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COLUMN
THREE - DOCUMENTATION
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| An important
component of each competency is references to the documentation you have
acquired, to verify the description of your learning. These documents
make up the final section of your portfolio(s) and should be referenced
in the third column of each Narrative of Competency. Samples of
documentation are included in the Appendices. |
DOCUMENTATION
: Type of Activity Documentation
Work Experience
Job descriptions
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Awards
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Letters of commendation
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Letters of corroboration from
superiors, peers, clients
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Promotion evaluations
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Evidence of promotion
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Evidence of suggestions adopted
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Explanation of tasks performed
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Explanation of ranking, rating,
or classification system in
company or organization
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Licenses: pilot, broker, real
estate, cosmetology, daycare, etc.
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Performance standards for acquiring
licenses
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Membership in professional or
trade organizations
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Membership requirements for
professional trade organizations
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Scores on licensing exams
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Military separation papers
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Bills of sale
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Rating forms
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Military records
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Community Service Activities
Commendations and awards
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Newspaper and magazine clippings
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Letters of corroboration from
co-volunteers, clients served, supervisors
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Non college Courses and Training
Transcripts
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Amount of time spent on outside
assignments
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Letter attesting student was
enrolled in course
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Learning outcomes or objective
of course syllabi
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Evidence of and criteria for
completion
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Course description(s)/outline(s)
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Number of didactic hours
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Number of clinical or practicum
hours
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Diplomas
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Special Accomplishments A list
of books read
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Patents obtained
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List of countries visited
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Mementos from countries lived
in or traveled to Exhibits such as shells, plants, etc.
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Program from performances
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Conversations with experts
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Audiovisual presentations
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Audio tapes
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Videotapes
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Recordings, etc.
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Writing samples
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Products
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Photographs
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Computer Programs
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Art work
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Speeches
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Publications
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Journals and ledgers
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Newspaper articles
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| DOCUMENTATION
: Verification
Of all the forms of documentation
just listed, one of the ones used most frequently by Northern Virginia
Community College students is letters written by people who can verify
the students' learning. The key work is verification - not to be
confused with recommendation. The following examples illustrate
the difference between a useful verification letter and an unacceptable
letter of recommendation. |
| EXAMPLE
- VERIFICATION - ACCEPTABLE AS DOCUMENTATION |
Northern Virginia
Community College
Alexandria Campus
3001 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is to verify
that ____________________ was employed by the XYZ Company, Arlington, Virginia,
from February 1978, through March 1985, and again employed from October
1985, through October 1995.
While employed at the Arlington,
Virginia, office, _______________ held the positions of Programmer Trainee,
Programmer, Programmer Analyst, Project Leader and Project Coordinator.
As a Programmer Trainee,
_______________'s duties were to maintain existing programs and to write
Cobol programs of an elementary nature. After he progressed to Programmer,
__________ worked mainly in the application programming area where he developed
a skill of the Cobol language that he could analyze, develop, code and
document major systems. _____________ also learned the Assembler language
well enough to maintain existing programs and code programs of a complicated
nature.
As a Programmer Analyst,
____________ was required to work directly with Department Heads and members
of the user departments to design and develop new programming systems.
This led to ______________'s appointment as Project Leader for several
major application programming systems.
____________ demonstrated
his leadership ability and the skills to organize. He showed that he can
plan and work with these plans to carry out the responsibilities to get
the job done.
___________ was given the
responsibility as Project Coordinator for several major projects, two of
which were quite substantial. These were a Division change requiring major
changes to all systems and programs and DOS to OS conversion. ____________
again demonstrated his abilities and skill as both projects were completed
within a minimum length of time and with minimum problems.
Prior to his promotion to
Information System Supervisor of our Arlington office, __________ was working
with CIS/VS Application programming.
Finally, let me add my personal
assessment. _____________ has addressed all tasks and assignments with
aggressiveness and kept the goals and objectives in the proper perspective.
