The AAOT Professional Portfolio

The AAOT Professional Portfolio is the central record of your development throughout the Assistance Animal Occupational Therapy Credential.

It brings together the work you complete, the learning you undertake, the feedback you receive, the people and professions you learn from, the development of your professional reasoning, and evidence of how your thinking and practice change over time.

Rather than treating each workbook, assessment or practical activity as something that is completed and then forgotten, the portfolio allows these different elements to become a coherent record of your development as an Assistance Animal Occupational Therapist.

Your portfolio should therefore be developed throughout AAOT, rather than assembled for the first time at the end.

The portfolio is not simply:

This is what I produced.

It should help demonstrate:

This is where I started, what I did, what I learned, who I learned from, what challenged me, what feedback I received, how I responded, how my reasoning developed, and where I ultimately arrived.

The destination matters.

The journey matters too.

Your Portfolio, Your Format

There is no single required way to organise or present your AAOT Professional Portfolio unless a particular component specifies otherwise.

Your working portfolio might be:

• digital;
• physical;
• a combination of both;
• organised by unit;
• organised chronologically;
• organised around themes; or
• maintained using another practical and accessible system.

Choose an approach that you can realistically maintain throughout the credential.

WAFA is not assessing how decorative your portfolio is, what software you use or whether it resembles another participant’s portfolio.

What matters is whether the required evidence can be located, understood and assessed, and whether the portfolio meaningfully demonstrates your professional development.

If you maintain substantial parts of your portfolio physically, consider from the beginning how required material will ultimately be provided to WAFA for assessment.

Your Journey Does Not Need to Be Linear

Everyone enters AAOT from a different starting point.

Participants bring different combinations of:

• occupational therapy experience;
• assistance-animal experience;
• animal knowledge and practical skills;
• academic and research experience;
• disability-sector experience;
• previous professional development;
• professional networks;
• particular strengths;
• areas requiring development;
• professional interests; and
• goals for undertaking AAOT.

One participant may begin with substantial animal-training knowledge but limited experience with assistance-animal law.

Another may have extensive disability and NDIS experience but relatively little animal-health knowledge.

Another may already work regularly with assistance-animal teams and use AAOT to challenge, consolidate and extend an established area of practice.

Your development will therefore not necessarily be linear.

You may move quickly through one area and much more slowly through another.

You may change your mind.

You may discover that something you previously believed was incomplete or incorrect.

Learning in Unit 8 might cause you to reconsider something you wrote in Unit 3.

Feedback received during Unit 5 might send you down an unexpected research path.

An issue you encounter early in the credential might ultimately become part of your Capstone.

These are not problems with your learning journey.

They are evidence that learning is occurring.

Minimum Portfolio Requirements

Although participants have considerable freedom in how their portfolios are organised, the final portfolio must contain specified evidence.

Foundation Learning

Include the required completed Foundation Learning workbook material.

Units 1–10

For each required unit assessment, retain:

• your initial submission;
• WAFA assessment feedback;
• evidence that you considered the feedback;
• your final portfolio version of the work; and
• where significant feedback was not adopted, a brief professional explanation of why.

The purpose is not to demonstrate that every piece of feedback was accepted.

It is to demonstrate that feedback was considered critically and professionally.

Capstone Project

Include all required components of the Capstone Project together with appropriate evidence of its development.

This may include evidence of:

• planning;
• research;
• consultation;
• collaboration;
• feedback;
• revisions;
• decision-making; and
• development of the final contribution.

The separate Capstone Project topic explains these requirements in greater detail.

Professional Reflection

Include your final Professional Reflection, considering your development across the credential.

The separate Professional Reflection topic provides the detailed requirements for this component.

What Else Can I Include?

Beyond the required components, your portfolio can contain material that helps demonstrate your learning and professional development.

Ask:

Does this help tell the story of my development through AAOT?

If it does, it may be useful portfolio evidence.

