495
SEE ATTACHMENTS FOR THE TWO DISCUSSIONS 5 AND 6 AS YOUR RFERENCE
DOCUMENT 2
SEE ATTACHMENTS FOR DOCUMENT 3 AND 4 AS YOUR REFERENCE
DOCUMENT 3
Pie of Life reflection journal
DOCUMENT 4
The analysis of the psychological podcasts
Instructions
You’ve arrived! Welcome to your final assignment, marking the culmination of your journey in this class and potentially your entire undergraduate career – the Senior Portfolio Project. While the title may sound big, the essence is a celebration of your dedication and accomplishments. What you will be doing is showcasing some of the very hard work you’ve already done. We’ll preface that with a new piece, complementing this chance for you to showcase the work you are most proud of and that best represents your readiness to graduate.
For this assignment you will upload four (4) documents. Please upload them to the assignment tab separately (and not in one document). Title the files clearly so your instructor knows which they are clicking into.
The files are:
- Letter to Incoming Students: A new piece you will create, more on that below.
- Pinnacle Discussions: A Word document where you will copy/paste at least two of the discussion posts from this course you are most proud of/you think best represent your development as a scholar of psychology.
- Your Pie of Life Assignment
- Select from Two Options (choose a OR b):
- Your Podcast Analysis assignment OR
- UMGC Career: Any other “bigger” assignment (meaning at least a 5+ page paper) from your UMGC career that you are proud of.
Note: You are not being “re-graded” or “re-evaluated” on your discussion posts, your Pie of Life paper, or your selection for #4. The only components to your grade for this assignment are Document 1 (the Letter to Incoming Students) and the fact that you have included the other three documents in the assignment. This opens the doors for you to include the work you are genuinely proud of, regardless of the grade you earned on it. This is your senior portfolio; we want to showcase your best work as seen through your eyes and your experience.
Document 1: Letter to Incoming Students
The chair of the psychology program has asked a favor of you, a graduating senior. A new cohort of students is about to start the program (seats in PSYC 100 are filling up with eager learners!) and the chair is asking you to write an open letter to this new class, orienting them to the major, sharing how you met the program’s goals, and offering them examples of some of the exciting work they are going to do during their time at UMGC.
More specifically, in this letter, you will do the following:
I. Introduction: (150-200+ words)
- Introduce yourself and explain why you chose psychology as your major. Reflect on how you felt starting out and what you hope to offer them in this letter.
II. Program Goal Discussion (1250-1400 words total) (around 250+ words per section)
- Create five subject headings (corresponding with each of the 5 program goals below). The program goal itself can serve as the subject heading. Under each subject heading, do the following (so, you will do the below 5 times):
- Identify whether you believe you met that goal
- Provide evidence from your specific, personal UMGC experience that demonstrates how you acquired that competency and met that goal. Reference specific courses you took, assignments you completed in them, and content of the class discussions you engaged in. (General descriptions here will not suffice, you’ll need to walk your reader through your unique, specific experience of meeting each goal.) If you do not think you have met this goal, explain how you will use the skills you do have to continue making progress in this area.
- How are you going to leverage this skill/ability/competency/knowledge in your future? How will it be important to you?
- Do you have any advice to give to students, as they start off on their journey toward meeting this specific goal?
PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM GOALS:
- Critical/Creative Application: Critically and creatively apply relevant psychological concepts, theories, findings, and trends to personal, organizational, and social issues.
- Communicate Effectively: Communicate ideas, concepts, arguments, and perspectives during effective interactions with diverse groups in a variety of contexts.
- Conduct Research: Model scientific reasoning by designing, participating in, and evaluating psychological research.
- Use Ethical Principles: Use ethical principles of psychology to evaluate psychological science and practice within professional and personal settings.
- Promote Diversity: Analyze the complexity of human diversity and how it influences our understanding of behavior.
 III. Overview of Portfolio Components (200-300+ words)
- Pretend that the incoming class of psychology majors will be viewing the remaining documents in your portfolio (Documents 2-4). Introduce them to your reader and discuss how they represent your trajectory as a psychology student.
 IV. Conclusion – Parting Wisdom (200+ words)
- Conclude your letter by offering any parting words to the incoming class and offer any additional advice you have regarding navigating their online college experience. This might be advice you have about time management, balancing school, work, and family, communicating with instructors, self-care tips, study techniques, etc. As you wrap up and sign off on this letter, feel free to share any “tools of the trade” you’ve picked up along the way.
