UM-Dearborn History Portfolio

History Portfolio Overview

In order to graduate with a degree in History from the University of Michigan–Dearborn, you must compile an electronic portfolio that will be approved by the history faculty.

The goal of the portfolio is to reflect on what you have learned as a history major, and what kinds of skills you have developed through your history course work. Research indicates that we learn best when we reflect on our own learning. Creating your portfolio will give you an opportunity to reflect on your achievements as a history major and also how you will connect your course work to your post-graduation path by reflecting on the specific skills you have acquired.

Your portfolio must follow the guidelines included here. Your portfolio will be a newly created Google site (see "Getting Started" below on how to create your own Google site) and should include the following four components. This is just an overview. You can see instructions for each of these sections by clicking on the corresponding section of this model site in the table of contents to the left.

An archive of at least four significant assignments/papers from upper-division (300 and above) history courses taken at UM-Dearborn. We suggest you create a Google Drive folder (for example “History Portfolio Documents”) to house the work you will showcase in your portfolio.
- include your major paper from HIST 300
- include at least one paper from a senior-level course (HIST 4XX or HIST 4XXX)
An opening page introducing yourself. Make sure to include at minimum:
- your name and email address
- major(s) and minors
- career and historical interests
A capstone reflection on how your understanding of history has developed through your college experiences. This is a good place to talk not only about what you have learned through your course work, but also any internships, volunteer experiences, or history-related employment that you have engaged in.
A showcase that highlights assignments from your archive that you feel best demonstrate your mastery of EACH of the five learning outcomes for History concentrators. These are: Conceptualization, Primary Source Analysis, Secondary Source Analysis, Research, and Communication. You should create a separate subpage of your Google site for each of the five learning outcomes for this showcase, as in this model site. See "add new page" below on how to add a new subpage to your site. Each of these five subpages should include:
- a short text reflecting on how your chosen assignment(s) demonstrate the learning outcome.
- a link to the one or two assignment(s) you have chosen to demonstrate the learning outcome on that subpage, most likely housed in Drive.

New to Google Sites?

Note: we suggest you create a Google Drive folder (for example History Portfolio Documents) and place any presentations, images, papers, etc. in this folder so it is easier for you to add links to them. To add a link to one of these files:

Go to that file and copy the URL, then go back to your Google Site page
Put your cursor where you would like the link to the file
Type in the text that you would like to display
Select that text, then click the link icon in the toolbar
Paste the URL of the file from your Google Drive folder

Getting Started / Creating Your Version of the History Portfolio

Go to your umich email (email.umich.edu), click the 9 dots to the right (right next to your name/picture), and then click on Sites
Click the Plus icon in the lower right corner to make a new site, or on the name of an existing site to edit it
Be sure to include your name in the name of the site, for example Susan Smith History Portfolio

Adding Content

Use the Google Sites help for instructions on adding text and images, and changing the layout
- We suggest that you put all of your images in a single folder to make it easier to find items
Use Themes (in the right pane) to stay consistent in your fonts and font size across all of the pages in your site
Access the UM-Dearborn logos here (need to login with umich credentials)

Add New Page

Click on Pages in the right side tab and then click on the Plus icon at the bottom to add a new page
Give it a title under the Name box
Add text and images as outlined in this template using the instructions in the previous section
You can add a subpage by clicking on the 3 little dots of that page when hovering your cursor over it under the Pages tab

Keep adding new pages and the appropriate content as outlined in this example

Publish Your Site

When you are ready to share your site with your faculty member, you must publish your site
- You can set the link to whatever you want - be professional, such as um-dearborn-s-smith-history-portfolio
- Change Who can view my site to your faculty member, the University, or Public, depending on what you want

For additional assistance, click the Help icon or contact dearborntechtutors@umich.edu.

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