Blackboard Portfolios for Students

Your portfolios are stored in the My Portfolios area of Blackboard. To access your portfolios:

1. Click on your name in the upper right of the display to open the Global Navigation menu.
2. Click the Tools link.
3. Select Portfolios.

Artifacts are evidence of learning, frequently accompanied by explanatory text. Artifacts are pieces of content that you can attach to a portfolio and reuse. Course artifacts are graded content from your course and remain available to you even if you no longer have access to your course. Personal artifacts are any content - text, files, links and multimedia items - that you create and upload. You can create artifacts in two ways:

• Create artifacts ahead of time in the My Artifacts repository so that they are available to use in your future portfolios.
• Create artifacts while authoring a portfolio. These artifacts are still stored automatically in the My Artifacts repository. You can also reuse them in other portfolios.

Creating Personal Artifacts:

1. On the My Artifacts page, click Add Personal Artifact.
2. Provide a title, description, and content for the artifact. The description is visible only to the artifact owner.
3. Click Submit.

Converting Blackboard Assignments to Artifacts:

1. On the My Artifacts page, click Add from Course.
2. Find and select the graded assignments in your available courses.
3. Click Submit.

Before you begin creating a portfolio, take some time to set a goal for the portfolio and think about the point you want to make and the story you want to tell. Create an outline of the points to highlight and supporting materials (artifacts) to include. You can create artifacts before or during the portfolio creation process. 

Create a shell for the portfolio including a name (required) and description (optional). Then add pages with content.

Create a portfolio:

1. Access your My Portfolios area.
2. Click Create Portfolio.
3. Provide a title and description, click Submit. You will have the option to "Take the Tour" of portfolio features or not.
4. Click the plus (+) icon at the left of the menu to add pages.
5. Click the + at the top or bottom of your page, to add another section.

Additional Information & Options:

• Use pages to structure the portfolio. Each page must have at least one section.
• The menu on the left shows all the portfolio's pages and sections, you can click to navigate to them. To delete a page, click the trash can icon to the right of a page.
• NOTE: Deleting a page also deletes all of the sections and content on that page. Artifacts associated with a section remain in the My Artifacts repository, and you can reuse them.
• Use the drag-and-drop method to rearrange pages and sections in the menu.
• The Settings option allows you to change the portfolio title and description.
• The Preview and Customize option allows you to see how the portfolio will look, and make layout and color palette decisions that affect the final design of the portfolio.
• The Done Editing option allows you to exit the portfolio canvas. If you try to exit without saving new and updated content, you are warned of unsaved changes.

1. On the My Portfolios page, click More following a portfolio's name.
2. Click Share.
3. On the action bar, point to Share a Snapshot with and select one of the user types. Use the following table to determine which sharing option to choose

1. Access your My Porfolios page.
2. Click the More button for the appropriate portfolio. [View screenshot]
3. Select Download. [View screenshot]
4. A dialog box will appear, click on the link to download the portfolio.

Using the Downloaded Portfolio:
The Portfolio is contained in a .zip file. Windows users should double-click the zip file and select Extract. Macintosh users should double-click the zip file. Open the file named index.html to view. If buttons are used in the Portfolio Menu, they will become text links in the downloaded Portfolio.

Instructors can request portfolios be submitted for course assignments. If your instructor created a portfolio template for you to complete, follow the directions and guidelines.

See steps below to create a portfolio. When you have completed your assigned portfolio, click Done Editing. A snapshot of your assigned portfolio at that point in time is shared with your instructor for grading.

After your instructor grades your assigned portfolio, the grade appears in My Grades. The grade does not appear on your My Portfolios page.

You can edit your assigned portfolio at any time from your My Portfolios page. After you click Done Editing, any edits you make are not automatically shared with your instructor. If multiple attempts are allowed, you can resubmit the portfolio assignment.

Portfolio snapshot submissions made through an assignment do not appear in your list of shared portfolio snapshots and cannot be rescinded like other sharing events.

The first time you access the Portfolio Assignment, click the Create Portfolio button. This will provide an easy way to connect to a portfolio template if your instructor has selected a template.

After the portfolio is finished, return to the Portfolio Assignment and use the Select Portfolio button to connect your portfolio to this assignment. When you submit your portfolio, you are submitting a snapshot of your portfolio, as it appears at that time. If an instructor allows unlimited submissions, you will be able to submit snapshots of your portfolio at various times during the term of the course.

For instructions on how to create a Portfolio, see Portfolios.

For more information about Portfolios see Blackboard's Portfolios.