Portfolios Requirements for Physics, Astronomy and Engineering
Note on Student Evaluations: Student Evaluations must be done for every class every semester. If you do not receive a packet to do evaluations, contact Joe Brinkley or Lala.
A Portfolio Checklist is available.
First Year Portfolios:
Portfolios for faculty who are in their first year of teaching at ACC should contain these materials for every course (not every class) taught during the current CALENDAR year. (For example, include material from PHYS 1401 and PHYS 1407. But if you taught PHYS 1401 five times, do not include material from every class. Choose one.)
If your first semester of teaching is a summer semester, the materials need to be in your portfolio folder by August 20th so they can be reviewed.
Syllabi and other first day handouts:
All syllabi should be in compliance with the Master Syllabi guidelines.
Any first-day handouts covering anything not included in the syllabus (e.g., special project guidelines, lab report guidelines).
A Syllabus Checklist is available.
Exams:
Please submit all exams, including the last or final exam.
Explain the grading policy, based on Department requirements.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
For courses with labs, include:
A list of all labs done in each course that you taught. Please include the list with your submitted labs even if it is also included in the syllabus.
Examples of three labs. (Please do not submit more than three labs.) Consider submitting different types of labs, as well labs from the first, middle, and end of the semester.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
If verbal instructions are given before the labs with important instructions not written in the labs, give the committee that information, summarizing what your verbal instructions are, or by taking a picture of the board if your instructions are written there.
For lecture-only courses:
Include examples of at least two major assignments. (These could be reports, projects, homework, or other assignments). If the course has no such assignments, include a note stating this.
- For Honors classes:
Include examples of assignments/projects/labs that exemplify why these are Honors classes.
Faculty Input Form (FIF) - (Download the FIF here)
It is recommended that you complete a FIF after you receive your Student Evaluations each semester for the previous semester. For example, at the beginning of the Summer semester, you will receive your Student Evaluations for classes you taught in Spring. At the beginning of Fall semester you will receive Student Evaluations for your summer classes.
Ideally, you would submit a FIF for Spring, Summer, and Fall classes for the calendar year being reviewed.
If you choose to submit only one FIF during the year, it must be submitted in spring (usually by early February) after you receive your Student Evaluations for Fall classes. You must still comment on Student Evaluations for the entire year (Spring, Summer, and Fall classes).
Each FIF should include the following:
Comment on Student Evaluation comments, especially any that suggest contract violations.
Comment if there are unusual amounts of A's (>60%) or W's (>50%).
The final FIF or once a year FIF submitted at the beginning of Spring must also include answers to the other questions on the FIF.
- For Honors classes:
Include examples of assignments/projects/labs that exemplify why these are Honors classes.
Second Year Portfolios:
Portfolios for faculty who are in their second year of teaching at ACC should contain these materials for every course (not every class) taught during the past two CALENDAR years. (For example, include material from PHYS 1401 and PHYS 1407. But if you taught PHYS 1401 five times, do not include material from every class. Choose one.)
This means that if your 2nd year portfolio is due in December 2021, include materials for 2020 and 2021.
Syllabi and other first day handouts:
All syllabi should be in compliance with the Master Syllabi guidelines.
Any first-day handouts covering anything not included in the syllabus (e.g., special project guidelines, lab report guidelines).
A Syllabus Checklist is available.
Exams:
Please submit all exams, including the last or final exam.
Explain the grading policy, based on Department requirements.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
For courses with labs, include:
A list of all labs done in each course that you taught. Please include the list with your submitted labs even if it is also included in the syllabus.
Examples of three labs. (Please do not submit more than three labs.) Consider submitting different types of labs, as well labs from the first, middle, and end of the semester.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
If verbal instructions are given before the labs with important instructions not written in the labs, give the committee that information, summarizing what your verbal instructions are, or by taking a picture of the board if your instructions are written there.
For lecture-only courses:
Include examples of at least two major assignments. (These could be reports, projects, homework, or other assignments). If the course has no such assignments, include a note stating this.
For Honors classes:
Include examples of assignments/projects/labs that exemplify why these are Honors classes.
Faculty Input Form (FIF) - (Download the FIF here)
It is recommended that you complete a FIF after you receive your Student Evaluations each semester for the previous semester. For example, at the beginning of the Summer semester, you will receive your Student Evaluations for classes you taught in Spring. At the beginning of Fall semester you will receive Student Evaluations for your summer classes.