More Guidelines/Tips for Success for this Letter:
This is intended as a letter, so it does not need to be in APA format. It can be, if you’d like, but you can single space it and write less formally, if you are clear and sincere. Your audience is nervous incoming students, you can talk to them in a tone you feel will be most helpful.
Given how much it covers, this letter will be long, reaching the 1,800+ word mark (see outline for suggested length of each section, going over this some – closer to the 2,100 mark – is fine, but don’t go too much over this).
Be specific and self-referential regarding your personal experience as a UMGC student. General descriptions like “I met this goal by doing assignments that required me to apply psych concepts to real world situations” will not suffice, in other words. You’ll need to dive into a specific assignment, discussion, activity, learning resource, conversation with classmate/instructor, etc. you encountered in a specific class and how that led you down the path toward meeting that goal.
Please see the example paper and the rubric to guide you in getting started and to help orient and plan your thinking and strategy as you complete this part of the assignment.
Appropriate Use of Generative AI/ChatGPT-Like Programs for “Letter”:
Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) programs like ChatGPT can create a "letter to an incoming student” along the lines of what this assignment asks you to do. Because this assignment is intended as a personal demonstration based on your individual experience of learning as a student of psychology at UMGC and/or the other colleges you attended, AI databanks do not have the insights necessary to provide the level of specificity needed to do well on this assignment. It will offer vague connections and overgeneralized commentary, but not the level of experience-based, contextual examples we are looking for here. So, in this instance, over-reliance on AI generative tools will not satisfy this assignment.
Document 2: Selection of Pinnacle Main Entry Discussion Posts
Discussion was a big part of your online education experience; indeed, psychology is best learned, explored, and shared through dynamic conversation. Much of your critical thinking skill, ability to apply concepts, and confidence with “talking the psychology talk” is found in your discussion participation. Along those lines, click back through the discussions we’ve had to this point in this course and select two of your Main Entry responses that you are most proud of and/or showcase your capabilities as a student of psychology. Remember, you are not being “graded” on these again. The goal here is the process of selecting and showcasing, not re-evaluation. But do choose mindfully, part of the experience is combing back through your work thoughtfully, so the process of choosing should be interesting and self-reflective.
After you’ve selected your two posts, you will need to open a Word document and copy and paste those discussion posts into it. If you note any grammatical/mechanical errors you’d like to fix, you certainly can do so at this point. And since copy and pasting may lead to inconsistent or hard-to-read formatting, go ahead and make the format consistent and organized (perhaps make everything Times New Roman or Arial with 12-point font, and add in two subject headings to differentiate the two discussion posts). Full APA formatting, however, is not required.
This document isn’t a long stop on this assignment. Most of the time will be spent thinking about what discussions you want to showcase. You don’t have to spend too long on this document (you’ve already done this work!). But you do want to present it well, so spend a little time polishing things. In other words, it is copy/pasted, but it shouldn’t look copy/pasted!
Document 3: Pie of Life Assignment
Your Pie of Life Assignment is a powerful representation of the impact of your psychology career on your life and therefore serves as a key component of your senior portfolio. Re-upload your Pie of Life Assignment as your Document 3. Changes/edits are not necessary, but if you believe that incorporating instructor comments/suggestions would make this paper stronger, you can make those changes to best showcase your overall capability and amenability to feedback.
Document 4: Podcast Analysis Paper OR an equivalent comprehensive work you completed in another UMGC course. 
The intent behind the Podcast Analysis Assignment was to showcase your bourgeoning expertise as a graduating student of psychology, making it a powerful addition to your senior portfolio. However! If you have access to another work that you are perhaps prouder of or that you think does a better job of showcasing your hard work and capability, you can upload that one instead. You will have already explained the rationale for this choice in your “Letter to an Incoming Student” so no other explanation is needed. Just upload the paper in its completed, edited, final form. Remember, you are not being graded on this paper again. We just want to highlight it as a symbol of your efforts and learning. To that end, you will want to polish the work, if needed. But the only thing you are being evaluated on here is whether you upload this document.
Welcome to your final assignment, marking the culmination of your journey in this class and potentially your entire undergraduate career – the Senior Portfolio Project. While the title may sound big, the essence is a celebration of your dedication and accomplishments. What you will be doing is showcasing some of the very hard work you’ve already done. We’ll preface that with a new piece, complementing this chance for you to showcase the work you are most proud of and that best represents your readiness to graduate.
For this assignment you will upload four (4) documents. Please upload them to the assignment tab separately (and not in one document). Title the files clearly so your instructor knows which they are clicking into.
The files are:
- Letter to Incoming Students: A new piece you will create, more on that below.
