>> Hi everyone, thanks for coming tonight. I am Rebecca Leone, and I am the series chair of SAASC, which is the Society of American Archivists, Student Chapter, here at San Jose State school, and I am really glad that you all could make it tonight. To start off, please raise your hand if you're in E-Port [assumed spelling] this semester, because I'm curious to know how many people are in the E-Port. I guess I should raise my own hand. We've got, looks like we've got just a few people that are in the E-Port this semester. Three people. And then I'd also like to know how many of you are in the MARA [assumed spelling] Program? Is anybody here in the MARA Program tonight? Looks like we've got one, one person in the MARA Program. Thank you. All right. Well that's good to know. Okay, so before we get started, I want to give you a little update about what's new with SAASC. Last week, Enid Asaguida [phonetic spelling], I hope I pronounced that right, Asaguida, helped coordinate a tour of the renowned Huntington Library in Southern California, and I'm told that it went very well. So please look for a blog post about that coming soon. This is a tour that we've been holding annually. We had one last year too, so hopefully we'll be able to offer it again next year if anybody is interested in attending. Also we have officer elections coming up next month in April. All three officer positions will be open, the chair, vice chair, and secretary, since all three of our current officers are graduating this semester. So we're hoping to find some motivated people to sell those seats. Please don't be shy. And feel free to ask us any questions, also. We're very, very glad to answer questions about that. There will be an announcement about the elections coming up soon. And at the end of April, we'll host a free, in-person tour of the Sutro Library in San Francisco if you're local. The Sutro Library, the San Francisco branch, holds the original collection of Adolph Sutro, California businessman and San Francisco Mayor. The library has a large collection of publications and items dating from the 13th through the 21st Century. It's one of the largest genealogy collections in the United States. So you can go to the website to RSVP, and I'll put that link in in a minute if you want to go check it out. Finally, in the beginning of May, we're hoping to collaborate on an event with a special library student chapter, so look for more details on that soon. And now, without further adieu, I'm extremely pleased to introduce our presenter tonight, and last year's SAASC Chair, Katherine Fulnevik [phonetic spelling]. Katherine is a recent MARA graduate from Saskatchewan, Canada, working in academic archives, in an RIM environment. She successfully completed her E-portfolio in Fall 2016. Welcome, Katherine, thank you.

