Introduction

This document is intended to provide guidelines on how to write your Personal Development Portf olio
(PDP) and individual Justif ication of Research Activities (JoRA). This can be one document,
containing two parts. The questions are there to guide you in what to write and are not meant to be
answered literally. It is up to you to create a coherent story.

All your work must be submitted to Blackboard due to archiving purposes. It is up to you to decide
which programme(s) (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) you will use to create and submit
your deliverables in Blackboard. Keep in mind that some programmes are not supported by
Blackboard. In that case, you will have to convert the deliverables to a f ormat which is accepted in
Blackboard. This can also be a document containing screenshots of your work, if necessary.

1. The personal development portf olio (PDP) will be assessed on the f ollowing 4 criteria:

1. Applying knowledge own discipline

2. Professional communication

3. Responsibility project (process and result)

4. Reflection

2. The Justif ication of Research Activities (individual) (JoRA) covers the f ollowing 3 assessment
criteria:

6. “The student collected, analysed and processed relevant inf ormation in a traceable
manner.”

7. “The student has described their own partial research and how these relate to the
selected research/design model. The student has substantiated what they would do
dif f erently and similarly in this partial research a next time.”

8. “The student described how they have looked at the project/question f rom the
perspective of another discipline and how this af f ected the choices that were made.”

Guidelines PDP & JoRA (individual) | Smart Solutions Semester Page | 2

Part I – Personal development portfolio

General guidelines
• Approximately 5 pages (without appendices)
• Readable on its own
• Supporting documents (evidence) in appendices

Who am I?
In order to set appropriate learning goals f or the semester, it is important to determine who you
are. This is why you start your portf olio with: “Who am I?”.
• Short introduction to the assignment including your motivation
• Option (related to GDPR): short version of your C.V. (to make clear who you are and
which study and work experiences you already have)
• Analysis of the kick-of f (yourself and group)

Applying knowledge own discipline (criteria 1)

At the start of the semester, f ormulate one or more learning goals in line with the topic “Applying
knowledge f rom your own discipline” (which knowledge f rom your own study programme are
you going to apply in the project?). Discuss these goals with your tutor and project group. You
made a start with this during the kick-of f.
• These can be both prof essional (broadening and deepening) and personal learning
goals
• Explain, why these goals?

Learning Goals
Per f ormulated learning goal, describe the f ollowing questions in specif ic terms (that f it your
degree programme):
• What do I want to achieve? Formulate your learning goal as SMART as possible.
• How will I achieve this?
o What activities will you undertake to achieve your goal?
o Who or what can help you with this? (Who do you ask f or f eedback and when?)
o How will you monitor your progress? (e.g. by regularly asking f or f eedback and
ref lecting on it)
o When will you have achieved your goal? (def ine success criteria per goal)
o How can you show that a goal has been reached? (evidence of development
and results, e.g. f eedback f rom others and own ref lections; add this evidence to
this portf olio)
• What are the results/progress up until now, including evidence (add evidence in
appendix)
o When writing the interim PDPs: What needs or needed to be adjusted and why?
Make sure to also use the input received f rom the client, and if applicable, f rom
an expert.
o For the f inal PDP: How did the adjustment work out? What lessons can be
learned f rom what went well and not so well?
• IMPORTANT: As proof that you have applied knowledge f rom your own discipline, it is
required to provide written evidence f rom an expert (not anonymous) that indicates that
the content of the work you have delivered is satisf actory (with arguments). In addition,
it is recommended that you also add a quality assessment f rom your client as evidence.

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 Additional achievements criteria 1
As projects can go dif ferently that initially planned, you might have other achievements than the
ones set in your learning goals which you would like to share. These achievements, related to
criteria 1 and not related to any of your other specif ic learning goals, can be noticed in this
paragraph (including links to evidence).

