ABSTRACT
Student portfolios were followed closely in the timeline by the institutional portfolio and later by departmental portfolios. The concept of departmental portfolios was slower to take hold than the others, in part because some departments feared an administrative mandate resulting only in increased work for department chairs. For the accreditation self-study, a subsection of the departmental portfolios Web site had been devoted to assessment, comprising plans, goals and outcomes, tools, findings, and reflective narratives on the use of results to improve learning. Departmental portfolios were intended for use in a newly designed program review process, in annual departmental accountability, and in budget planning. Feedback from the process was used to refine departmental and institutional portfolios for presentation to the evaluation team. The effectiveness of the student, departmental, and institutional portfolios was subject to refinement during a planning initiative, including retooling the survey and developing periodic data collection on eportfolio effectiveness in communicating planning goals and university mission to various audiences.