>> Thank you so much for the introduction, Rebecca. Good to be here. Can you all hear me good? Well, I guess? Cool. So hi everyone, thank you for joining tonight. My name is Katherine. As Rebecca said, I'm a recent MARA graduate, who completed the E-portfolio in Fall 2016. You know, while the MARA competencies are different than the MLAS, the process itself is pretty identical, so hopefully everyone can take a little something away from tonight. This presentation is not going to be so much of a how-to type presentation, although there is a lot of that in there. I think the I-school offers ample resources to outline the logistics of the project, and there will be opportunities for you to attend an I-school information session in advance of starting the portfolio. I thought I would kind of approach it by telling my story of the E-Portfolio experience, and offer up some advice and recommendations based on what went well and what didn't for me, and help answer any questions that you may not be able to or want to ask your adviser. Honestly every time I thought about completing the E-Portfolio, I would be filled with a sort of sense of dread, and I hope that by talking about my experience, it will help to make the E-portfolio seem less daunting. And I just want to emphasize this presentation is based on my experience. Yours might look different, and that's okay. If anyone here has completed or is currently completing the E-Portfolio, please feel free to raise your hand and jump in with some additional anecdotes and advice. Okay, so I'll get started. Ultimately the first thing you're going to want to do is get acquainted with what the E-Portfolio is. The process, the logistical requirements, and what is going to be expected of you. Really, the best way to do this is read through the most up to date version of the E-Portfolio handbook. Attend an information session to ask all your not so silly questions, and look through some example E-Portfolios. All of these resources can be found on the I-School website pretty easily. So you will definitely feel better once you are mentally prepared for what is ahead. And if I say you get a head start, I am no way suggesting you get into the writing process prior to the start of the semester, that you join your E-Portfolios, but there are some housekeeping tasks that you can complete in the weeks leading up to the semester start date that you will not regret doing. The first thing I did was gather all of my finished assignments, discussion posts, professional projects, conference material, all potential evidence, and save a copy in one common location. I would suggest creating copies just for your E-Portfolio, because you may have to re-work some documents, and you definitely don't want to lose those originals. By either getting all your possible evidence, you can start getting acquainted with what you have identified, any gaps, and honestly, it's a huge time saver later on. The next easy housekeeping task is to set up a tracker. I would suggest using a spreadsheet which is easy to manage and populate, but there's other ways you could do it. Here's a screen shot of mine. As you can see, it's very simple. This spreadsheet includes the comp, the recommended classes to draw evidence from, the evidence being used, and key dates. And don't worry about populating the evidence and dates fields, like at least before the semester starts, but having it otherwise ready to go is, again, a huge time saver. The last super, super easy housekeeping task thing that you can do is set up a skeleton document for each of your E-Portfolio components. Your core documents will include an introduction. For some students, professional philosophy. More on that later, though. A document for each comp, a conclusion, and an affirmation. Here is an example, just in case that's helpful. You know, if you're like me, and you're completing the E-Portfolio while working full-time, taking other courses, or having various other commitments, then using a cloud-based drive of some sort, like I use Google Drive, to manage your E-Portfolio will be a lifesaver. By using the Cloud, you can have access to all your documents no matter where you are, what device you're using. If the Cloud is not your thing, and I totally get it, I'm only a recent convert, I suggest having something on hand at all times, whether it's a tablet, or pocket sized journal, so you can write things down, when inspiration strikes. I found that inspiration would strike at the most unlikely times, like while on the bus, or at a grocery store, and it was just really handy to be able to record my thoughts. Since I always have my portfolio on hand, and utilize the Google suite of products, I would use Google Keep in addition to my Google Drive, for quick note-taking, when I was on the go. And this, the convenience of having all my documents at my fingertips was super essential to the successful completion of my E-Portfolio. So the next decision you're going to have to make is whether you want to host your E-Portfolio as an independent website, or use Canvas, which is the current learning management system. I wouldn't put too much time and energy into this decision. Your advisor might have a strong opinion toward one or the other. Luckily, my advisor was open to either option. And like, was telling me that a Word Press website was the best option for me. First off, I had used, you know, Word Press before, it's free, they're aesthetically pleasing templates, and you're able to keep the website private, which is essential while the E-Portfolio is in progress. My advice would be to think about if or how you want to use your E-Portfolio after the fact. I could see myself wanting to share my E-Portfolio with potential employers, or with my friends and family, and I felt like setting up an independent website would give me ultimately more control. Some benefits of using Canvas, that I was hearing from other students in the course, included that it was intuitive, easy to upload documents, and technical support was readily available through the I-School, which is handy. Ultimately, though, it is a personal choice, so I would just go with what your gut is telling you, or your adviser is advising you on, and you'll be good. So the next process that you're really going to...sorry, I just saw a question in the chat box. Yeah, so did you say that your E-Portfolio website was private as you were developing it? Yeah, I think that might be one of the requirements of the E-Portfolio, is that if you're using an independent website to host your E-Portfolio, it has to be kept private. Yeah, until it has been completed. There is like, you might need to like...you might be using names, or like, anyway, there's just some confidentiality types of things related to that. And Word Press, keeping it private is a free option, which some other website developing sites require a fee for that, or whatever, so Word Press is a good option. Okay, so don't feel like you have to assign all your evidence to a comp at the beginning of the semester. What I did was assign all major assignments, you know, those assignments that I knew I really wanted to include, and then I filled in the gaps with smaller assignments, substantial discussion posts, things like that. Most likely your selections will evolve if you start writing, and that's