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Portfolio Content for PSYC
1101:
Introductory Psychology
The electronic course portfolio component of the course continues with
the “Two-degrees of Separation from Original Knowledge” theme. The
content of the Course Portfolio encourages independent learning and
consists of artifacts (files) that demonstrate the successful use of
Microsoft Office programs to study content from the Psychology Course.
The programs you will use are Word, PowerPoint, & Excel. If you have not
used some or any of these programs before you will need to spend some time
familiarizing yourself with them, however these assignments are
introductory and do not require expert knowledge of the programs (although
if you consider yourself an experienced user you may use certain features
that you may never have used before). These assignments will allow you to
begin developing skills required of the successful college graduate. There
are
4 assignments addressing
the following skills:
1.
Study/Writing Skills– Microsoft Word
2.
Library Research Skills – Microsoft Word
3.
Presentation Skills – Microsoft PowerPoint
4.
Evaluating Web-based Information skills – Microsoft Excel
By the end of the semester you will have completed four items or
“artifacts”. Rather than simply saving the
4 artifacts to a disc you
will organize the artifacts as a hyperlinked course portfolio. The
"Course Portfolio" will be organized in a Word document with a Title page
and hypertext Index Page. The complete portfolio will be submitted at the
end of the semester on a CD or a floppy disk (assuming your files fit). If
you have not done so already, go to the “Using
Microsoft Office to Create an Electronic Course Portfolio” to read
more about the overall structure of the “Course Portfolio”.
A very strong characteristic of human behavior is the tendency to
procrastinate. To try to help you to stay on task each assignment will
have a due date. You will submit the assignments via BlackBoard by its due
date to confirm that you completed them. However, you will still hand
in the complete electronic course portfolio at the end of the semester on
a CD.
1.
Study Skills– this section simply consists of an
outline on two chapters covered in the course (with the exception
of any example chapter outlines provided by the professor). These notes
should be an OUTLINE of the Lecture material and must be personalized so
that it makes sense to you. You should include a) important definitions
(but instead of copying the definitions from the book, rephrase them
in your own words and try to include examples), b) thoughts about
the content in the chapter, and c) questions that you may have to
help clarify a concept or expand on the topic. Of course it is recommended
that you do this for all the chapters to improve your understanding of the
material, but only two must be submitted to satisfy this course portfolio
requirement.
OR
Writing Skills -
Essay- If you feel that you already have good note-taking skills
you may choose to practice your writing with a brief essay. For this
requirement you are to write a single essay on any topic covered in this
course. The essay should not be on a full chapter topic. Instead take
one issue (or two if they are related) and demonstrate your understanding
of the issues by writing an essay. The essay should be
1 to
2 typed pages (12
pt). When you finish your first
draft have the writing center review it. Make an appointment to
go to the writing lab in person or use the
On-line Writing Lab (OWL) services. You will then complete a revised
version. FOR THE DEADLINE for this assignment submit the first draft
ONLY. You will include the first version AND the corrected version based
on the writing center’s feedback in the final electronic course portfolio
that you submit at the end of the semester.
2.
Research Skills - Personalized Library Resources Page
- Library skills are very important regardless of your major. Researching
a topic is now easier than it ever was before (due to computers, the
Internet, and broadband access to on-line documents and databases), but
learning library research skills still requires hands-on experience, and
lots of it. The first step is to learn what library resources are
available. You can’t use library resources effectively unless you know
what is available and how to access it. In this exercise you will organize
the on-line resources available to you in one place for easy access.
Although most of the resources are available from the SHU library home
page, it is more convenient to create your own document with links to
resources most relevant to you. For this portfolio requirement you will
create a “Personal Library Resources Page” in Microsoft Word. This
document will contain hyperlinks to important resources available on-line.
A good understanding of what library resources are available will be
reflected in a student’s Personal Library Resources Page. Communicate
with the librarians to find out what is available (new resources become
available often). The document for the portfolio requirement must contain
links to:
i.
The library home page
ii.
SetonCat - the Electronic Card Catalog
iii.
The databases page- click on the “topical” search page
iv. The e-journals page.
v.
MyLibrary links (to view your account and request interlibrary
loan)
vi.
Resources relevant to any of your other interests
vii.
Links to Internet search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo)
Are you still unclear on how to do this assignment? See
this Word Document
for more information.
Click here to see an example of my own Personal Library Resources
Page.
3.
Presentation Skills – PowerPoint:
Pretend that one day you run into your favorite high school teacher in
the mall. Imagine that your teacher is impressed with your college
experience (hopefully this is not too much of a stretch) and asks you to
return to high school and give a brief presentation to the sophomore class
on any issue in psychology that interests you. To prepare for your talk
create a brief PowerPoint presentation (no more than
5 slides) on a specific
topic taken from the class lecture (you can’t pretend you created one, you
will have to do this one for real). You will not have the opportunity to
give your presentation, but this will be a good opportunity to practice
preparing for a brief talk using PowerPoint. Of course the presentation
should by well-organized, age-appropriate, and pleasing to the eye- Oh,
and it should contain accurate information.
4.
Evaluating
Psychology Web Sites Database (Excel file with
hyperlinks). Collaboration is an important skill no matter what
profession you are in. In this exercise you will choose a specific topic
related to an issue or concept covered in the Introductory Psychology
course for further exploration. Some example topics are listed below,
preferably you will come up with your own topic but it is permissible to
choose one of the listed topics.
- Nicotine and memory
- Classical conditioning and treatment for drug
addiction
- Sex differences and emotional memory
- Sleep and relationship to Mood
- First Impressions in personality judgment
- Frontal Cortex and personality
- Teen Suicide
- False Memory and Eyewitness Testimony
The primary task is to find and evaluate web-based
material your specific topic of interest in psychology
and to keep track of the Web pages and your evaluations in an Excel
Workbook.
- Download the Excel workbook that you will use
as a database to keep track of the Web pages and their evaluations.
The Excel workbook is available in the “Course Documents” section of
Blackboard. Open the Workbook and examine
each worksheet carefully beginning with the first worksheet.. Any cell that
has a small red triangle in the upper right corner has a comment or
instructions; place your cursor over the cell to read the comments.
There are
3 worksheets in this
workbook, the first worksheet is the database and the next
2 are the criteria for
evaluating the web pages. Click on the tabs at the bottom of the
workbook to see the different worksheets. If you
never seen an Excel Workbook before
first read these comments by clicking here.
- Find 3 web pages
on a chosen psychology-related topic and evaluate them according to the required criteria (see the Excel
workbook for details).
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