Portfolio Report (for all weekly practicals) Getting Started Worth 15%, due in Week 13 6:00pm Fri 26 th Oct You ll learn, from this unit, using IT more effectively as a university student. For this purpose, you need to carry out weekly practical activities. The practical work in this unit will focus on the following themes: Collecting Data Organising Data Evaluating Data Storing Data Processing Data Presenting Information Each set of practical/tutorial/laboratory work is constructed on a number of activities. And answers to these practical activities should be kept in a single word document named in accordance to a convention: IntroPortfolio<studentID>.docx where <studentid> should be YOUR student ID. For example, IntroPortfolio7654321.docx This on-going documentation task for weekly practical activities is one of your continuous assessment items, the PORTFOLIO report. The Portfolio requirement and standard are stated below in details. Page 1
Portfolio Template It is expected that the portfolio document will be of a professional quality. For instance, your document must include a Table of Contents (with each activity listed) and page numbers: Table of Contents Tutorial 1 Activity 2.. 3 Activity 3.. 4 Tutorial 2 etc To produce a well organised and professional looking style portfolio document, you are required to use an appropriate Word Template for documenting your written answers to practical activities. Please follow the instructions below to locate and choose an appropriate template for your portfolio document. a) You can find templates by selecting New from template b) Or you can browse at: Page 2
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/ c) For your convenience, a collection of 'Common Templates for Portfolio' has been posted onto vuws. A link [Common Templates for Portfolio] has been provided. Click the link and you can download the zipped file. Then you can choose one template for your Portfolio: open a template file, save it as IntroPortfolio<studentID>.docx Work through Practical/Tutorial Activities For each activity in a practical work, the following information is typically given: its Context, Reading, and Your Activity. While 'Context' and 'Reading' help you understand the background information, 'Your Activity' is what you are going to undertake and document. For activities where you are asked to provide written responses (for instance, where you see Explain, Describe, Discuss, Present, Create, Locate, Cite, Give/Find examples etc), you ll insert your written responses into the Portfolio report. However, not all activities in a set of practical work require written responses. For instance, the series of MS Office training lessons (normally the last activity in the set for which you are asked to watch online training videos) are for practice only, you don t have to do portfolio documentation. Data Safety This unit doesn t take into account of data lost as a special consideration. Data safety is an essential skill in IT which you are currently learning. For example, not handing in an assignment because a USB drive is lost or corrupt is not considered a valid reason for an extension because you should have made a backup(s). Please refer to Practical 2 Activity 2, which is about data backups. Data backups (in particular the OFF-SITE backups) are extremely important for data safety. Portfolio Submission This portfolio document will be uploaded onto vuws in Week 13 for marking; uploading links will be provided. Page 3
Your submission will be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin system automatically, which measures similarities (against broad types of resources online and in databases) and produces originality reports. Upon you submit your work, you ll receive a report showing the similarity level of your work. The teaching staff can monitor the similarity levels of submissions: Plagiarism can be detected from accessing such originality reports and tracking down direct sources in the Turnitin repositories. If plagiarism is asserted and upheld after investigation, prepare to face a charge of academic misconduct that you ll receive a zero mark for this item, or even fail the unit. The breach behavior is recorded by UWS. Please do keep this in your mind when working on your portfolio activities. You are asked to upload your portfolio document into a Turnitin drop-box allocated for your tutorial group that you originally registered (a Turnitin drop-box will also be created for external students). Submission may not be accepted (not be marked) if being placed into a wrong drop-box (especially uploading the Portfolio document into a Project drop-box). Make sure the right portfolio file is uploaded. Faulty submissions (e.g. in wrong drop-box, wrong file, broken file, cannot be opened) may receive a zero mark. Special considerations The portfolio task specification and all practical task sheets have been released at the beginning of the semester (some with minor modification later), that students should have adequate time for understanding the tasks requirements, reading background materials, documenting written answers etc. Students are supposed to submit the assessment by the due time. However, special considerations can be taken if there are genuine reasons. The construction/development of the portfolio report (for weekly practicals) is not one-step event but with on-going effort throughout the semester. A minor misadventure shouldn t affect much on the assessment item. All students are treated fairly and equally; they are studying in a "level-playing field" that no one suffers from any disadvantage and no one is offered more advantages over others. In particular, please be aware of the following requirements for lodging special consideration application: 1. To lodge an application, you can complete the Special Consideration eform. Page 4
2. Applications must be submitted BEFORE the due date or no later than 5.00 p.m. of the 2nd working day after the due date of the assessment task. Only students who can provide evidence to support extenuating circumstances affecting submission of the application may be granted permission to submit applications after this time. 3. The Portfolio you have constructed thus far must be submitted as one supporting document for the special consideration. You can submit your Portfolio (any draft work you have partially developed) onto vuws if the corresponding drop-box is opened; contact your tutor otherwise. Marking Criteria and Standards The tutorial activities documented in the portfolio will be randomly selected as being assessed. The quantity of activities is marked for satisfactory attempts of the weekly practical activities. A few of questions will be selected for more detailed quality assessment, such as, identification of characteristics, problem definition, discussion on relevant points, principle explanation etc. Note - a satisfactory attempt must be made at the weekly activities, otherwise the tutor may require you to re-submit the portfolio before releasing the mark. Structure Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction Discussion on relevant points References (where required) Some relevant points in descriptive lists, mainly either pro or con Sparse Little evidence of library skills Incorrect formatting More relevant points drawn from literature Listing both props and cons, but has difficulty in making a case Evidence of some search skills Standard references in mostly correct formatting Most/all relevant points from mainstream literature Using appropriate structure to resolve issues in convincing argument Comprehensive Showing care in researching the issue Format correct and clear As in Distinction Makes an original case in own voice, well supported by resources/ references going beyond the mainstream literature As in Distinction Using extra references to bolster an original argument Format correct and clear Page 5
Annotated example 300134 Introduction to Information Technology Spring 2018 Activity: What does research show to be the best size for fonts on a web page? Fail - I like a 10-point font. (doesn t answer question - asked for research results, not personal preference) Pass - I did a quick survey of 10 of my friends and the average font size preferred is 11-point (gathered data, but may not represent the population) Credit - A study into font size preferences found that The 12-point Arial font was the most preferred (Bernard & Mills, 2000) Bernard, M &Mills M (2000), So, What Size and Type of Font Should I Use On My Website. Usability News, Vol 2 (2). (used research, but only one study - others studies may have come to a different conclusion, also the reference is quite old now) Distinction - The Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines (Koyani, Bailey & Nall, 2003) recommends a font size of at least 12-point. This is based on the research from 10 different studies. Balley R., Koyani S., Nall J. (2003) Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved March 2010 from http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines_book.pdf. (used research, from a range of studies, included reference correctly cited) High Distinction - The Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines (Koyani, Bailey & Nall, 2003) recommends a font size of at least 12-point. This is based on the research from 10 different studies. However, it should also be noted that font-sizes should be relative rather than absolute so that the user can adjust the font size themselves using settings in the browser (Zhenxiang & Zhao, 2010). Balley R., Koyani S., Nall J. (2003) Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved March 2013 from http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/guidelines_book.pdf. Zhenxiang Sun; Yang Zhao;, "The Preliminary Construction of Accessibility Design Guidelines of Learning Website for Old People," Education Technology and Computer Page 6
Science (ETCS), 2010 Second International Workshop on, vol.2, no., pp.612-615, 6-7 March 2010 (used research, from a range of studies, but also added important information related to the issue, included references correctly cited) Page 7