Design Portfolio Review

A 360-degree peer review process aligned with permaculture design curriculum. Self-assessment, peer review, and community presentation — the medium matches the message.

Why 360-Degree Review?

Traditional courses grade you through a centralised authority — you submit a PDF, a tutor ticks a box, you get a certificate. But permaculture teaches peer-to-peer trust, community capacity, and bottom-up action. Your evaluation should reflect those values.

The Libre Grow Design Portfolio Review has three components, all of which must be completed:

Component	What you do	Why it matters
1. Self-Assessment	Rate yourself across 9 PDC competency areas	Honest reflection on your own growth — where are you strong, where do you need work?
2. Peer Review	Review another grower's portfolio using the same rubric, and they review yours	Proves you understand the concepts well enough to evaluate someone else. Practises the peer-to-peer trust that permaculture teaches.
3. Community Presentation	Present your design portfolio to your Hub in a meeting	Defend your work to real people who might ask questions no tutor would think of. Practises community consultation.

When all three are complete, you earn the Design Portfolio Reviewed badge — visible on your profile, linked to your actual work. No certificate needed — your provenance chain is the proof.

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Prerequisites

Before starting the portfolio review process, you need:

• A Project with recorded activities (ideally from completing the 4-week course or equivalent)
• At least a few provenance chains — elements linked through activities (e.g., seed lot → planting → plant → harvest)
• Some recorded observations using method templates

The review assesses what you've actually done and recorded, not what you've read or watched.

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Step 1: Self-Assessment

How to create your self-assessment

1. Go to your Workspace and click New Activity
2. Title: "Design Portfolio Self-Assessment"
3. Category: Analysis
4. Method: select "Design Portfolio Self-Assessment" from the dropdown
5. Link your Project as an input element
6. The method will show you 12 fields to complete

The 9 competency areas

Rate yourself from 1 (Novice) to 5 (Can teach others) on each:

Competency	What it covers	Evidence to look for in your records
Ethics & Principles	Understanding and applying the 3 ethics and 12 principles	Design decisions that reference specific principles. Activities that demonstrate Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share.
Observation & Pattern Recognition	Reading landscapes, seeing patterns before reaching for solutions	Site assessment activities. Sector analysis. Observations recorded before implementation began.
Zone Planning & Sector Analysis	Mapping your site by frequency of visit, identifying external energy flows	Zone planning activities. Sector maps. Evidence that placement decisions were based on zone/sector logic.
Soil Science & Biology	Understanding the soil food web, testing and interpreting soil health	Soil test activities with recorded pH, texture, organic matter. Compost activities. Amendment records.
Water Harvesting & Earthworks	Slowing, spreading, and sinking water on your site	Swale, dam, or water harvesting activities. Keyline or contour planting records. Water management observations.
Trees & Food Forest Design	Multi-strata planting, guilds, succession planning	Guild design activities. Tree planting with companion species. Succession planning records.
Climate-Specific Adaptation	Adapting global principles to your local conditions	Evidence that you modified techniques for your climate rather than copying from another region. Local variety selection.
Social Permaculture & Community	Engaging your community, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing	Hub activities. Shared methods. Community journal entries. Collaboration with other growers.
Whole-System Design Integration	Creating a complete design that integrates all elements into a coherent whole	A Project with branches, activities, and elements that tell a connected story. Provenance chains that show how everything relates.

The 3 reflection questions

1. What I learned — your most valuable insight from the process
2. How I adapted — how you modified global principles for your local conditions
3. My next goals — where you want to grow next

Set the activity status to Completed when you're done. This unlocks the peer review step.

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Step 2: Peer Review

How peer matching works

When you request a portfolio review, the system looks for another grower who has also completed their self-assessment and needs a reviewer. If a match is found:

• You review their Project, and they review yours
• Both of you must complete the review before either is finalised
• This reciprocity ensures you practise evaluating as well as being evaluated

If no automatic match is found, you can ask a specific Hub member to review your work.

How to request a peer review

1. Go to the activity where you recorded your self-assessment
2. Click Request Portfolio Review (this only appears after your self-assessment is complete)
3. The system will match you with a peer or let you choose a reviewer
4. Both you and your peer receive a notification

How to review someone else's portfolio

1. Go to Review Dashboard (Growing → More → Review Dashboard)
2. Open the pending portfolio review
3. Click the share link to view the other grower's Project — browse their activities, elements, observations, and provenance chains
4. Create a new Activity with method "Design Portfolio Peer Review"
5. Rate each of the 9 competency areas (1-5) based on the evidence in their records
6. Write specific, constructive comments — what they did well, what could improve, and suggestions
7. Compare your scores with their self-assessment — where you differ, explain why
8. Submit the review

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Step 3: Community Presentation

How to present your design portfolio

1. Go to your Workspace and create a Meeting
2. Title: include "Portfolio Presentation" or "Design Presentation" in the name
3. Choose the meeting type: In Person, Video, or Hybrid
4. Add a video link if presenting remotely
5. Invite your Hub members as attendees
6. Create a share link for your Project so attendees can browse your records during the presentation

What to present

Walk your Hub through your design journey:

• Site assessment — what you observed about your site before you started
• Design decisions — why you placed things where you did (zone/sector logic)
• Implementation — what you built and how (methods you followed, adaptations you made)
• Results — observations, soil improvements, harvests, provenance chains
• Reflections — what worked, what didn't, what you'd do differently

During the meeting

• Attendees add Notes during the presentation (these are saved permanently)
• After the presentation, attendees can create Action Items for follow-up
• Discussion and questions are encouraged — this is community consultation, not a lecture

After the meeting

When the meeting is marked as Completed, the Community Presenter badge is awarded automatically.

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Completion & Badges

When all three components are done, you've completed the full 360-degree portfolio review:

Badge	Awarded when
Peer Reviewer	You complete a peer review of another grower's portfolio
Community Presenter	You present your portfolio at a Hub meeting
Design Portfolio Reviewed	All three components (self + peer + presentation) are complete
Mentor	You've completed 3 or more peer reviews

All badges are visible on your profile, linked to the actual activities and reviews that earned them. There is no central authority issuing certificates — your community validates your work, and your provenance chain is the proof.

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The Philosophy Behind This

Most permaculture courses teach sociocracy, peer-to-peer trust, and bottom-up action — then grade students through a top-down authority issuing blockchain certificates. The medium contradicts the message.

On Libre Grow, the evaluation process practises the social permaculture principles it assesses. You review a peer (horizontal trust). You present to your community (consultation). You reflect on your own growth (self-regulation). The structure of the review mirrors the ethics of the design.