E-Portfolio 5: Targeting the Program Learning Goals

Ahhh… the next task on the portfolio… 

HOW have you fulfilled the PhD student learning goals in your own journey and growth?

(This is a good task to complete in preparation for the self-reflective essay, and the instructions acknowledge that there may be some overlap.)

Let's start with the program goals from the Eastern Dissertation Handbook...

Program Student Learning Goals

Goal #1: To synthesize organization and leadership theory with the professional knowledge and competencies required for leadership within a particular sector.  Indicators:

1. Knows the theories of organizational leadership and the related literature.
2. Synthesizes the professional knowledge and competencies with related theory.
3. Applies leadership theory to particular sector (i.e. business, non-profit ,or education).

Goal #2: Enable students to contribute to their respective disciplines through the creation and execution of a significant research project resulting in a dissertation. Indicators:

1. Knows the literature related to their research question.
2. Utilizes appropriate research methodology to their research topic.
3. Completes dissertation research proposal and defense according to standards of best practice.
4. Executes and disseminates original research.

Goal #3: Acquire an increasingly mature commitment to an outward-looking vision of organizational, community, and societal transformation through the integration of faith, reason, and justice. Indicators:

1. Articulates a deepening spiritual perspective that is consonant with the ethos of the program.
2. Demonstrates capacity for critical thinking in relationship to faith and justice.
3. Shows evidence of pursuing a coherent vision of justice in social relationships (e.g. cohort, professional setting, family, etc.).

This guy definitely wasn’t from Cohort 6…

... Because we are all going to hit the target!!!

E-Portfolio 4: Download the Transcript

Fourth... Download your Transcripts

(and write intro paragraph)

So... How are you coming on your portfolio?  If you are like me, you have procrastinated a little, so here the challenge:  Send us all the link to your portfolio!! Because I knew I was going to do this, I quick caught up on my assignments.  (But in return for sharing our links, let's agree to review each other's portfolios later in the semester.)   

https://sites.google.com/a/eastern.edu/bryan-phd-eportfolio/   

THIS WEEK is an easy assignment because we have a paper due on Saturday:  Time to download your transcript and write your intro paragraph for the "Home" tab.  In case you are not sure how to download the transcript, I have outlined it in nine easy steps:  

1. Go To  https://my.eastern.edu/ICS/Portal_Homepage.jnz?portlet=Welcome
2. Enter username & password
3. Click Student History
4. Click View Unofficial Transcript
5. Click Printer Friendly (above the transcript box on the right)
6. Click Send to Printer (top left)
7. Make sure Destination says “Save as PDF”.  If not, click Change and choose 
8. Rename “(your name) Unofficial Transcript”; Click Save and put it in the folder where you are saving your e-portfolio documents.
9. From here, you can add to your e-portfolio!!
10. “Save as PDF”

HERE WE ARE:  

Item	Target Date
Create E-Portfolio	6/7/2015
Choose 3-5 papers & write explanation	6/14/2015
Complete CV	6/21/2015
Download Transcript & write Intro Paragraph	6/28/2015

E-Portfolio 3: Complete the CV

Third... Complete the CV

I don't know if you are like me, and have an old-fashioned resume all written -- But I found a fairly easy to follow article on how to turn that resume into a CV. 

Keep on keeping on... Small steps will get us to the finish line by August 15!!

E-Portfolio 2: Add Writing Samples

Second... Add Writing Samples

How do we choose the papers that really exemplify what we have learned and how we have grown over the past 3 years?  

CONSIDER... 

• What have been the most painful lessons you have learned?
• How has your thinking process changed?
• In what way have you applied the feedback provided by the professors?

IDEAS...

• Look at the grade tab for each course and see where you fell and where you flew. 
• Consider a variety of papers, some that are more theoretical, some more reflective, and others more mechanical.

THEN...

• Write a short paragraph that identifies your reasoning in choosing each piece.  I personally also identified the month/year that I wrote each to show the progression.
• "Add files" and ..
• You have this task done. Time to take a breather =)

E-Portfolio 1: Create the E-Portfolio

First... Create your E-Portfolio

Being the "never-have-blogged-or-used-Google-sites" person, creating the initial portfolio seemed overwhelming.

