Organize Your Content
Your teaching portfolio will not be effective if it is poorly organized, sloppy, or overly long. Here is a list of features that can help you organize your portfolio in a way that will make it easy for the search committee to use your portfolio to evaluate your teaching effectiveness:
• Title page
• Table of contents (or menu if your portfolio is electronic)
• Introduction or summary of portfolio contents
• Sections, with brief summaries of content for each section
• A summary that reflects on evaluations and how you have used them to improve your teaching effectiveness (see discussion of student evaluations on the previous “Select” page)
Take care to present the portfolio in a neat and polished format. Be sure to present the material in a professional way, with the goal of making it easy for the committee to read and refer to your teaching materials throughout the hiring process.
Here are some tips to make your portfolio presentable:
• Revise and edit all documents to correct mechanical errors and improve clarity.
• Put titles on every page and include your contact information in the footer.
• Design the structure for ease of navigation.
• If printing, use high-quality paper and have it bound, with a cover page, at a copy shop.
• Consider adding a copyright symbol and statement, e.g. “©2016 Your Name, Do not use or distribute without permission.”
• Make additional copies if invited for an on-campus interview.
• Include a link or a line on your curriculum vitae that indicates “Teaching Portfolio portfolio is available upon request.”
Here are a few examples of how you might organize and present the material in your teaching portfolio:
Sample Tables of Contents for a Teaching Portfolio
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