Blackboard Tools > e-Portfolios

Blackboard Release 7.2 and 7.3 new features and improvements

• Personal Electronic Portfolios
  With the Personal Portfolio, users now have more available colors, fonts, and background images as well as greater control over content layout. The new Personal Portfolio tool allows instructors and students to create one or many portfolios that can be styled differently, but contain some of or all of the same content.
  
  Personal Artifacts are also new and allow users to compile and store documents, such as essays, published articles, or resumes, to display on a Portfolio; artifacts can be uploaded simultaneously to multiple Portfolios. Existing (previous) Portfolios are now called Basic Portfolios and serve as a simple tool for generating portfolios.

New Features!

With the Personal Portfolio, users now have more available colors, fonts, and background images as well as greater control over content layout. The new Personal Portfolio tool allows instructors and students to create one or many portfolios that can be styled differently, but contain some of or all of the same content.

Personal Artifacts are also new and allow users to compile and store documents, such as essays, published articles, or resumes, to display on a Portfolio; artifacts can be uploaded simultaneously to multiple Portfolios. Existing (previous) Portfolios are now called Basic Portfolios and serve as a simple tool for generating portfolios.

What is e-Portfolios?

Portfolios provide a means of presenting a collection of work, and sharing that collection with others. Portfolios are used for many purposes in learning and assessment such as displaying achievements and progress, showcasing experiences and collections of work, or collecting selfreflection.

Electronic Portfolios (e-Portfolios) make it easy to share the presentation, and to receive feedback from friends, coworkers, educators, and peers. The Blackboard Content System provides a seamless way of linking Portfolios to content stored in the system.

Creating a Portfolio

There are two ways to start building a Portfolio: Add Portfolio and the Portfolio Creation Wizard.

• Add Portfolio sets the properties of a Portfolio including its name, description, design, availability, and comments. Once the properties are set, content may be added from the Contents page.
• The Portfolio Creation Wizard groups these steps, creating a shell ready for customizing. The Wizard builds the properties, and then allows for linking to content items, links, and blank or template pages. After the shell of the Portfolio is created, the pages may be modified and customized from the Contents page.

How do you share a Portfolio?

A Portfolio may be shared with system users, external users, courses, organizations or All System Accounts. When a Content System item is linked to in a Portfolio, the item is shared with the Portfolio User List. A line item for this user list appears on the Manage Permissions page for the item. If Read permission for Portfolio User List is removed from the Permissions page, Portfolio viewers will not have access to the item. The following list explains other scenarios for sharing a Portfolio:

• Share a Portfolio with another Blackboard user - the Portfolio is listed in the user’s Received Portfolios for easy access.
• Share a Portfolio with an external user - a URL is created for access to the Portfolio. This may be emailed to the user from the Blackboard Content System.
• Share a Portfolio with a course or organization - the Portfolio is listed in the Portfolios tool in the course, and course or organization users may search for the Portfolio in Portfolio Search.
• Share a Portfolio with an institution role - all users with that role may search for the Portfolio in Portfolio Search.
• Share a Portfolio with All System Accounts - any user on the system may search for the Portfolio in Portfolio Search.

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Related FAQ's

Q: Can you search for a portfolio?

Yes, All users with whom a Portfolio is shared have the ability to find it using Portfolio Search. Portfolio Search allows users to search all Portfolios that they have access to by username (the Portfolio owner), Portfolio title, Portfolio description, and Portfolio Learning Objectives. These fields are available from the Manage Properties page of every Portfolio. Adding descriptive content to these fields will improve the results of Portfolio Search.

Q: How do I download my portfolio?

Any Portfolio and its contents may be downloaded as a compressed zip file from the Manage Portfolio page. The zip file contains the HTML pages and content items that make up the entire Portfolio. This tool is useful for users desiring to archive older Portfolios onto a personal computer, or for moving a Portfolio to another Portfolio system.

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