Ideally, you would submit a FIF for Spring, Summer, and Fall classes for the calendar year being reviewed.
If you choose to submit only one FIF during the year, it must be submitted in spring (usually by early February) after you receive your Student Evaluations for Fall classes. You must still comment on Student Evaluations for the entire year (Spring, Summer, and Fall classes).
Each FIF should include the following:
Comment on Student Evaluation comments, especially any that suggest contract violations.
Comment if there are unusual amounts of A's (>60%) or W's (>50%).
The final FIF or once-a-year FIF submitted at the beginning of Spring must also include answers to the other questions on the FIF.
Statement of Teaching Philosophy:
This is a requirement of the FEO. According to their procedures manual, it is intended to force instructors to "think about such issues such as the overall objectives of their teaching and the broad objectives they want students to learn from their courses. At the most fundamental level, instructors need to express what they do as teachers and why."
Here are some sample Teaching Philosophy documents and a template of some questions to prompt your thinking that have been provided by the ACC Department of Evaluations.
Third Year Portfolios or Later:
Portfolios for faculty who are in their initial third or later year of teaching at ACC should contain these materials for every course(not every class) taught during the past three CALENDAR years. (For example, include material from PHYS 1401 and PHYS 1407. But if you taught PHYS 1401 five times, do not include material from every class. Choose one.)
This means that if your 3rd year portfolio is due in December 2021, include materials for 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Syllabi and other first day handouts:
All syllabi should be in compliance with the Master Syllabi guidelines.
Any first-day handouts covering anything not in the syllabus (e.g., special project guidelines, lab report guidelines).
A Syllabus Checklist is available.
Exams:
Please submit all exams, including the last or final exam.
Explain the grading policy, based on Department requirements.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
For courses with labs, include:
A list of all labs done in each course that you taught. Please include the list with your submitted labs even if it is also included in the syllabus.
Examples of three labs. (Please do not submit more than three labs.) Consider submitting different types of labs, as well labs from the first, middle, and end of the semester.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
If verbal instructions are given before the labs with important instructions not written in the labs, give the committee that information, summarizing what your verbal instructions are, or by taking a picture of the board if your instructions are written there.
For lecture-only courses:
Include examples of at least two major assignments. (These could be reports, projects, homework, or other assignments). If the course has no such assignments, include a note stating this.
For Honors classes:
Include examples of assignments/projects/labs that exemplify why these are Honors classes.
Faculty Input Form (FIF) - (Download the FIF here)
It is recommended that you complete a FIF after you receive your Student Evaluations each semester for the previous semester. For example, at the beginning of the Summer semester, you will receive your Student Evaluations for classes you taught in Spring. At the beginning of Fall semester you will receive Student Evaluations for your summer classes.
Ideally, you would submit a FIF for Spring, Summer, and Fall classes for the calendar year being reviewed.
If you choose to submit only one FIF during the year, it must be submitted in spring (usually by early February) after you receive your Student Evaluations for Fall classes. You must still comment on Student Evaluations for the entire year (Spring, Summer, and Fall classes).
Each FIF should include the following:
Comment on Student Evaluation comments, especially any that suggest contract violations.
Comment if there are unusual amounts of A's (>60%) or W's (>50%).
The final FIF or once a year FIF submitted at the beginning of Spring must also include answers to the other questions on the FIF.
Statement of Teaching Philosophy:
This is a requirement of the FEO. According to their procedures manual, it is intended to force instructors to "think about such issues such as the overall objectives of their teaching and the broad objectives they want students to learn from their courses. At the most fundamental level, instructors need to express what they do as teachers and why."
Here are some sample Teaching Philosophy documents and a template of some questions to prompt your thinking that have been provided by the ACC Department of Evaluations.
Course Commentary
This is also an FEO requirement, which according to the procedures manual, "is similar to the statement of teaching philosophy, but is specific to one class. The course commentary is a statement of what, how, and why the instructor is doing what he or she is doing in a particular course. The idea is to reflect on what is being done in a particular course and to examine the methods used and their effectiveness." This is for ONE course.
Professional Development Plan
The development plan is expected to be a document that describes a plan of professional development goals the faculty member has for their future growth. This document is basically an exercise in taking a thoughtful look at what one hopes to achieve in the next year. For more information on the new requirements for professional development, visit the ACC Professional Development FAQ page.