Examples might include:

• additional readings;
• annotated articles;
• research notes;
• independent research;
• relevant professional development;
• notes from conferences, webinars or workshops;
• professional consultation;
• supervision or mentoring reflections;
• feedback from colleagues or other professionals;
• feedback from assistance-animal handlers or people with lived experience;
• Community of Practice engagement;
• early drafts;
• tracked changes;
• additional case reflections;
• appropriately de-identified practice examples;
• policies or procedures you developed;
• checklists, forms or templates;
• client or handler education resources;
• presentations, posters or fact sheets;
• relevant workplace or community projects;
• practical activities;
• photographs or videos where lawful, ethical and appropriate;
• interdisciplinary learning; and
• other evidence that meaningfully demonstrates your development.

You do not need to include everything you encounter during AAOT.

A larger portfolio is not automatically a stronger portfolio.

Quality, relevance, development and professional reasoning matter more than volume.

Keep Evidence of Development

Do not retain only polished final work.

Earlier versions may provide some of the clearest evidence of professional development.

For example:

Initial work → Feedback → Consideration → Further learning → Revision → Final work

or:

Initial work → Feedback → Further research or consultation → Decision to retain original position → Professional justification

Both pathways may demonstrate strong professional reasoning.

You are not expected to manufacture changes merely to make your portfolio appear developmental.

Sometimes further research and consultation will confirm that your original position was appropriate.

What matters is being able to explain your reasoning.

Feedback, Consultation and Collaboration

Feedback and collaboration are deliberately embedded throughout AAOT because competent professional practice rarely occurs in isolation.

Occupational Therapists routinely:

• consult people with expertise beyond their own;
• participate in supervision;
• work across disciplines;
• seek another professional perspective;
• learn from lived experience;
• engage professional networks;
• locate specialist information; and
• recognise when additional expertise is required.

AAOT encourages the same approach.

Depending upon the assessment and your own professional circumstances, useful perspectives might come from:

• other Occupational Therapists;
• managers or supervisors;
• colleagues;
• veterinarians or veterinary nurses;
• animal trainers or behaviour professionals;
• assistance-animal handlers;
• people with relevant lived experience;
• WHS professionals;
• disability professionals;
• legal professionals;
• environmental or sustainability specialists;
• researchers or academics;
• fellow AAOT participants;
• WAFA trainers and staff; or
• another person with relevant knowledge or experience.

The person you consult does not necessarily need to hold more qualifications than you.

The relevant question is:

Does this person have knowledge, experience or a perspective that is useful to the question I am considering?

A handler may identify an accessibility problem that professionals have missed.

A groomer may identify a practical problem with a husbandry resource.

A veterinarian may identify an animal-health or professional-boundary issue.

Another OT may identify a problem with the clinical usability of a tool.

A WHS professional may identify a hazard that had not been considered.

Different perspectives answer different questions.

Personalise Your Learning

You are encouraged to draw upon the people and resources already available to you while also developing new professional connections where useful.

Resources may include:

• workplace policies and procedures;
• professional memberships;
• university, state or public-library access;
• databases;
• journals and books;
• previous professional development;
• professional guidelines;
• workplace specialists;
• existing supervision arrangements; and
• resources recommended by professional contacts.

The objective is not for every participant to speak with the same people, read the same supplementary material or build an identical portfolio.

The objective is to develop a portfolio relevant to your professional needs, practice environment, interests and future clientele.

Ask:

What do I need to learn, and whose knowledge or perspective could help me learn it?

Recognising when another person should be consulted is itself an important professional skill.

Examples of Useful Consultation

Consultation does not always need to be formal.

You might, for example:

• ask a WHS professional to comment on hazards you have considered in your practice policy;
• discuss infection-control issues with a veterinary professional;
• ask an environmental specialist whether sustainability measures you are considering are realistic;
• discuss trainer-selection criteria with experienced animal-training professionals;
• ask another OT to recommend literature relevant to a difficult professional question;
• ask an assistance-animal handler to review a resource intended for handlers;
• seek feedback from a colleague on whether a professional tool is practical to use;
• investigate local veterinary, emergency or referral options relevant to your expected clientele; or
• consult another profession where an assessment raises an issue outside your individual competence.

These examples are illustrative rather than compulsory.

Use consultation where it meaningfully contributes to your learning or professional reasoning.

