What is a Portfolio?
Portfolios play a major role in the working lives of artists, financiers, writers, photographers, and many others. For all of them, a portfolio is a collection of items selected for the purpose of achieving an explicit goal.
Our goal in this portfolio is to demonstrate to a wide range of people and communities that IUPUI is not only achieving its mission but has strategies, policies, and procedures in place to continue improving its level of achievement. In that sense, this portfolio involves more than collection and selection of its contents; it also includes reflection and evaluation, with a view to assuring quality in the three major themes of the campus goals for IUPUI: effective student learning, excellent research and scholarship, and exemplary civic engagement.
How does the Portfolio relate to other IUPUI web sites?
The purpose of the IUPUI Web site is primarily informative. It has a wealth of information about schools, programs, student support services, and so on. You can probe both widely and deeply to find just about anything you want to know about what goes on at IUPUI.
The purpose of the IUPUI portfolio is to assure different interested people that these programs, support services, and campus activities are constantly evaluated to demonstrate the extent of their effectiveness and to determine where improvement is needed. It also shows what strategies, processes, and policies are in place to enable that improvement to occur. It links frequently to the information provided on the Web site, but always in the context of evaluating effectiveness and indicating plans for improvement. In that sense, it is similar to a persuasive argument, making the case that IUPUI is dedicated to constantly improving its levels of achievement in terms of student learning, research and scholarship, and community engagement.
Who is the Portfolio for?
It is for anyone who is interested in how IUPUI can assure quality not just in its achievements but in its ongoing processes, programs, and strategies for improvement. Specifically, we have four major kinds of audiences in mind:
- Students (current, future, and potential) and their parents: We think you might be interested in what it is like being a student at IUPUI, how we support effective student learning, and how our graduates fare in the workplace and in post-graduate work. But we would be happy to hear about other interests you might have.
- Community stakeholders in higher education (employers of our graduates; legislators; taxpayers; community groups): We think you might want to know about the kind of education our students receive, and what standards of learning they achieve. You might also be very interested in the role that IUPUI plays in your community, and about how the community and IUPUI work together to make Indianapolis a better place to live.
- Accrediting agencies: You will want to know how IUPUI can assure quality in student learning, research and scholarship, and civic engagement. You will want evidence to support the claims we make of achievements in this area. And you will want to what ongoing procedures are in place to evaluate achievement and to use this evaluation to improve achievement.
- Internal and external audiences interested in higher education: We think our colleagues both within the university and in other universities would be interested in how IUPUI defines and achieves its mission.