Professional communication (criteria 2)

At the start of the semester, f ormulate one or more learning goals in line with the topic
“Prof essional communication” (how do you want to communicate (in the broadest sense of the
word)).
• These can be both prof essional (broadening and deepening) and personal learning
goals
• Explain, why these goals?

Learning Goals
Per f ormulated learning goal, describe the f ollowing:
• What do I want to achieve? Formulate your learning goal as SMART as possible.
• How will I achieve this?
• What activities will you undertake to achieve your goal?
• Who or what can help you with this? (Who do you ask f or f eedback and when?)
• How will you monitor your progress? (e.g. by regularly asking f or f eedback and
ref lecting on it)
• When will you have achieved your goal? (def ine success criteria per goal)
• How can you show that a goal has been reached? (evidence of development and
results, e.g. f eedback f rom others and own ref lections; add this evidence to this
portf olio)
• What are the results/progress up until now, including evidence (add evidence in
appendix)?
• When writing the interim PDPs: What needs or needed to be adjusted and why?
• For the f inal PDP: How did the adjustment work out? What lessons can be learned f rom
what went well and not so well?
• IMPORTANT: As proof of your prof essional communication, it is required to provide
evidence f rom f ellow student(s)/tutor/client indicating how they that assess you on this
learning goal. As supporting evidence, you can use peer reviews, 360-degree f eedback,
minutes taken during meetings, etc. (see toolbox on Blackboard).

Additional achievements criteria 2

As projects can go dif ferently that initially planned, you might have other achievements than the
ones set in your learning goals which you would like to share. These achievements, related to
criteria 2 and not related to any of your other specif ic learning goals, can be noticed in this
paragraph (including links to evidence).

Responsibility project (criteria 3)

At the start of the semester, f ormulate one or more learning goals in line with the topic
“Responsibility project” (In what way do you want to show that you have taken responsibility
within the project?).
• Use this room f or personal learning
• Also think of goals concerning organisation and/or processes..
• Explain, why these goals?

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 Learning Goals
Per f ormulated learning goal, describe the f ollowing:
• What do I want to achieve? Formulate your learning goal as SMART as possible.
• How will I achieve this?
o What activities will you undertake to achieve your goal?
o Who or what can help you with this? (Who do you ask f or f eedback and when?)
o How will you monitor your progress? (e.g. by regularly asking f or f eedback and
ref lecting on it)
o When will you have achieved your goal? (def ine success criteria per goal)
o How can you show that a goal has been reached? (evidence of development
and results, e.g. f eedback f rom others and own ref lections; add this evidence to
this portf olio)
• What are the results/progress up until now, including evidence (add evidence in
appendix)?
• IMPORTANT: As proof of your responsibility in the project, it is required to provide
evidence f rom f ellow student(s)/tutor/client indicating how they that assess yo u on this
learning goal. As supporting evidence, you can use peer reviews, 360-degree f eedback,
minutes taken during meetings, etc. (see toolbox on Blackboard).

Additional achievements criteria 3

As projects can go dif ferently that initially planned, yo u might have other achievements than the
ones set in your learning goals which you would like to share. These achievements, related to
criteria 3 and not related to any of your other specif ic learning goals, can be noticed in this
paragraph (including links to evidence).

General reflection (criteria 4)

This part is your overall reflection on the entire semester. You describe and justif y this in this
part. Here, you can ref lect on things which you have not specif ically addressed in the above
parts (criteria 1, 2 and 3). If applicable, try to provide (links to) evidence here as well (e.g.
received f eedback).
• What have you achieved together during the Semester?
• What were you most enthusiastic about?
• Which personal developments in relation to your personal learning outcomes, are you
most proud of ? (explain brief ly)
• Which own result with regard to your personal learning outcomes, are you most proud
of ? (explain brief ly)
• What was the most valuable f eedback you received and what insights did this lead to?
• What did you f ind dif ficult during the semester? And what does this say about you?
• What was your role in the project group/cluster? What f eedback did you get about this
and what conclusions did you draw based on this f eedback?
• How have you developed your research skills?
• How did it inf luence my actions/my role/my behaviour, including evidence?

