Brightspace ePortfolio vs. Mahara
The Brightspace ePortfolio has the advantage that it is fully integrated wth Brightspace. It will allow you and your students to use Brightspace rubrics to evaluate evidence shared via the ePortfolio and can be linked to learning objectives created via the competency tool. Additionally, the Brightspace ePortfolio is the only way to use Brightspace forms. The use of forms will be covered in this resource under 'ePortfolio items and use cases'.
However, you might find that the Brightspace ePortfolio tool lacks functionality you are looking for. In this case you may want to consider using Mahara, another UHI technology. For more information, have a look at our guidance on the use of Mahara.
What this resource is all about
This resource covers...
... an introduction to the ePortfolio tool, including...
- what you can do with it
- where to find it
- an explanation of how it is organised
- settings for the Brightspace ePortfolio
... information about the different types of ePortfolio items and use cases
... best practice information and tips
What you can do the Brightspace ePortfolio
Students
Students can...
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... create presentations, collections and reflections
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... can import artifacts like quiz and assignment results, course objectives and grades
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... can reflect on artifacts and other ePortfolio items
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... associate ePortfolio items with learning objectives
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... can share ePortfolio items with the instructor and other people or groups
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... can let instructors, other people or groups comment on, edit and/or assess their work
Where to find the Brightspace ePortfolio
There are two ways of getting into the Brightspace ePortfolio tool.
You can either navigate to the ePortfolio from your Brightspace homepage by clicking on the 'My Brightspace' drop-down menu...(Figure 1)
Figure 1
... or you can get to the ePortfolio by clicking on the 'Communication and Collaboration' drop-down menu in any of your modules/units in Brightspace. (Figure 2)
Figure 2
Once you are in the Brightspace ePortfolio, you will see the following landing page (Figure 3):
Figure 3
How the Brightspace ePortfolio tool is organised
On the top of the ePortfolio landing page, you will see four tabs - 'ePortfolio', 'My Items', 'Explore', and 'Sharing Groups'.
The 'ePortfolio' tab provides you with an overview of your ePortfolio as well as some quick links for adding files or links, creating a new presentation or collection, and an overview of your unread invites. (Figure 4)
- This text field provides students (or yourself) with a quick way of adding a reflection. You can enter text, as well as add tags, files and links.
- Here you can filter items you see below. Note: On this page, you will be able to see your own ePortfolio items as well as ePortfolio items others have shared with you.
- This is the list of all ePortfolio items you created as well as all ePortfolio items shared with you.
- This area allows you and your students to quickly start building new presentations or collections, as well as add other items, such as web documents, form responses, course results and learning objectives.
- This area will show any unread invitations to see, comment on or assess items other users have shared with you.
Figure 4
The 'My Items' tab will take you to a page, where you will be able to see all your personal ePortfolio items at a glance. (Figure 5)
- These buttons allow you to add different types of artefacts (reflections, links, files, web documents, form responses, course results and learning objects) as well as create new presentations or collections and perform other actions such as adding items to a presentation or collection, associating learning objectives with items, delete items, or import/export pages or items.
- This feature lets you sort results by modification date (oldest or newest) or by alphabet.
- Here you can filter items you see below by the various different types of ePortfolio items that exist.
- Here you can filter items you see below by 'shared' or 'unschared'.
- This is a list of your personal ePortfolio items.
Figure 5
The 'Explore' tab is yet another page where you can browse for ePortfolio items, in this case items that were shared with you by other users. (Figure 6)
- Here you can filter items you see below by the various different types of ePortfolio items that exist.
- This feature lets you sort results by modification date (oldest or newest) or by alphabet.
- This is a list of all ePortfolio items shared with you.
- Here you will be able to see the name of the person who shared these items with you.
Figure 6
The 'Sharing Groups' tab finally, will allow you to manage any sharing groups you might have. These could be a group of colleagues or specific groups of students you would like to share items with. (Figure 7)
Sharing groups as explained by Brightspace:
"Sharing groups let you save permissions for different users and groups of users. You can then apply the sharing group to new items rather than specifying each user or group's permissions each time. You can have multiple sharing groups that you apply in different situations or to different types of items.
For example, you could create a sharing group for specific users you want to receive constructive feedback from. To do this, you select individual users to add to the sharing group and give them the permissions, View and Add comments. You then add this sharing group to all applicable ePortfolio items.
You can also create a default sharing group that is applied to all new items in your ePortfolio. You must set your default sharing group on the Dashboard Settings page."
Figure 7
Brightspace ePortfolio Settings
You will be able to get to your Brightspace ePortfolio settings from any of the four tabs by clicking on the settings button on top right-hand side. (Figure 8)
Figure 8
By changing the number under 'Default list size', you can customise the number of items you would like to see displayed on any of the lists of items you can see under 'ePortfolio', 'My Items' and 'Explore'.
By changing the number under 'Number of activities on newsfeed items', you can control how many activities you would like to see for each of the items on your list. With the current setting of 2, I would only see the last 2 activities performed on an item. Example: If I have a presentation that I edited (activity 1) and that three people commented on (activities 2-4), I would only see a notification about the last two activities performed, i.e., last two comments, and would then get an option to load any previous activity.
By checking the box under 'My Modifications', you will be able to see a history of your own personal edits, comments, etc. on your personal items.
By changing the number under 'Number of unread invites on dashboard', you can control how many invites you would like to see displayed at a time.