- Pinnacle Discussions: A Word document where you will copy/paste at least two of the discussion posts from this course you are most proud of/you think best represent your development as a scholar of psychology.
- Your Pie of Life Assignment
- Select from Two Options :
- Your Podcast Analysis assignment
Note: You are not being “re-graded” or “re-evaluated” on your discussion posts, your Pie of Life paper, or your selection for #4. The only components to your grade for this assignment are Document 1 (the Letter to Incoming Students) and the fact that you have included the other three documents in the assignment. This opens the doors for you to include the work you are genuinely proud of, regardless of the grade you earned on it. This is your senior portfolio; we want to showcase your best work as seen through your eyes and your experience.
Document 1: Letter to Incoming Students
The chair of the psychology program has asked a favor of you, a graduating senior. A new cohort of students is about to start the program (seats in PSYC 100 are filling up with eager learners!) and the chair is asking you to write an open letter to this new class, orienting them to the major, sharing how you met the program’s goals, and offering them examples of some of the exciting work they are going to do during their time at UMGC.
More specifically, in this letter, you will do the following:
I. Introduction: (150-200+ words)
- Introduce yourself and explain why you chose psychology as your major. Reflect on how you felt starting out and what you hope to offer them in this letter.
II. Program Goal Discussion (1250-1400 words total) (around 250+ words per section)
- Create five subject headings (corresponding with each of the 5 program goals below). The program goal itself can serve as the subject heading. Under each subject heading, do the following (so, you will do the below 5 times):
- Identify whether you believe you met that goal
- Provide evidence from your specific, personal UMGC experience that demonstrates how you acquired that competency and met that goal. Reference specific courses you took, assignments you completed in them, and content of the class discussions you engaged in. (General descriptions here will not suffice, you’ll need to walk your reader through your unique, specific experience of meeting each goal.) If you do not think you have met this goal, explain how you will use the skills you do have to continue making progress in this area.
- How are you going to leverage this skill/ability/competency/knowledge in your future? How will it be important to you?
- Do you have any advice to give to students, as they start off on their journey toward meeting this specific goal?
Document 2: Selection of Pinnacle Main Entry Discussion Posts
Discussion was a big part of your online education experience; indeed, psychology is best learned, explored, and shared through dynamic conversation. Much of your critical thinking skill, ability to apply concepts, and confidence with “talking the psychology talk” is found in your discussion participation. Along those lines, click back through the discussions we’ve had to this point in this course and select two of your Main Entry responses that you are most proud of and/or showcase your capabilities as a student of psychology. Remember, you are not being “graded” on these again. The goal here is the process of selecting and showcasing, not re-evaluation. But do choose mindfully, part of the experience is combing back through your work thoughtfully, so the process of choosing should be interesting and self-reflective.
After you’ve selected your two posts, you will need to open a Word document and copy and paste those discussion posts into it. If you note any grammatical/mechanical errors you’d like to fix, you certainly can do so at this point. And since copy and pasting may lead to inconsistent or hard-to-read formatting, go ahead and make the format consistent and organized (perhaps make everything Times New Roman or Arial with 12-point font, and add in two subject headings to differentiate the two discussion posts). Full APA formatting, however, is not required.
This document isn’t a long stop on this assignment. Most of the time will be spent thinking about what discussions you want to showcase. You don’t have to spend too long on this document (you’ve already done this work!). But you do want to present it well, so spend a little time polishing things. In other words, it is copy/pasted, but it shouldn’t look copy/pasted!
Document 3: Pie of Life Assignment
Your Pie of Life Assignment is a powerful representation of the impact of your psychology career on your life and therefore serves as a key component of your senior portfolio. Re-upload your Pie of Life Assignment as your Document 3. Changes/edits are not necessary, but if you believe that incorporating instructor comments/suggestions would make this paper stronger, you can make those changes to best showcase your overall capability and amenability to feedback.
Document 4: Podcast Analysis Paper OR an equivalent comprehensive work you completed in another UMGC course.
The intent behind the Podcast Analysis Assignment was to showcase your bourgeoning expertise as a graduating student of psychology, making it a powerful addition to your senior portfolio. However! If you have access to another work that you are perhaps prouder of or that you think does a better job of showcasing your hard work and capability, you can upload that one instead. You will have already explained the rationale for this choice in your “Letter to an Incoming Student” so no other explanation is needed. Just upload the paper in its completed, edited, final form. Remember, you are not being graded on this paper again. We just want to highlight it as a symbol of your efforts and learning. To that end, you will want to polish the work, if needed. But the only thing you are being evaluated on here is whether you upload this document.
