investigated the use of the student portfolio by first year students in the subjects of Engineering School of Engineering Design at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. During the process, students showed progress in learning, of which it is stated, from the beginnings of their knowledge, projects, etc, to education itself, self-guided or guided in a way that lets them flourish in their own identity. This type of teaching material is used as an additional element within the active methodologies and project-based learning student.

Therefore, the method will be used by teachers assigned to the Basic Design and Creativity subject, and by colleagues from other specialties such as Architecture and other Engineering, where the subjects projective part of the programming. The paper will demonstrate that the results of evaluation surveys and data collection on students of the course, applying this methodology are essential to their professional development.

The materials generated will be used as an additional element within the active methodologies and project-based learning student. It is highlighted the immediacy of students’ knowledge, projects, etc. to get to an education itself.

The portfolio of student answers to two fundamental aspects of teaching-learning process. On the one hand, it applies a methodology and teaching strategies in the interaction between teacher and student. On the other hand, is an assessment method where evidences join and coordinate all.

The experiments carried out during two years with the student’s portfolio make it a useful tool.
The assessment of them is positive and we work each year to improve the submitted portfolios. We, as teachers of project methodology, believe that students have an excellent material based on: a good way to organize their work in progress.

This allows a constant reflection on their learning, knowledge and transferable skills. They are evidence that verify the learning process and this final assessment by the teacher is much more agile and clear. At all times the same student can self-assess, also the work done at the same time allowing feedback in the case of individual or group work.