(Figure 9)
Figure 9
By checking the boxes under 'Item feedback', you can set a default for allowing comments and assessment. You will then always still have the option to uncheck these boxes for any items you create if you want to disable commenting or assessment for any of them. (Figure 10)
Figure 10
This area allows you to manage any users you wish to ignore. This means that you will not see their items anymore. You can, however, always restore their items again easily by simply removing them from the ignore list. (Figure 11)
Figure 11
This is where you could select a default sharing group if you would like to automatically share any items with certain people once you have created them. You could then filter which item types you would like to share automatically with them, or you could set a certain tag or group of tags. If you decide for the latter option, any item that has the tags set up attached to it would automatically be shared with a sharing group. (Figure 12)
Figure 12
Artifacts
Brightspace artifacts are module unit/results students can add to their ePortfolio.
Artifacts include:
- Quiz results
- Assignment results and submissions
- Grades
- Competencies/Learning Objectives
Students can attach reflections to these items and share them with other users.
Use case
Students use the ePortfolio as a reflective tool. They can add course results and reflect on their progress in a given module/unit, or even over the course of a whole program. They can associate learning objectives set up by the instructor to artifacts to show that they have met the module's/unit's/ programmes learning objectives.
Artifacts could also be any images, documents or files students add to their ePortfolio.
Use cases
Students can use the Brightspace ePortfolio for peer-review exercise. Have students upload a document for peer-review into their Brightspace ePortofolio. Students can then add a rubric to their new ePortfolio item and share it with peers for peer evaluation.
You could also have students use the Brightspace ePortfolio app to collect evidence (images, etc.) when they go on a fieldtrip. They can then later on edit and organise their evidence and make it available for peer-review or assessment via comments or a rubric.
Collection
Collections allow you and students to organise ePortfolio items you might want to share with others in bulk.
Collections can be evaluated as a whole using rubrics that you attach to the collection.
Use case
Have students use collections to organise their ePortfolio and collect evidence over the course of the semester. Have them share the collection with you rather than individual items to assess a collection of ePortfolio items holistically.
Presentation
Presentations provide an opportunity to organise and present ePortfolio items in one file that is similar to a webpage. For more information see the sample presentation below.
Use case
Have students create a presentation to showcase their learning by adding artifacts or reflections to their presentation.
Sample Presentation
Figure 13
Create presentations using Brightspace ePortfolio presentation templates. Customise the banner on the top (1), the layout and navigation of your page (2), font size and type, etc. (Figure 13)
Add text, images or ePortfolio artifacts.
Here is an example of what a reflection looks like when added to a presentation. It seemlessly blends into the flow of the website, providing information on when the reflection was last modified (3). Choose whether you want to allow commenting for any artifacts you add to a presentation (4). When commenting is enabled, people viewing the presentation from a UHI Brightspace account will be able to add a comment. (Figure 14)
Figure 14
Reflection
There are multiple ways that reflections can be used and brought into the ePortfolio.
- Students can create reflections from scratch within the Brightspace ePortfolio. These can either be individual ePortfolio items in their own right then, or they can be added to collections or presentations.
- When you upload content into Brightspace, you always have the option to enable student to reflect on this particular item in the ePortfolio. Students can click on the following button to reflect on this piece of content in the ePortfolio:
The reflection will contain a tag with the name of the content item students reflected on. - Students can also directly attach reflections to whole collections as well as artefacts when they are editing them.
Use case
Have students keep a critical reflection journal about the course content they engage with. Students can reflect on content topics and could organise their reflections in a collection.
You could also have students upload a version of an essay for peer-review. After their essay has been peer-reviewed and they have submitted a revised draft to the instructor who graded the essay, students can add the feedback and final submission as well as the first draft with the peer-review to a collection, and reflect on the process of editing their essay with the help of their peers.
Forms
Use forms to collect information from students or colleagues. When creating a form, you have the choice between many different types of questions or fields you can add to your form.
When students or colleagues fill out a form template provided by you, a form response is added to the Brightspace ePortfolio as an artifact. Students or colleagues can share them, allow you to comment on them or asses the response.
Students or colleagues can use and fill out a form template multiple times.
Use case
You have set an assignment that requires students to collect evidence which they share with you as a collection. You could create a form template that will require students to acknowledge that they have included all the necessary items. Students fill out the form and add the response to their collection before sharing it with you. (Figure 15)
Sample form:
Figure 15
Tip 1 - Push vs Share
There are two ways of sharing items with other people. You can push an item, which is essentially like moving a whole folder with associated items to someone else, or you can share, which essentially means giving people access to view, comment, edit and/or assess your artifacts, collections, reflections and presentations.
Push - use for sharing items with a whole unit or module
- reflections and learning objectives include their associated items; presentations and collections include the items they display,
- items include associated reflections and learning objectives
- pushed items include associated rubrics, tags but not comments
Control which associated or included items will be pushed.
Search for users, sharing groups or courses (units/modules) you would like to push to.Share - use for sharing items with individuals or sharing groups
- allows you to set up separate permission options for each artifact, collection, reflection, presentation, and learning objective in your Brightspace ePortfolio so you can pick and choose what content you share with people
Select permissions for individuals you are sharing an item with.
Overview of all individuals an item is shared with as well as their permissions.- allows you to send invitations to internal users when you share an item with them; allows you to leave them a message about why you are sharing the item and what you’d like them to do with it; invitation will be visible to them on their ePortfolio homepage
To compose a message and send an invite to someone you would like to share a resource with, select the person's name from the list and click on the grey 'Send Invite' button.
Compose your invite and click send.
The person you invited will now see your invite in their 'Unread Invites' area.
Tip 2 - Provide Guidance and tips for structuring the ePortfolio
If you want your students to use the Brightspace ePortfolio, you should provide them with clear guidance on how to structure and organise their ePortfolio.
- set expectations and standards
- explain the difference between using the ePortfolio in the app vs on a desktop
- establish naming conventions and explain tags
- agree on how students will submit their evidence: artifacts, presentations or collections?
- establish if ePortfolio items will be assessed summatively or formatively