Overview
The following is a glossary of terms used within VSTAR Portfolio. Click the link(s) for more detailed help on each term.
Glossary of Terms
Activity
Activities are the central component of VSTAR Portfolio. Using customized Forms, each Activity is used to asynchronously collect feedback data about a user, evaluating based on one or more Competencies or Milestones. Activities may also be grouped together into Collections. A user may view their Activities in either list or calendar format.
Note that only a user with administrative privileges may create or modify Activities and Forms. When created, Activities may include tags for easy searching.
Activities are sometimes referred to as Assessments.
Viewing Activity ResponsesAccessing an Activity (for Advisors)
How to upload files within an Activity
Activity Types
Faculty Assessment – An Activity where advisors are assessing learners.
Compass Assessment – An Activity where anyone, including non-users, may evaluate a learner. The Activity must be created by a user with Administrative privileges, however once created, Compass Assessments are requested by learners. If the learner is requesting feedback from an advisor or someone else who is already a Portfolio user, they may select their name from a list. If the learner is requesting feedback from someone who is not a Portfolio user, commonly a patient or supervisor from an outside institution, the evaluator’s email address is needed.
Peer Assessment – An Activity where learners are assessing one another.
Self-Assessment – An Activity where the assessor and the assessee are the same user. Most commonly used by learners to assess their performance, but technically can be completed by any user if it is made available to him or her.
Viewing Student Self-Assessments and Reflections
Activity Report
A downloadable summary of all learner data on a particular Activity, accessed by a user with administrative privileges from the full list of Activities.
Artifact
An Artifact is any file or URL a student wishes to preserve in their Portfolio, for example a research project, test scores, or a paper. Once added, an Artifact may be viewed or downloaded as many times as needed and is accessible even after a Course or Activity has ended.
Note that Artifacts may be uploaded on behalf of a learner by a user with administrative privileges. Users with administrative privileges may also batch upload Artifacts through the administrative tools menu. In order to batch upload, a .zip file must be created where each subfolder is named with a valid userid and contains the desired Artifact file(s).
Adding Artifacts
Viewing Student Artifacts (for advisors)
Assessment – See Activity and Activity Types
Calendar
A Calendar within Portfolio that displays upcoming meetings and Activity due dates. Learners may also use it to schedule meetings with Advisors and Portfolio Coaches.
The Calendar may be viewed on both the VSTAR landing page as well as in the Calendar section.
Reserve Time for Student Appointments Using the VSTAR Portfolio Calendar
Viewing and Scheduling Faculty Appointment Slots
Calendar Subscription URL
Used to push Portfolio Calendar events into other calendar programs (e.g. Outlook, gmail, etc.). The link is non-static; once entered into another calendar application, events will automatically be updated as they are added to the Portfolio Calendar. The link may be found underneath the Calendar on both the VSTAR landing page as well as in the Calendar section.
Collections
Groupings of Activities which allow Monitors to oversee and manage the larger population. Viewing a particular Collection will also graphically display summary data about the Activities.
Compass
VSTAR Compass is the mobile application for VSTAR Portfolio. Advisors may log in to complete Activities, assess particular Competencies, and/or leave voice feedback for a learner. Learners may log in to view feedback and request Compass Assessments.
Core Competencies – See Learner Competencies
Course
Groupings of Activities which, much like Collections, allow Monitors to oversee and manage the larger population. Unlike Collections, however, Courses have pre-defined course metadata as well as an associated Course Director who is responsible for this content. Note that Courses are gradually being replaced by Collections and may eventually be removed from Portfolio entirely.
Dashboard
The first tab of the main landing page for learners within Portfolio, the Dashboard consists of several tabs summarizing relevant Activity data. This Dashboard may also be viewed by a learner’s Advisor(s).
The Student Dashboard
Navigating VSTAR Portfolio for Students
Discussions
Conversations between learners and Advisors, associated with a particular Activity. In addition to within an Activity, these also display on the main Portfolio landing page and may be sorted by date if desired.
Evaluation
Similar to an Activity, as it also uses any Form that has been created. However, Evaluations also require formative and summative feedback about a learner.
Evaluation Types
Aggregate – based on a combination of other Activity results.
Final – final grade that displays on a learner’s Dashboard..
Form
Customizable documents used for data collection, Forms are used to build Activities and Evaluations. Note that only a user with administrative privileges may create or edit Forms.
Groups
Used to assign 2 or more users to a particular Activity. Users may be (and likely will be) members of multiple Groups.
Groups may be created and edited in the Groups portion of the administrative tools, or created on the fly as part of the creation of an Activity. Either way, groups should always be given a unique name so they may be located and reused for later Activities.
Members
Users within the system, such as Advisors, Students, or Portfolio Coaches. Members may be added individually or in batch form by a user with administrative privileges.
More extensive information on users and permissions.
Profile
Self-provided information about a user that may be viewed by others within Portfolio. Name and email address is automatically included, but a user may add or update the remaining information in his or her Profile at any time.
Updating your profile (for students)
Updating your profile (for non-students)
Learner – Referred to as Student or Trainee in VSTAR Portfolio.
Learning Goals
Specific, measureable goals set by learners within VSTAR Portfolio. A learner’s Advisor(s) or Portfolio Coach may also view these goals, however the goals are assessed and their status is maintained by the learner.
Learning Goal status options: Not Started, In Progress, Completed, or Discarded.
Creating Learning Goals
Updating Learning Goals
Viewing Student Learning Goals
When creating or updating a learning goal, a learner must include steps needed to complete and measure the goal as well as any obstacles to completion. Learning Goals also map to the Learner (Core) Competencies within Portfolio.
Learner Competencies
Categories representing the fundamental areas of learner evaluation. These Competencies are associated with Activities, Evaluations, Goals, and Courses within Portfolio.
Competencies, and any related data, are viewed by a learner or their Advisor from the learner’s Dashboard.
Learner Competencies view from the Student Dashboard