FAQ

1. What is this project about, anyway?
2. Who can participate in the project?
3. I am sooo busy - why bother to participate?
4. Why there are so many and mandatory fields? I am Non-Resident International Scholar and don't need them.
5. What kind of materils should non-resident International Scholars submit if they do not teach at their partner departments? Shall they send any of their syllabi relating to their teaching elsewhere?
6. Who will have the right to upload items into Departmental WFs?
7. I am wondering whether there is an option for posting my humble picture on the webfolio.
8. How to remove an item from my webfolio?

1. What is this project about, anyway?

2. Who can participate in the project?

3. I am sooo busy - why bother to participate?

It is simple :) - because it is obligatory (for Returning Scholars)

Speaking seriously, it provides RSs with the following opportunities:

• develop a holistic strategy of academic & professional development and implement it in practice enlisting collective expertise of AFP fellows;
• conduct in-depth analysis and self-reflection of their actual teaching and research - these activities is not something being routinely done, although they are much more important and potentially more rewarding than achieving any short-term goals;
• experiment with innovations in teaching (course content, design, delivery methods, assessment techniques etc.) and collectively analyize results of these experiments;
• create an impressive promotional tool supported by thorough scientific evidence (unheard of in the region! :);
• in the long run - improved teaching, better student performance, increased research productivity, more collaboration, new partnerships, more competitive in job market, etc.

Advantages for partner departments:

• Increased focus on departmental reform issues;
• Opportunity to re-think and systematize departmental approaches to development issues, come up with new strategies as well as document, monitor and analyse their implementation;
• Improved departmental teaching & research potentials;
• Response to internal need and/or external pressure for quality assurance;
• Authentic data for receiving accreditation from professional associations; etc.

4. Why there are so many and mandatory fields? I am Non-Resident International Scholar and don't need them.

There are NO required items even for Webfolios of Resident Scholars not to mention non-resident ISs.

Returning Scholars are supposed to create webfolios that are representative of the work they do within their fellowships and depict both efforts in this regard and their results/progress to date. International Scholars place to the WFs only items they consider worth sharing with their AFP peers.

There is a list of items' CATEGORIES (in the uploading dialogue) which by no means is a list of REQUIRED WF items.

The reason we created a list of categories was that we would like WFs be searchable not only by "key" word, but by the item's category, as well. When we will have about 100 Webfolios (each of them comprising, say, 10 items), the search results made by some "key" words may produce lists of 200-300 items. (For example, the situation is similar with Google searches, when users almost always view only the first few search result pages out of hundreds, although really relevant search results may be situated down on the search results list - say, on the 50th page.

That is why we decided to combine search by "key" word with search by "type of material" or their "category" (so that fellows interested in, for example, in research interests of their peers were not supposed to search through their syllabi and other teaching materials containing the same "key" word).

We have a possibility to avoid this kind of problem because we are creating the database of Webfolio materials "from scratch". Technically it is possible to do if fellows assign a "category" to all the materials while uploading them to their WFs.

In the category list we tried to imagine various kinds of WF items and situations relating to teaching, research, service, etc. but of course it is only preliminary. We plan to re-consider the list of categories (probably, group some of them in bigger ones) after some initial period of testing the website by fellows basing on their recommendations.

5. What kind of materils should non-resident International Scholars submit if they do not teach at their partner departments? Shall they send any of their syllabi relating to their teaching elsewhere?

The project's idea is that we create Fellowship webfolios (not teaching portfolios, or academic CVs), which would present to peers namely the work being done within AFP Fellowships (efforts and results/progress to date).

Participation in the project is obligatory for Returning Scholars, so in their case we expect full-fledged webfolios that are representative of the following: - their efforts aimed at their own academic/professional development (ands progress to date); - their contribution to departmental curriculum/research reform (and the first results of these efforts) - consequent self-reflection, peer feedback, and, hopefully, discussion of academic development & reform issues.

Creating webfolios is optional for International Scholars (at least at this stage), but if they choose to participate, our program is interested, first of all, in materials related to their efforts within AFP fellowships, which fellows themselves consider worth sharing with peers. This is especially true in case of non-resident ISs - they have such a unique for the program resource as their views, perceptions and analyses of the curriculum/research reform efforts at their host departments, their interaction with local faculty, successes, failures, etc.

Of course, ISs may choose to place any other material typical of teaching/professional development portfolios, but the webfolio focus should be placed on the work done within AFP fellowships and priority be given to that type of materials. Non-resident ISs is a unique resource for the program, they possess precious expert-level information regarding the AFP partner departments and the reform processes therein, and we are interested in getting this information, first of all.

Another big role for ISs (first of all, non-resident ISs) will be reading webfolios of young RSs in their discipline groups, providing their professional feedback (in the form of comments to the most important materials and periodical peer reviews of the whole webfolios). We also hope that some of IS will become leaders in or provide positive dynamics for their AFP Discipline groups - and all of this is the material for webfolios of ISs.

6. Who will have the right to upload items into Departmental WFs?

Departmental Webfolio (DWF) pages will be set up by AFP website administrators. They will also upload Departmental Development Plans to all DWFs.

Submitting materials to a DWF will be a group project of all AFP fellows teaching at this department (with participation of the Department Chair and local faculty).

Technically it will be done by submitting all DWF materials to website administrators, who will upload them to the website (see the list of website administrators in "Contact us" section).

7. I am wondering whether there is an option for posting my humble picture on the webfolio.

At the moment, there is no way to place your picture, say, before your webfolio title (we will try to incorporate this idea in the next modification of the website).

The options available in the current website version are as follows:

1. You can place your picture on your CV (for example, insert a .jpg file in the .doc-format document) and upload the updated CV to your General section afterwards.
2. You can upload your picture(s) to your General section as separate items along with your CV.

8. How to remove an item from my webfolio?