THANKFULLY... 

• We have a wonderful librarian who has created a tutorial. http://connect.eastern.edu/ p3w0ki498tq/
• The template is already created https://sites.google.com/a/eastern.edu/phd-organizational-leadership-eportfolio/  
• All you have to do is click "Use Template" and follow the steps.

SO...

• Open up the tutorial on one screen or device, and then open up your google account on another.  Pause the video as you complete each step and you will be done in 5-15 minutes.  The fifteen minutes is for the most challenged people like me.  
• If you have any trouble, just give a holler out to the group!

E-Portfolio Cohort Partners - We can Do It!!

E-Portfolio Cohort Partners – We can Do It!!!

There are many different tasks involved with the portfolio that can be proportioned out so that it does not overwhelm all at once.  

On the table below, starting now, identify little deadlines that you can put on your to-do plate with the goal of finishing the entire e-portfolio for review by August 15.  The target dates below are suggestions, and I will post hints/tips/reminders for each.

But remember, we are in this together!!!!

My E-Portfolio
Completed	Item	Target Date
	Create E-Portfolio	6/7/2015
	Choose 3-5 papers & write explanation	6/14/2015
	Complete CV	6/21/2015
	Download Transcript & write Intro Paragraph	6/28/2015
	Write Response to Program Goals	7/5/2015
	Summarize and attach Affirmations	7/12/2015
	Attach Publications & Presentations with bibliography	7/19/2015
	Complete Self-Reflection Essay	7/26/2015
	Review E-Portfolio for completeness	8/2/2015
	Complete Concept Paper	8/6/2015
	Attach Concept Paper & Submit	8/15/2015

At the Dissertation Table

Welcome to our blog! We are a group of non-traditional doctoral students enrolled in the Ph.D. Organizational Leadership program at Eastern University, Saint Davids, PA. We began our doctoral journey together in September 2012 and are now entering the dissertation phase.

View image | gettyimages.com

Early in our studies we were introduced to a short article by Parker Palmer titled, Staying at the Table: A Spirituality of Community.* "God calls us to community, to a mutually supportive, empowering, and accountable life together" begins Palmer. He then goes on to examine three images of community in the Bible: the garden, the New Jerusalem, and the table at the Last Supper. It is at this table that Jesus demonstrates his commitment to humanity. He stays at the table with his disciples despite their seeming in ability to understand what was happening. While they refuse to acknowledge the possibility they will betray him and struggle with one another over power issues, Jesus is there breaking bread and passing the cup.

Palmer uses this image of staying at the table in the midst of human conflict and confusion as an illustration of what commitment to real community looks like. Jesus did this, and we can do the same, by relying upon God alone rather than our personal strength, insight and wisdom, or that of any other person. Jesus "knew that there is a God who is with us more fully than we are with each other; a God who will keep us together if we will only place our trust in God and not in our own togetherness." (Palmer, 1986, p. 7). We are called to community, and the God who is with us enables and empowers us to remain in that community with him and one another.

This image of "staying at the table" was an important one for our cohort in 2012, and took on increased importance and meaning as our studies progressed. We would not have made it this far in our studies without our cohort community. Over the years "staying at the table" has taken on new meanings for many of us, perhaps beyond what Palmer envisioned in his article, but no less significant or important. Together our cohort has experienced times of great joy and sadness, and through it all this group -- through the power of the Holy Spirit -- has remained at the table.

So now the table setting is being changed from course work to our dissertation research, and we are all pulling up a chair. Please join us as we gather from time-to-time in this place to reflect on our journey, our learnings, and perhaps share a funny story or two about conducting research, writing a dissertation, all while attending to the rest of life God has graced us with.

--Rick

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* "Staying at the table: A spirituality of community" came from the Expressions newsletter published by the Saint Benedict Center in 1986 (May/June issue). This short article is no longer widely available, but Joe Davis (also a student at EU!) has reproduced it here.