Recording Feedback and Consultation

Portfolio evidence of consultation does not need to become excessive paperwork.

A brief record may identify:

• who you consulted;
• why their perspective was relevant;
• what you asked or shared;
• what you learned;
• whether the information changed your thinking or work; and
• what you did next.

Where another person’s contribution materially influences assessed work, acknowledge that contribution appropriately.

Do not include unnecessary confidential or identifying information.

Feedback Should Feed Forward

Feedback is not intended to improve only the piece of work on which it was given.

Use relevant learning in later work.

A problem identified in Unit 2 might improve your work in Unit 4.

Feedback about evidence in Unit 5 might alter how you approach research in Unit 8.

Discussion about professional scope may become important again in Unit 9.

By the time you reach the Capstone and Professional Reflection, you should have accumulated learning from across the credential.

Later work should increasingly reflect that development.

The Portfolio Development Cycle

For most major unit assessments, the portfolio process will broadly follow:

Learn → Prepare → Submit → Receive Feedback → Consider → Research/Consult if Needed → Revise or Justify → Retain Final Portfolio Version

Individual assessments have their own instructions and marking criteria.

The final portfolio then allows WAFA to consider something that an individual assignment cannot demonstrate by itself:

How did this participant develop across the credential as a whole?

What WAFA Assesses in the Final Portfolio

The final Professional Portfolio is assessed across five areas:

1. Development and Integration Across the Credential — 20%

WAFA considers evidence of:

• development from your individual starting point;
• development between earlier and later work;
• application of earlier learning to later practice;
• integration across AAOT areas;
• increasing sophistication of professional judgement;
• challenge or refinement of assumptions;
• increasing professional independence;
• recognition of uncertainty and professional limitations; and
• development of your professional identity as an AAOT.

2. Feedback, Collaboration and Response to Feedback — 20%

WAFA considers:

• whether useful feedback and perspectives were sought;
• relevance of the people consulted;
• collaboration within and beyond WAFA;
• critical consideration of feedback;
• appropriate revision where indicated;
• further research or consultation arising from feedback;
• professional justification where significant feedback was not adopted;
• evidence of learning being applied to later work; and
• increasing independence in recognising when consultation is appropriate.

3. Capstone Project — 25%

WAFA considers the required Capstone components, including their:

• relevance;
• development;
• evidence base;
• professional reasoning;
• consultation and collaboration;
• consideration of feedback;
• practical application;
• accessibility;
• originality or appropriate adaptation;
• final quality;
• recognition of limitations; and
• contribution or potential contribution to professional practice.

Detailed Capstone requirements are provided in the Capstone Project topic.

4. Professional Reflection — 25%

WAFA considers:

• depth of reflection;
• insight into professional development;
• recognition of strengths and limitations;
• willingness to reconsider assumptions;
• changes in professional reasoning;
• influence of feedback and collaboration;
• recognition of continuing learning needs;
• connection between learning and future practice; and
• development of professional identity.

Detailed requirements are provided in Professional Reflection.

5. Overall Portfolio, Evidence and Professional Integration — 10%

WAFA considers:

• completeness;
• coherence;
• relevance of additional evidence;
• independent professional learning;
• appropriate engagement with research;
• practical application;
• interdisciplinary engagement;
• professional judgement;
• integration of Occupational Therapy, disability, animal welfare and assistance-animal practice; and
• whether the complete portfolio provides convincing evidence of the AAOT graduate standard.

Final AAOT Portfolio Marking Rubric

Portfolio Marking and Moderation

The final portfolio will be assessed by at least two appropriately qualified and experienced markers against the published portfolio criteria.

Where additional professional judgement or specialist expertise is required, WAFA may use additional moderation or seek appropriate specialist input.

The purpose of moderation is to support fair, consistent and defensible assessment.

Participants working in specialised or emerging areas should not assume that every marker will personally specialise in their particular niche.

Participants should therefore explain specialised concepts, evidence and reasoning sufficiently clearly for an appropriately qualified assessor to evaluate the work.

This does not mean defining ordinary industry terminology unnecessarily.

Less common, highly specialised or context-specific terminology should be explained where doing so assists understanding.