His skills have demonstrated he has the knowledge and ability to accomplish
any task associated with a major Information Systems facility.
Regards,
J. P. McMillin, Information
Systems Manager
XYZ Company
JPM/sh
cc: _______________, XYZ
Company
Arlington, VA
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| EXAMPLE
- RECOMMENDATION - NOT ACCEPTABLE AS DOCUMENTATION |
Northern Virginia
Community College
Alexandria Campus
3001 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
To Whom It May Concern:
I am pleased to write a letter
on behalf of Mrs. Mary Doone, a woman I have known for many years as a
trusted and efficient employee.
Mary has always been active,
alert and eager to perform the required tasks of her job. Moreover, she
has repeatedly taken on extra responsibilities and handled this extra pressure
with ease.
To summarize, Mary has been
an invaluable aid to this company. It is her kind of consistent, dedicated
effort that makes our free enterprise system a success.
Sincerely,
C. W. Simpson, Manager, Information
Systems Division
CWS/cr |
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| GUIDELINES
FOR VERIFICATION LETTERS |
As you send
for and acquire your verification letters, keep in mind the following guidelines:
The person preparing the
statement should have observed you directly.
One person may verify more
than one of your experiences. The statement should, however, comment directly
and clearly on each experience.
The letter should describe
the learning experience and identify the college level competencies acquired.
The letter should also address the quality as well as the quantity of the
competencies.
The person writing the letter
of verification should identify his or her relationship to you (supervisor,
peer, subordinate) as well as his or her qualifications for commenting
on your experience.
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The letter should be written
on the official letterhead of the company, organization or institution
with which the author is associated.
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The letter must be signed.
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| The writer
who adheres to such an outline should produce an acceptable letter for
your portfolio. |
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Since most
people have never written the special kind of letter you want as your documentation,
you must explain your needs very carefully. The sample letter and background
information on the following pages are designed as a guide which you may
wish to use as you contact the people knowledgeable about your learning.
| Sample Letter:
Dear _____________________:
As a Northern Virginia Community
College student majoring in ________________, I am writing to request that
you write a verifying letter for work experiences with your organization.
As you may know, Northern Virginia Community College has a stringent process
for evaluating and then granting degree credit for prior learning gained
through work and life experiences. To receive credit, I am asked to describe
my learning derived from my work experiences and provide verification that
such learning has taken place. Evaluation is ultimately the task of faculty
persons who are experts in the areas of competency challenged.
The letter I would like you
to write is more than a traditional letter of recommendation. This letter
should:
1. specify the period of
time I worked under your supervision;
2. describe the particular
duties that I was required to perform;
3. describe the learning
involved in performing these tasks;
4. evaluate my general level
of performance.
This letter is a difficult
one to write and, accordingly, I am enclosing background information about
my work under you and certain other information which may be helpful to
you in writing it. Since the letter may be considered in my evaluation
for academic credit, the contents will be carefully scrutinized. I am also
enclosing a sample of such a verification letter.
If you have any questions
about this letter or would like any further information, please call me
at ______________. I would greatly appreciate it if you would send this
letter to me by ___________. It should be directed to Northern Virginia
Community College, To Whom It May Concern as shown in the sample, although
it should be mailed directly to me. I wish to express my thanks for your
support and assistance in this matter.
Sincerely,
Mary Bradley
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| On a separate
sheet, include the following types of information as an accompaniment to
your request for a Letter of Verification. |
Sample of
Background Information:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Employee Name: Mary Bradley
Dates of Employment: 1. April
1, 1975, through September 15, 1978
2. November 15, 1978, through
December 24, 1990
Occupation: Assistant Cashier,
Assistant Bookkeeper, the Bookkeeper
Duties: Cashiering, operating
an NCR bookkeeping cash register, recording sales and purchases in journals,
tagging of inventory as to retail coding and price and methodical storage,
light typing, filing credit applications from customers and processing
credit applications through credit check points, handling of the payroll
for all employees - full and part-time - of the firm.
