Course portfolios: a systematic mechanism to document teaching and learning

Many creative and effective teaching strategies are forgotten or misplaced between semesters, only to be learned anew in subsequent semesters or lost forever. Beginning in September 1997, the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering linked its efforts to strengthen undergraduate education with a project designed to help teaching assistants become better instructors. This project, called a course portfolio, is a formal mechanism that documents and shares course-specific teaching information among teaching assistants and faculty. Course portfolio components include a repository of knowledge, instructor reflections, and critical analyses of activities. Instructors representing all ten departments in the College of Engineering have created course portfolios, and the project continues to expand and improve.