Professional portfolio development in a nutrition capstone course to guide student self‐regulated learning and curriculum assessment
Authors: Anderson Olivia S , Connolly Mary , Sadovnikova Anna 
Published: November 2023

Background

The University of Michigan's Nutrition Program, formerly housed in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS), in the School of Public Health transitioned to the Department of Nutritional Sciences (NS) in 2015. The new NS department offers an opportunity for faculty to assess curriculum and implement modifications to meet students' learning needs. The NS Master of Public Health (MPH) provides professional training for students to work as public health practitioners with expertise in nutrition. While still in EHS, NS students participated in the EHS capstone course. EHS‐nutrition student feedback revealed an overwhelming need for professional development directly related to nutrition as part of the curriculum. The aim of this project is to develop a professional development capstone (PDC) course with a student‐generated product that would be used for curricular assessment.

Methods

We planned and piloted an innovative PDC with the intent to move students to a greater state of professional preparedness, but to also align with the department's competencies. The overarching aim of the PDC is for students to develop into self‐regulated learners, thus, learning goals for the PDC were developed to supplement the aim: 1) define/re‐shape professional goals, 2) foster meta‐cognition, 3) develop/strengthen professional skills, and 4) prepare for, engage in and reflect on experiential work. Workshops were created to align with the goals, which consist of networking events with peers, alumni and nutrition‐related professionals, professional workshops (e.g., how to negotiate) and on‐going professional goal setting workshops. The students develop a professional philosophy and an online professional portfolio as evidence towards becoming a self‐regulated learner. Feedback forms were developed to capture quantitative and qualitative feedback directly from students as to whether course activities are facilitating movement towards a state of professional preparedness.

Results

Preliminary evaluation of this course reveals that course ratings increased by 1.5 points (3.2 average over 7 years of EHS‐based capstone vs. 4.7 following pilot in NS department) on a 5‐point Likert scale (5=strongly agree) in regard to item “Overall this was an excellent course”. Networking events with nutritional professionals were evaluated as overall useful/helpful (rated 4.5 average (5=strongly agree) for Alumni events and 4.3 average for professional speaker series events), as one student stated, “It was awesome to see how many paths we can follow in this field.”

Conclusions and Future Directions

Students in a professional‐based master program must become aware of their skills gained in a formal educational setting. This PDC provides a structured environment for students to develop a sense of what self‐regulated learning entails allowing them to utilize professional skills they have gained as students. This PDC can serve as a model across nutrition and other disciplines. Future directions include the development of a rubric to assess the online portfolios. This tool will be a curriculum guide to assess if NS students are fulfilling the program's competencies.

Support or Funding Information

This work is supported by University of Michigan Third Century grant U048918.