okay. With some of it, it will be so very obvious which comp it belongs to, but others might not be so obvious right off the bat. And you don't have to worry about your evidence 100% fitting, but you do have to prove how it relates, and how it demonstrates your understanding and application of the comp. And if you do identify any gaps, my advice would be to try and find something you already have that sort of fits before resorting to creating anything new. You shouldn't really have to create any new evidence exclusively for your E-Portfolio, so consider that as sort of a last resort. You're getting to know your advisor. Engage in conversation with your advisor early on in the semester. Ask all the questions you need to ask. And while your advisor is there to help, the E-Portfolio is ultimately your responsibility and you need to do what works for you to stay on track and get it done. And each advisor will be different, so get to know yours, work that into your scheduling and process, and you'll be fine. And the next and biggest step is to get writing. You know the handbook does a really good job about writing the comps of the E-Portfolio. Your E-Portfolio will consist of an introduction, a professional philosophy, but only for those students who enter the I-School before Spring 2015. The comps are concluded in affirmation. The meat of your E-Portfolio, though, are those comps. These will require most of your time and energy. The MARA and MLAS programs also have a statement of competency rubric that can be downloaded from the required content section of each handbook, that takes the instructions in the handbook even further, and outlines in detail what a satisfactory statement of competency should include. This rubric is really great. It saved me a couple of times, because I initially misinterpreted a couple of the competencies, and that kind of helped me. The rubric helped me get back on track. So take a look at the rubric before you begin writing, and review it before you start each new comp. I found it helpful to copy and paste the rubric for each competency document that I set up prior to the start of the semester, that way they are right there, and you can refer back to them as needed. Each competency is made up like a structure, you will have your interpretation of the competency statement, your evidence, which includes a statement of how it demonstrates your understanding and/or application of the comp, and the conclusion. And a conclusion is where you really explain your experience applying the comp, or how you might apply it in the future if you lack specific practical experience, which will [inaudible] students, so that might be the case for some of the comps. If you, oh yeah, and if you reference and quote any sources, you will also need to include an APA reference list. Everyone's writing process and ideal writing environment is different. My only advice here is to do what works best for you. If it's feasible, set up your ideal environment, and block off a healthy chunk of time each week to devote exclusively to your E-Portfolio. I found that the best way to get over the fear of writing my first comp was to sort of dive head first into writing the one I felt to be the easiest, and that will be different for everyone. I recommend finishing this comp in the first week of the course, so that you can get early feedback from your adviser, and have a clearer path to the finish line. I found that completing comps gets easier when you have a couple submitted and approved. Some writing tips that might be useful, I found that I had worked out a lot of my interpretations of the comps through course discussion boards and other course work. So early on, in the semester, I skimmed all of my evidence and pulled out bits and pieces to use as inspiration to begin writing my interpretations. And I also think it's important to draw from your personal experiences, and bring them into your E-Portfolio, whatever they may be. You can give your E-Portfolio character, and it really makes it your own. In your E-Portfolio, and especially your comps, you don't have to quote too much, but referencing a carefully curated, credible set of sources is important. It shows that you are well-read in the professional literature, and that you have something to add to the professional discourse. It's just an all around good idea. Your E-Portfolio will also be more meaningful if you weave common themes that are important to you throughout. You know, for me, this was just talking about the importance of the conversions of archives and records management, making archival practices sustainable, so tailor the themes that you are passionate about, and what you hope your professional trajectory to be. And one last thing that isn't on the slide, but I thought might be good to mention, don't be hasty to delete things from your comps. I was writing a comp and decided I didn't like a certain section, so I deleted it out of the documents, and later, I wanted to, you know, revisit that idea in a different context, but it was gone. And I couldn't quite retrieve it in the same way. So after that happened, I treated the documents that I named info deleted from comps that I might still need, it sort of is just a just-in-case measure, that I wished I had done earlier, so I thought I'd share. Some other practical tips and straightforward practical tips that I highly recommend are one, front-load the course, two, stick as close to your target base as possible. Your E-Portfolio is due approximately a month before the end of the semester, which means you really do have less time than you think to complete everything. Number three, do your comps first, and save all the other pieces for last. You will have a clear sense of how you want to introduce and conclude your E-Portfolio once you have all the comps completed, and four, when in doubt, communicate with your advisor, your colleagues, or anyone else you typically seek advice from. Personally I didn't do so well on point one and two, so I'm hoping that by sharing that you can learn from my mistakes. I said on multiple occasions since I finished the E-Portfolio that it was kind of a wonderful gift of careful reflection over my entire MARA experience, and I really do mean it [laughs], my boss and mentor received her Master's degree in a program with a thesis component, and she said the E-Portfolio sounded like such a great way to synthesize everything that you've learned and reflect on it. After she finished the coursework component of her program, she went back home to complete the thesis without any kind of mechanism to really, you know, reflect on what she had learned. And reflection is super important for both personal and professional growth. And the E-Portfolio really forces you to engage in this exercise, that you probably wouldn't engage in otherwise. You know, you may get stuck at times, and those comps can be pretty tricky. Sometimes it might feel like you're working through a long and pointless exercise, but when you reach the finish line, it will feel so good, and you'll have this beautiful package that you can use to prove, you know, with concrete evidence, all your new knowledge, skills and abilities that you gained through your MLAS or MARA experience. So that's all I have for you tonight, so does anyone have any specific questions?