Sample Professional Development Plans were provided by the Office of Faculty Evaluations in a 2020 workshop.
Review Portfolio
Faculty who have submitted at least two consecutive third-year portfolios in our department may, upon approval of the department/evaluation chair, submit a review portfolio in lieu of a third-year portfolio. Specific requirements must be met:
Previous overall Summary Evaluations must have a rating of Excellent or Very Good for every evaluation for the two previous 3-year cycles (two third-year portfolio cycles).
Administrative requirements must be complete for each yearly evaluation.
All student evaluations must be Excellent or Very Good. Any student evaluations other than Excellent or Very Good in the current 3-year cycle will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the department/evaluation chair.
A Review portfolio will focus on one course. Subsequent Review Portfolios should cycle through all of the courses standardly taught by that instructor prior to repeating a course that has already been submitted as a Review Portfolio.
Explain why this course was chosen, such as having developed new materials for the course and desiring feedback from the committee or getting feedback based on previous student evaluations. In the first case, please be sure to indicate any new materials submitted for review. In the course commentary, please briefly mention how you differentiate this course from a comparable course at a different math level (such as CP vs GP or GP vs EP) since the committee won't be able to make the comparison on their own from the materials submitted for the Review Portfolio.
The Review Portfolio should contain the following items:
Syllabi and other first-day handouts for the course chosen:
All syllabi should be in compliance with the Master Syllabi guidelines.
Any first-day handouts covering anything not included in the syllabus (e.g., special project guidelines, lab report guidelines).
A Syllabus Checklist is available.
Exams for the course chosen:
Please submit all exams, including the last or final exam.
Explain the grading policy, based on Department requirements.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
If the course chosen is a course with labs, include:
A list of all labs done in each course that you taught. Please include the list with your submitted labs even if it is also included in the syllabus.
Examples of three labs. (Please do not submit more than three labs.) Consider submitting different types of labs, as well labs from the first, middle, and end of the semester.
Consider including pictures and graphics for clarity.
If verbal instructions are given before the labs with important instructions not written in the labs, give the committee that information, summarizing what your verbal instructions are, or by taking a picture of the board if your instructions are written there.
If the course chosen is a lecture-only course:
Include examples of at least two major assignments. (These could be reports, projects, homework, or other assignments). If the course has no such assignments, include a note stating this.
For Honors classes:
Include examples of assignments/projects/labs that exemplify why these are Honors classes.
Faculty Input Form (FIF) - (Download the FIF here)
It is recommended that you complete a FIF after you receive your Student Evaluations each semester for the previous semester. For example, at the beginning of the Summer semester, you will receive your Student Evaluations for classes you taught in Spring. At the beginning of Fall semester you will receive Student Evaluations for your summer classes.
Ideally, you would submit a FIF for Spring, Summer, and Fall classes for the calendar year being reviewed.
If you choose to submit only one FIF during the year, it must be submitted in spring (usually by early February) after you receive your Student Evaluations for Fall classes. You must still comment on Student Evaluations for the entire year (Spring, Summer, and Fall classes).
Each FIF should include the following:
Comment on Student Evaluation comments, especially any that suggest contract violations.
Comment if there are unusual amounts of A's (>60%) or W's (>50%).
The final FIF or once a year FIF submitted at the beginning of Spring must also include answers to the other questions on the FIF.
Statement of Teaching Philosophy:
This is a requirement of the FEO. According to their procedures manual, it is intended to force instructors to "think about such issues such as the overall objectives of their teaching and the broad objectives they want students to learn from their courses. At the most fundamental level, instructors need to express what they do as teachers and why."
Here are some sample Teaching Philosophy documents and a template of some questions to prompt your thinking that have been provided by the ACC Department of Evaluations.
Course Commentary
This is also an FEO requirement, which according to the procedures manual, "is similar to the statement of teaching philosophy, but is specific to one class. The course commentary is a statement of what, how, and why the instructor is doing what he or she is doing in a particular course. The idea is to reflect on what is being done in a particular course and to examine the methods used and their effectiveness." This is for ONE course.
Professional Development Plan
The development plan is expected to be a document that describes a plan of professional development goals the faculty member has for their future growth. This document is basically an exercise in taking a thoughtful look at what one hopes to achieve in the next year. For more information on the new requirements for professional development, visit the Professional Development page.
Sample Professional Development Plans were provided by the Office of Faculty Evaluations in a 2020 workshop.