Portfolios

In the main phase, just like in the Propedeuse (first-year program), you will work with three portfolios, namely: ‘Dream Portfolio,’ ‘Growth Portfolio,’ and ‘Design Portfolio.’ Each of these portfolios is interconnected, with its own specific purpose and format.

Your Dream Portfolio is generally your starting point. It provides you and your teacher with insights into the kind of work you really like and who your heroes are. Your Dream Portfolio is an important part of the conversations you have with your mentor within the context of Constructive Alignment, where you discuss what you want to create and how you think you will approach it (see the section: Constructive Alignment). For the Dream Portfolio, you can the Notion template below.

→ Link to Dream portfolio template

• Your Growth Portfolio is the document you submit for your assessment. It should provide sufficient insights for teachers and peers who are not directly involved in your process. It should have a reading time of no more than 20 minutes. There are several components that your Growth Portfolio must include. You can find these components in the dropdown of this paragraph.

Your Design Portfolio is the showcase of your work and indicates who you are as a designer and where you stand at this moment. You do this by showcasing final products. This portfolio should be created in such a way that it is presentable to the outside world/industry and can be used when searching for an internship or eventually finding a job. You can decide the format yourself. Your Design Portfolio, like your Dream Portfolio, is part of the conversations you have with your mentor within the context of Constructive Alignment

Peer feedback

We believe that supplying each other with feedback is an essential skill for every designer (or every professional for that matter). Also, it is an important way to learn and improve your skills. By receiving feedback, you’ll get pointers on how to improve, but –equally important– by supplying feedback you’re not only helping your peers out, but also yourself. By taking a step back to critically evaluate other peoples work and process, you’ll also be able to critically look at your own work. This is why you will be appointed to give peer feedback at two other assessments.

We expect you to actively partake by asking questions and providing your peers with constructive and useful feedback. Use there questions to help you give better feedback.

before the assessments

• The actual designs: What is your educated opinion on the work that is presented? What do you think is impressive? What improvements can there be made?
• Documentation: has everything been properly supplied and presented? Think of structure, language, design, etcetera. Remember: we prefer loads of designs and a brief explanation over few designs with loads of text.
• Learning goals: have all the questions from the learning goal template been aswered? Did the student pay proper attention to developing their knowledge, skills and attitude?

during –and after– the assessments

• The presentation: What stood out? Was the presentation, clear, to the point and visually interesting? Have all questions been answered in a satisfactory manner? Was the presenter proud of what they achieved?
• What final thoughts, compliments or advice would you like to give to your fellow student?

Constructive Alignment

Constructive alignment is a clear and regular alignment between you and your mentor and/or other specialist teachers.

In this alignment, you talk about your learning process. You discuss, among other things:

• How you are working on, or have been working on, getting closer to what you want to achieve
• What is (still) needed to get there