The University Writing Portfolio Requirement
Overview
New Writing Intensive/WAC guidelines, developed in conjunction with ECU's
Quality Enhancement Plan and approved by the Faculty Senate in fall 2013,
stipulate that courses designated as writing intensive (WI) should require that
students submit writing samples from the course for purposes of program
assessment.
Beginning in fall 2014, instructors of courses that are designated as WI should
incorporate this requirement into their syllabi. The university is currently
using iWebfolio, which students can access through OneStop, for the purpose
of collecting writing samples from WI courses. Thus, all faculty teaching a WI
course should hold students accountable for uploading the following items to
their University Writing Portfolio (housed in iWebfolio):
1. A final draft of a major writing project from the course (with no teacher
feedback),
2. A description of the assignment for which the project was written, and
3. A writing self-analysis document (a component of our QEP)
Details about these components, along with written and video instructions for
accessing and using iWebfolio (for both faculty and students), can be found on
the QEP website (www.ecu.edu/qep).
Options for Implementation
Faculty teaching WI courses can determine how they wish to hold students
accountable for uploading materials. Provided below are a few examples of
how instructors who have piloted the University Writing Portfolio (UWPort)
have accomplished this task. Additional suggestions are welcome, as are any
questions faculty may have about the UWPort. Questions and feedback should
be directed to Dr. Wendy Sharer, QEP Director, at sharerw@ecu.edu.
1. When students submit final drafts of one of the major writing projects
included in your syllabus, ask them to upload the materials to their
UWPorts at the same time and attach point/grade value to the uploading
process:
 Attach some point/grade value to the uploading process (10% of the
grade for the project or 10 points out of a total of 100 for the project, for
example), or
 Make the submission of the material to the UWPort a requirement for the
assignment to be considered complete/acceptable. For example, you
might inform students that they will receive a failing grade for the project
if they do not complete this portion of the assignment.
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2. Fold the UWPort uploading requirement into a "Class Participation"
component of the course. For instance, you might stipulate that students
who do not upload materials will receive a "0" for the "Class Participation"
portion of the course grade.
3. Use part or all of a class or final exam period to have students write their
writing self-analysis and upload the required elements to their UWPort.
Sample Syllabus Statement
Faculty are welcome to adapt and use the text below in their syllabi to explain
the purposes of the University Writing Portfolio requirement. A copy of this
statement can also be found on the QEP website (www.ecu.edu/QEP).
University Writing Portfolio Upload Requirement
This course is designated "writing intensive" (WI) because, in addition to
providing you with important content to learn, it has been designed to help you
improve as a writer. Several years ago, ECU's University Writing Program
instituted the WI graduation requirement (6 hours of WI coursework beyond
English 1100 and 1200/2201, at least 3 hours of which must be in the major)
with the goal of preparing students to be effective writers. As a university, we
want to see how well we are doing in meeting that goal.
To assist with this effort, you will submit one major writing project, along with a
description of the assignment for that project and brief responses to four
questions about your writing, near the end of this course. These materials will be
uploaded to your "University Writing Portfolio," which you will access and create
(if you have not already done so in a previous WI course) through the "student
portfolio" link in Onestop.
Each year, representatives of ECU's University Writing Program will randomly
select a set of University Writing Portfolios from recently graduated students to
assess how effectively ECU's writing programs meet the needs of ECU students.
The assessment work of the University Writing Program has no bearing on your
grades: assessments will be done after a student graduates. Moreover, results of
University Writing Portfolio assessments will only be used to improve instruction
for future students and will never be reported in any way that connects those
results to individual students.
Additional information about creating your University Writing Portfolio and
uploading your materials will be provided during the semester. Further
assistance with this process is available online (www.ecu.edu/qep) and in person
at the University Writing Center (www.ecu.edu/writing/uwc), which has
locations in Joyner Library, Laupus Library, and the Bate Building (Room 2005).
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