[ Bell Rings ]

>> Yeah, go ahead.

>> Sorry, I'm not sure who is going ahead first. Well I just wondered, do you know about how many hours a week you would have spent working on the E-Portfolio?

>> I didn't keep track of my time too closely, but I would, I did have a full-time job and stuff as well, and was in another course at the time, so I would spend probably most of my weekends devoted to the E-Portfolio, and that is sort of what worked for me, like some people can work well in the evenings or the mornings, but yeah, I did most of my work on the weekends.

>> So I'm wondering, like, I'm planning on finishing up my studies here in December, I was also planning on taking like one or two other courses during that semester. Is that really doable? Or is it recommended to do the portfolio kind of in isolation, like all on its own, I don't know? I was wondering about that.

>> Yeah, for sure. I did one other course and it was a lot, like in addition to the E-Portfolio and working full-time, so I mean, you know best how much you can handle, juggle all at once, and so that's, yeah, that's sort of just like a personal choice. I did find it to be quite a lot with just the one course and the E-Portfolio.

>> Do you feel like it took up more of your time than a regular three-credit class?

>> For me it did, but it kind of probably depends on how quickly you can write and process everything that you kind of learned throughout the program. I felt like I spent a lot of time reflecting, and really considering those comps, and making it yeah, so I did spend a lot of time on the E-Portfolio. Thanks Amanda for answering Helen's question.

>> Okay it looks like Kathleen and Joyce have questions. Go ahead and take the mic, or type in the chat box.

>> Yes, this is Kathleen, and for what I have heard, you do have an opportunity to create something or either revise something if you find that you have gaps in your evidence?

>> Oh yeah, totally. I definitely re-worked some of my assignments to kind of fit more closely with the comps. But by the end, you should sort of have enough evidence to kind of distribute amongst the comps, and don't forget about those discussion post stuff, because I definitely used that in some of the comps I was lacking in.

>> Okay thank you.

>> You're welcome.

>> Hi, I'm a first semester student, and I'm just wondering if you have any tips on how like, just going right off the bat, and starting off my school career, what are some things I should be aware of or do to ensure I have like all of the required evidences for the E-Portfolio, because I feel like I'm trying to like, I'm doing my homework to try to like, fit it with the competencies, or am I thinking too much?

>> That's a good question. So like, one key thing is just make sure you like save everything that you create in sort of a format and way that is easy to kind of gather at the end of your program. That's just some helpful advice, but I mean, take the classes that are interesting to you and that matter to how you want your professional trajectory to go, but definitely, I mean, it's not a bad idea to look at those comps, and maybe if you know that you don't have as much of an interest in one of them or something, tailor one or two assignments towards them throughout the course of your program, but I honestly didn't spend too much time thinking too hard about assignments fitting comps, and tailoring classes towards certain comps. Does anyone else have any advice? Rebecca?

>> I'm sorry, I was typing. Was this about tailoring classes to fit the comps?

>> Oh yeah, just, what are some stuff I can do as a [inaudible] to kind of prepare for the E-Portfolio in terms of evidence, like one thing I was thinking, oh, like I could tailor my assignments to competencies, but I wasn't sure if I was thinking too much about it, or whatnot?

>> Okay, I apologize if I'm repeating anything because I was trying to type something else, my mind was in a different place, but I think from my perspective, you should, I think Katherine said this too, like take the classes that interest you, and you'll find yourself addressing the comps. But I think I wish I had looked over the comps, and kind of understood them a little more, it's kind of overwhelming, because there are 14 of them for MLAS students, and but you could possibly look at them and say, hey, this discussion post is like basically addressing this specific comp, so I'm going to steer it in that direction. So there is that, but honestly you don't actually need to even worry about it until the very, like I'd say the month before your E-Port, everything will come together. Just try to get as many experiences as you can, diversify and all that.

>> I'm going to jump in, too, Joyce. This is something I worried about when I first started the program, and for me, what I did, I actually created a folder where each competency, on my desk top, I mean your computer is going to be a mess for a year, but it actually really helped me, when I had assignments, I can put a copy of it into each competency folder that it addressed, so that when I began to like start planning out my evidence, I could just open up those folders, look at what I had, and then I actually did what Katherine did, I did an Excel spreadsheet, and looked at what pieces of evidence I wanted to use. So that's something that you can kind of keep track of while you're going through the program, but you don't really have to think about it because you can just dump it in the folder, and you know that you're collecting evidence, but then when you're getting toward the end of the program, you can also see which folders are a little bit empty, so maybe if you want to take a class that satisfies a comp that you don't have as much evidence for, you can do that. Then the only other piece of advice I can think of that I wish I had done from the beginning is after you submit an assignment, I went back and copied and pasted the instructions at the top of the document so that I knew exactly why I was writing, and when you're writing your evidence, you can actually say this was the point of the assignment, and this is how I satisfied it. So it was just kind of, especially beginning classes, it helps you remember why you're writing what you're writing. But I mean, if that's something you're really worried about, I definitely recommend just making a folder for each comp, saving your stuff in there, then you can sift through it later, once you get to the E-Portfolio.

