Inventory and select the proof
Choose a small set of projects that collectively covers the target role’s most important evidence.
Building Your Online Portfolio
From Colorado State University Alumni Association. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
During the course primer, listen for ideas that change how you approach “Inventory and select the proof.” Pause once to capture a useful point, then apply it while producing a scored project inventory, selected portfolio set, exclusion list, and one gap-closing project brief.What this lesson is really solving.
Choose a small set of projects that collectively covers the target role’s most important evidence. This is lesson 2 because later decisions depend on a scored project inventory, selected portfolio set, exclusion list, and one gap-closing project brief. Three complementary projects can form a stronger argument than twelve repetitive ones. Use your own numbers, files, environment, and constraints so the result survives outside the course.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
Three complementary projects can form a stronger argument than twelve repetitive ones.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
List projects from paid work, school, volunteering, self-directed practice, and realistic reconstructions.
- 2
Score each for relevance, ownership, decision depth, artifact quality, result evidence, recency, and permission.
- 3
Select three to five projects that demonstrate different strengths without diluting the target.
- 4
Plan one scoped project to close the most important evidence gap instead of adding random work.
See the standard in context.
Leo selects a messy public-data cleanup, an operations dashboard, and an experiment analysis, then removes two nearly identical school visualizations. The learner saves a scored project inventory, selected portfolio set, exclusion list, and one gap-closing project brief and notes the evidence or assumption behind the choice so it can be reviewed and improved later.
Inspect before you move on.
- The finished work visibly includes a scored project inventory, selected portfolio set, exclusion list, and one gap-closing project brief.
- You tested the work against this common failure: Leading with the prettiest project even when it demonstrates little of the work the target role requires.
- Another person could verify this mastery standard: Together, the selected projects answer every high-priority question on the reviewer brief.
Your deliverable
A scored project inventory, selected portfolio set, exclusion list, and one gap-closing project brief.
Watch for this
Leading with the prettiest project even when it demonstrates little of the work the target role requires.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
Together, the selected projects answer every high-priority question on the reviewer brief.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check