Reflection method (see toolbox at Blackboard)

• For example: What, So What, Now What?
• But also look ahead:
o What action plans (PDCA)?
o How was the implementation?
o What was the ef f ect of those action plans?
o How was the ef f ect (objectively) measured? (student uses peer reviews, 360
degree f eedback, etc.)
o How did the student make adjustments?

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Part II – Justification of Research Activities (Individual)

General guidelines
• Approximately 5 pages (without appendices)
• Readable on its own
• Supporting documents (evidence) in appendices

Part A: A review of research skills; how do you see yourself?

For the two criteria below, describe how you would rate yourself (insuf f icient, suf ficient or good).
For each criterion, describe your proof that shows why you deserve an insuf f icient, suf ficient or
good f or that criterion. Next to this, specif y why you think this evidence is relevant to your
assessment.
When you submit team work, make sure you specif y yo ur own contribution to that team work.

6. “The student collected, analysed and processed relevant inf ormation in a

traceable manner.”

7. “The student has described their own partial research and how these relate
to the selected research/design model. The student has substantiated what
they would do dif f erently and similarly in this partial research a next time.”

Explanation
• Objective of criterion 6: To be able to explain in your own words how you approached your
part of the research, so that a colleague can do the same research again.
• Note: Collecting, analysing and processing inf ormation are three dif ferent things, try to s how
(with evidence) how you approached each of these steps!
• Examples of traceable inf ormation collection and analysis are:
o Literature research:
▪ Which databases, search terms, search methods (snowball?)
▪ How were the usef ul articles selected and saved?
o Lab measurements:
▪ Which measurements, which protocol?
▪ Which (statistical) method was used to analyse the data?
o Interviews/surveys:
▪ Which method, which protocol?
▪ How were the interview results analysed?
• Examples of processing:
o What was relevant to the project?
o How were which results incorporated in the project?

• Objective of criterion 7: To be able to explain in your own words why you chose your
individual approach f or the project related to the whole project.
• In what way does your approach to research produce usef ul results f or the Smart Solution?
• In doing so, you should also link your sub -research to the research/design model which your
group has chosen (criterion 5, see guidelines Product Client). In other words: clearly indicate
(ref erring to the model) to which part(s) of the project you contributed and how.
• Indicate what you think worked well (why?) and what you would do dif f erently next time
(how?).

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 Part B: Working in an interdisciplinary project group; what did you learn?
During the semester you worked in an interdisciplinary project group. Criterion 8 is all about
working in an interdisciplinary project group on solving a problem f rom prof essional practice.

8. “The student described how they have looked at the project/question f rom
the perspective of another discipline and how this af f ected the choices that
were made.”

The f ollowing questions do not have to be answered literally, but are an aid to answer the overall
question (How have you looked at the project/question f rom the perspective of another discipline
and how did this af f ect the choices that were made?). It’s all about what you learned f rom the other
disciplines, how you were able to apply this in the project, and what you will take away f rom this f or
f uture projects.
• Which disciplines are represented in this project group?
• What did you notice in the other study programmes (in the labs, workshops, etc)?
• What insights have you gained by cooperating with other disciplines?
• To what extent does the culture in other study programmes dif fer f rom what you are used
to?
• What are the similarities between dif f erent study programme cultures?
• What was the added value of the various disciplines in the project?
• Which discipline did you miss in the project? Describe why you missed it and what its added
value would have been.

Explanation
• Objective of criterion 8: In this step, the culture of the other study programmes in your project
group play a main role. What did you notice about the group members f rom other study
programmes? Think of : certain knowledge and/or skills they showed, wanting to work
according to a tight schedule or specif ic step -by-step plan, attaching a lot of value to
analysing things, being f ocused on the execution of things, etc.
• Very important: Describe what you will take away f rom these dif f erent cultures/methods/ways
of thinking.

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