Learning Experiences: I learned
the basic accounting procedures for books of original entry via hand posting,
retail inventory processing and mark-up. I learned the procedures for taking
credit applications and calling for credit experience and line of credit
available to the customer. Eventually I was responsible for computerizing
the accounting, credit and payroll operations. I chose the computer system,
learned the programs necessary to perform the operations required for the
business and trained others to perform these functions.
I learned to service customers
within the store if regular salespersons were busy; I attempted to qualify
customers as to merchandise and price range, and occasionally filed credit
information in advance, leaving the customer completely prepared for a
salesperson.
I became familiar with the
general public and their varied tastes and personalities. I learned very
quickly that a great deal of tact is required in doing business with people.
Overall, I learned a great
deal about the retail jewelry business. |
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| To acquire
letters which document your learning from experience may take longer than
you would expect. Sometimes several contacts are necessary before a letter
is obtained. For this reason, it is important to begin requesting this
information early in the semester; be sure to specify a return date. Then,
if several weeks pass and an answer has not been received, there is still
time to make additional inquiries by mail, by telephone or in person. |
| Third party
letters can verify many types of learning, but adult education courses,
in-services instruction, correspondence courses, on-the-job training programs
or special institutes or conferences probably need a different form of
documentation. You should substantiate your participation in these endeavors.
This could take the form of transcripts, letters from the sponsoring organization
certifying attendance, products of your participation (e.g., tests, term
papers, certificates), syllabi, excerpts from instructional handouts or
a letter from the instructor.
Verification of your participation
in a course and its duration will be considered minimal documentation.
Your documentation will be strengthened if you can provide an outline of
content, bibliography, syllabi and an evaluation of your work such as a
transcript.
When searching for items
of documentation, be creative. Sometimes individuals need verification
of work from an organization that has gone out of business. In that case,
search for old payment records, tax records, newspaper clippings, verification
from other co-workers, anything to affirm that you did indeed work for
that organization or company even if it is no longer in operation.
Another excellent form of
documentation is a sample of your work. For example, on your job you may
have prepared a complex budget, written a manual for your employees or
written a computer program. These samples of your work could and should
be used as documentation. In the case of challenging computer courses,
samples of computer programs are essential.
In other cases, you could
use products you have created while pursuing an avocation or special project
as documentation. For instance writing samples, published works, audiovisual
presentations or samples of art work or photography are verifications of
learning. Students have used audio tapes, video tapes, pictures of themselves
performing a task. |
Whatever forms
of documentation you use, keep the following suggestions in mind as you
acquire your documentation:
Many documents for
each learning experience are not always necessary. Quality is more
important than quantity, and over documentation can actually complicate
the review process. After you have assembled all your documentation, you
should review it carefully, eliminating duplication of items that do not
contribute specifically and directly to supporting your request
for credit.
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Documentation for every learning
experience that contributed to a particular skill or competence may not
be necessary. Sometimes it is difficult or even impossible to obtain documentation
for each experience that contributed to your learning or skills in a particular
area. Do not spend a lot of time or energy in trying to dig up ancient
history. If the skill in question is one that you have continued to use
and you can provide evidence of its existence currently, that should suffice.
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If actual products such as canvases,
pottery or machines are to be used as documentation, these should be photographed
or reduced to slides.
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Products or replicas submitted
in the portfolio should be labeled, signed and dated by the student.
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You should highlight
those parts of the documentation relevant to the claimed learning outcomes
with a highliner.
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Any valuable documents such
as licenses, certificates, letters or commendations should be retained
by the student and copies only used in the portfolio.
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| In conclusion,
remember that the strength of your documentation will be a key element
in the evaluation of your learning. At another college, the faculty evaluators
of portfolios were asked to rank the various types of documentation on
a continuum, ranging from Good to Better to Best.
Good documentation is less convincing documentation than better and best
which is , of course, the strongest. The results are on the following pages. |
