Sharing Items and Sending Invites in ePortfolio
An ePortfolio (electronic portfolio - also known as a digital portfolio) is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user. It empowers you to share your learning experiences and showcase your work. The sharing features of ePortfolio enable you to seek feedback from your peers, mentors, and members of the broader community.
ePortfolio items are shared with other users with certain permissions. You can set up separate permission options for each artifact, collection, reflection, presentation, and learning objective in the ePortfolio, and pick and choose what content is shared with others. You have the ability to assign permissions to individual users, sharing groups, groups of users based on course or unit enrollment, or the general public through a URL (presentations only). You can choose whether others can see the item, see comments, see assessments, add comments, add assessments, and/or edit the item.
This guide covers the following topics, use these links for easier navigation:
Sharing Items with Internal Users
Sharing Presentations with External Users
Inherited (Cascading) Permissions
Permission Options
| Permission | Description | Available for |
|---|---|---|
|
View (V) |
Allows selected users to see your ePortfolio item on the Explore page. |
Anyone |
|
See comments from other users (C) |
Allows selected users to see the comments other users have left on your ePortfolio item. |
Internal users An external user with a personal invite |
|
Add comments (+C) |
Allows selected users to add comments on your ePortfolio item. |
Internal users An external user with a personal invite |
|
See assessments from others (A) |
Allows selected users to see rubric assessments other users have left on your ePortfolio item. |
Internal users An external user with a personal invite *Not available for reflections |
|
Add assessments (+A) |
Allows selected users to evaluate your ePortfolio item using a rubric. Tip: Make sure you add the rubric you want evaluators to use on the item's Edit page. |
Internal users An external user with a personal invite *Not available for reflections |
|
Edit (E) |
Allows selected users to make changes to your ePortfolio item. Changes are tracked in the items ChangeLog. |
Internal users |
Note: To use the comments and assessments permissions you must make sure the comments and assessments checkboxes are enabled on the item's properties page and that a rubric for assessing items has been attached to the item. These checkboxes are selected by default, but it is possible to clear them (if you want to temporarily remove the ability to comment on or assess an item), and you can change the default setting so they are not selected on new items.
Sharing Items with Internal Users
Share items with other users at the organisation by selecting individual users, all users in a course or group you are enrolled in, or a previously saved sharing group.
For information on saving permission settings using a sharing group, see the Setting Up Sharing Groups topic.
Assign Permissions for a User or Group of Users
1. Click Share from the context menu of the item you want to make available to others.
2. Select when you want users to see the item in the Visibility section of the Sharing Setting dialogue.
3. Click Add Users and Groups.
Browse for the users or sharing groups you want to add. Use the Search For field to narrow your browsing results. Users with cascading roles must perform a search to display results.
4. Click on users or sharing groups in the browse listing to add them to the Selected Users list. Click the Remove icon beside users or sharing groups you want to remove from the Selected Users list.
Select the permissions you want the selected users to have and click Save.
Note: You can adjust permissions for individual users by clicking the Edit Permissions icon beside their name in the Sharing List grid. You can adjust permissions for sharing groups you've created by clicking the Edit Sharing Group link beside their name in the Sharing List grid.
5. Click Save and Close or Send Invite. You can send an invite to specific users in the Sharing List by selecting the checkboxes beside their names before you click Send Invite. See lower down this guide for instructions on sending invites in ePortfolio.
Sharing Presentations with External Users
Share ePortfolio presentations with people who are not part of your organisation such as friends, parents, or potential employers.
You can share presentations with external users in two ways:
3.1 Making a Presentation Publicly Available through a URL
When a presentation is shared this way, people can only view the presentation. They cannot see, add comments to, add assessments to, or edit the presentation.
Note: If you make a presentation public via URL, the system includes social media icons (Twitter, Google+, and Facebook) at the top of your presentation to enable further sharing.
1. Click Share from the context menu of the presentation you want to make available by URL.
2. Select Anyone with the URL below can access this item from the presentation's Sharing Settings. Copy the URL to your clipboard.
3. Click Close. Share the provided URL with others.
3.2 Making a Presentation Externally Available to Specific People and Assign them Permissions
You can send a personal invite to view a presentation via an email and the recipient can follow the attached link to view the presentation. The recipient must set up a username and password, and then they can see and add comments or assessments based on the permissions you gave them.
External users cannot edit presentations.
1. Click Share from the context menu of the presentation you want to make available to external users.
2. Click Add Users and Groups.
3. Scroll down past the internal users, until you see the External Email Address box.
4. Click and enter the External Email Address of the user you want to send an invite to and click Add.
5. Select the permissions you want the external users to have and click Share. The system automatically notifies external users of their granted permissions.
6. Click Save and Close.
Note: The recipient must follow the link in the invite and set up a username and password to view the presentation. The invite expires after three days (or another amount of time set by your organisation).
Sending Invites
When sending an invite to internal users you are sharing an item with, a message can be left about why you are sharing the item and what you'd like them to do with it. Depending on how the user's preferences are set up, the message is delivered to their email, the Invites area of their dashboard, or an RSS Reader.
Recent invites also appear in the Messages alert on the minibar. To send an invite, follow these steps:
1. Click Share from the context menu of the presentation you want to make available to external users.
2. Select a user and click Send Invite. Send invites to specific users in the Sharing List by selecting the check boxes beside their names before you click Send Invite.
3. Complete the invite and click Send.
Note: If you send an invite to a sharing group that includes all users at your organisation or all users in a particular course or department, all of the users in the group will receive the invite. This may be bothersome to users who do not know you.
Inherited (Cascading) Permissions
Items in Collections and Presentations
When you include an item in a collection or presentation, the item inherits permissions from the collection or presentation (permissions are cascading), with the following exceptions:
- The Add Assessments permission is not inherited because it requires that a rubric is associated with each item.
- The Edit permission is not inherited because it would allow users to make major, possibly unwanted, changes to your ePortfolio. If you want individuals to be able to edit items in a collection or presentation, you must give them the Edit permission on each item individually.
Inherited permissions do not override existing permissions on items. For example, if you give an individual the view, see comments and add comments permissions for a specific item, but only the view permission is set for a collection that contains the item, the individual is able to see and add comments to the item. This is the case regardless of whether it is accessed from the collection or outside the collection.
Items Associated with a Reflection
When you associate a reflection with another item, the reflection does not inherit permissions from the item, nor does the item inherit permissions from the reflection.
Sharing a reflection associated with an item, only allows users to view the name of the associated item. However, sharing an item associated with a reflection allows users to view the reflection as part of the item.
Quicklinks to ePortfolio Items and ePortfolio Item Links
If you include a quick link or an ePortfolio item link to an ePortfolio item in a form, reflection, artifact, or presentation, the referenced item does not inherit permissions from the item containing the link. This means that individuals viewing an item from the quick link or ePortfolio item link must also have direct permission to view the referenced item and follow the link; otherwise, they receive an error message letting them know they do not have permission to view the item.
Similarly, if you include a quick link in an ePortfolio item to a VU Collaborate item, such as a content file, individuals can only follow the link if they have permission to view that item; otherwise, they receive an error message letting them know they do not have permission to view the item.