>> Okay thank you. Go ahead Casey.

>> So I have a follow up question about the page count. So, when you're doing your E-Portfolio, are you actually submitting also the assignments that you created for your courses, or is it just writing about the assignments that you did?

>> Your E-Portfolio will actually include, yeah, like your evidence will be like your assignments or your discussion posts, or pieces of things you did in your internship or something you did in another job related, and so my advisor had us submit the competency in its entirety and also the evidence along with it. So yeah, you are submitting sort of your assignments along with sort of your mini essay about it, yeah.

>> Thank you.

>> Katherine, I have a question. I, sorry, again if I missed this, but how many comps did you work on per week? Did you end up spacing it out, or did you end up doing like a whole lot of them at once? Because it is like there aren't enough weeks, you know what I mean? To do one a week or something. If you've got to double up at some point, I'm struggling with that.

>> Yeah, that's a good question. The MARA program has less comps, but I think that they sort of expect that each comp is like twice as meaty, basically. So like, because of the smaller amount I was sort of--I did space it out. My original goal was to try and complete one a week, although that didn't always work out to be the case. There was one comp in particular that took me more like two and a half to three weeks, and the rest maybe took a week or so. So does that sort of answer? I know I was looking at the MLAS ones and you have quite a few more, but yeah, there aren't enough weeks are there [laughs]?

>> Yeah, there aren't [laughs].

>> It's just, it's kind of crazy that, you know, it's due a month before the end of the semester, like you, at the beginning of the semester, you're like oh it will be fine, and then you know, it's, I wish I had front-loaded the course a bit more, and done a bit more in the first month [laughs]. I think the reason that it's due a month before is just because it takes a while for the approval process to happen or something, like I think it might just be more of an administrative thing than anything else. If you have any additional questions, like after this meeting is over, please feel free to email me. My email address is up there on the current slide.

>> Thank you very much Katherine. I think we all have a lot of questions about this process, as evidenced by how many people showed up and questions asked. Before we go, does anybody have any last burning questions or statements that they'd like to share with us?

>> Hey, sorry I am asking a lot of questions tonight, but I know that for me, I struggle to find courses that fulfill competency K. I'm currently taking one now that will fulfill that, but I'm just wondering what classes did you take to fulfill competency K?

>> Rebecca and Amanda, can you speak to that one a little bit more? I see it's an MLAS comp?

>> Yeah, I think competency K has to do with instruction, and in fact, I have the rubric open right now, so I was just, will let us all know what that is. Design instructional programs based on learning principles and theories. So I took a couple of classes with Linda Main [inaudible] and early printing was one of them, and she likes to do these QUIA quizzes. Which now that I think about it is really simple, like anybody can create a QUIA account for free, that's Q-U-I-A, and part of our assignment was to make these QUIA quizzes, and they are kind of instructional. Like it's for teachers to help their students learn. So that's what I'm going to use for K. But that is a tough one. That is one that people typically struggle with. I think if you can do a presentation like some kind of extra credit, where you inform your classmates about something, some project you did. This thing that Katherine is doing right now if you haven't graduated, I think this would be great for instruction, but Amanda or Katherine, do you have anything?

>> I was just going to say get involved with SAASC and give a presentation or two [laughs].

>> Also in regard to what Gina said, yeah, you can be really creative with your evidence. Like I'm being really creative, and I actually am using volunteer experience, and blog posts written about like things, yeah, talks I attended, that weren't even school related, but I like wrote about it. I think that's actually pretty interesting evidence, because it's outside of the box.

>> Yeah, I just wanted to add, I put it in the chat box, but for anyone that does Bond here, or do internships, or you already work in the field, I would think if you do a project that you know you want to use for E-Portfolio, write a reflection as soon as you're done, even if you're not taking E-Portfolio for a while, you can just remember all the little details, and then if you can, take photos, or screenshots if it's a digital project, just because each advisor wants something a little bit different, and you don't know how much evidence they're going to need to fill the comp.

>> Does anyone have any other questions? Feel free to take the mic if you feel comfortable doing that.

>> Okay so feel free to hang out if you have any last questions or any links that you want from us. Thank you for joining us. We're going to turn off the recording, but there will be...yeah, there will be a recording available on the SAASC website, and also on our YouTube channel. Usually takes about one to two days so feel free to re-watch it, and you can reach out to us or Katherine if you have any additional questions. Thanks for coming tonight guys.