Mark the Evidence, Not Personal Preference

Complex professional questions do not always have one defensible answer.

Markers assess the quality of your:

Evidence → Reasoning → Application → Reflection → Professional Justification

They are not assessing whether you happen to share an individual marker’s personal preferred practice.

A marker may use a different training methodology, work with a different population or reach a different defensible conclusion.

Difference alone should not reduce an assessment result.

Where your position is appropriately evidence-informed, lawful, ethical, within professional scope and supported by defensible reasoning, legitimate professional disagreement should be recognised rather than treated as error.

Re-marking and Review

If you believe an assessment or final portfolio result does not appropriately reflect the published assessment criteria, you may request a re-mark in accordance with the applicable WAFA assessment and review process.

You should identify the basis of your concern, including any relevant rubric criteria or assessment evidence you believe was not appropriately considered.

The re-mark will be undertaken against the same published assessment requirements.

Only one re-mark is ordinarily available for an assessment or final portfolio.

A further review will only be considered where:

• there has been a substantial change in circumstances;
• significant new evidence has become available that could not reasonably have been provided earlier; or
• there is evidence that the assessment or re-mark materially departed from applicable WAFA policy, procedure or published assessment requirements.

A request for further review does not automatically result in another re-mark.

WAFA will determine whether the circumstances justify reopening the assessment.

Following completion of the applicable review and re-marking process, WAFA’s determination is final for the purposes of the AAOT Credential and associated grading and credentialing decisions.

Final Grades

Credit, Distinction and High Distinction are performance-based grades.

They are not awarded simply because a participant:

• completed more optional activities;
• produced a larger portfolio;
• spent longer completing AAOT; or
• accepted every piece of feedback received.

Where the graduate standard has not yet been demonstrated, the general processes described in How Assessment and Competency Work in AAOT apply, including the possibility of further learning, remediation or additional evidence where appropriate.

WAFA Commendation

A WAFA Commendation may recognise an exceptional contribution or achievement beyond that ordinarily represented by a High Distinction.

A Commendation is not simply an additional numerical grade above HD and is not automatically awarded to the participant with the highest percentage.

A Commendation may recognise exceptional:

• Capstone work;
• innovation;
• research or evidence translation;
• professional leadership;
• interdisciplinary collaboration;
• contribution to the AAOT learning community;
• advocacy;
• disability-rights contribution;
• animal-welfare contribution;
• professional resource development; or
• contribution to assistance-animal practice.

Where a Course-Wide Commendation is awarded, the participant must ordinarily have achieved an overall High Distinction across the required assessed components and demonstrate an exceptional contribution beyond ordinary HD-level performance.

A Commendation for an individual component may be considered where a particular piece of work demonstrates exceptional merit even where the participant does not meet the requirements for a Course-Wide Commendation.

What a Strong Portfolio Ultimately Shows

A strong portfolio is not necessarily produced by the participant who entered AAOT knowing the most.

Someone may commence with extensive assistance-animal experience and demonstrate substantial refinement and sophistication of existing expertise.

Another participant may begin with comparatively little specialist animal knowledge and demonstrate considerable development throughout the credential.

Both are legitimate professional journeys.

Your portfolio should ultimately allow you and WAFA to see:

Where you started.
What you initially produced.
What you learned.
What you explored beyond the required material.
Who you spoke with and learned from.
What feedback you received.
How you responded to that feedback.
Where you changed your mind.
Where you did not change your mind—and why.
How earlier learning influenced later work.
How your professional reasoning developed.
What you ultimately produced.
What you still want or need to learn.
And the practitioner you became through that process.

Some journeys will be relatively linear.

Others will contain false starts, substantial revisions, unexpected interests, difficult feedback, changes of direction, ideas that are abandoned, periods of rapid development and later learning that causes earlier work to be reconsidered.

That variation is intentional.

Everyone enters AAOT with different experience, knowledge, strengths, interests and goals.

The purpose of the Professional Portfolio is not to make those journeys identical.

It is to allow you—and WAFA—to see how your particular journey developed you as an Assistance Animal Occupational Therapist.

The destination matters. But the AAOT Professional Portfolio exists because the journey matters too.