Introduce Portfolium to students

Portfolium consists of three simple layers – none of which require a template to be set up by you. These simple layers allow students to get started with their digital portfolio quickly. 

These three layers are: 

1. Profiles: a page that hosts basic information about the student.
2. Portfolios: a page that aggregates all of the projects (both public and private) that the student has created. 
3. Projects: a project is a ‘container’ consisting of a set of curated artefacts intended to showcase a specific skill or chronicle the development of a product. There is no limit to the number of projects that students can add to their portfolio. 

With these three layers in mind, developing a digital portfolio in Portfolium involves three actions, which are repeated for each project: 

1. Select artefacts from completed coursework and learning experiences to showcase a skill or development of a project.
2. Upload or embed the selected artefacts into a new (or existing) Portfolium project. Provide a description on how these artefacts demonstrate a specific skillset or journey, based on the identified target audience for the project. 
3. Use the privacy settings for each project to share the created project with a select few, the UTS Portfolium network, or the world. 

Once your students understand these three key actions, you can focus on guiding them to curate the best examples from their studies to document, demonstrate, showcase or reflect on their knowledge, skills or beliefs for a specific target audience.

It is important to communicate how you expect students to develop their portfolios in Portfolium. This will help students to understand the intent and value of developing their digital portfolio – especially if you want them to develop or document work that will feed into later subjects.

Clearly communicate to your students the following (in class and/or in a Canvas page):

• Why you are asking them to develop a digital portfolio in this subject (or perhaps their program).
• How you expect them to use Portfolium in the context of your subject.
• Which activities in your subject you expect them to document or showcase in Portfolium.
• If Portfolium is being used in other subjects within the program, which program-specific knowledge, skills, or values (demonstrated via artefacts) are the focus in your subject.

Once you have communicated your expectations to students, introduce Portfolium over several weeks in the teaching session. Scaffold the use of Portfolium with a series of short, related tasks. By gradually introducing Portfolium to students in this way, you can reduce their anxiety and stress over an unfamiliar practice and tool.

Once you have enabled Folio in your Canvas subject site, ask students to complete the following tasks over several weeks:

1. Join the UTS Portfolium network by creating a Portfolium account with their UTS student credentials at portfolium.uts.edu.au.
2. Introduce themselves to the world (or to a select few), by editing their profile and selecting the privacy setting most comfortable for them.
3. (Optional) Connect to a few peers on Portfolium. 
4. Add a new project to their digital portfolio, to document and reflect on the development of a skill or a piece of work in your subject.
5. Share their created project with others, based on a privacy that you may have prescribed for them. 
6. (Optional) If a project has been a product of groupwork or collaboration, ask students to select artefacts that represented their contribution to the work, and tag their teammates in their project. 

The following table outlines how you could scaffold the use of Portfolium during the teaching session. Please note that the suggested timeframe assumes that students are developing individual projects in Portfolium.