Lecturers GuideMyportfolio v1.2

November 2010Kineo (Pacific) kineo.co.nzCraig Eves

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction..................................................................................................................................................4

User administration..........................................................................................................................................4

Add Users.....................................................................................................................................................4

Manage Users...............................................................................................................................................6

Suspend Users..............................................................................................................................................7

Exporting and importing user eportfolios.....................................................................................................7

Export formats..............................................................................................................................................8

Importing user views....................................................................................................................................9

Manage Institutions..........................................................................................................................................9

Approving requests to join or inviting people to join your site...................................................................10

Institution Views.........................................................................................................................................11

Institution Files...........................................................................................................................................11

Setting up Course Groups for students to submit views.................................................................................11

Changing Institution Settings......................................................................................................................11

Sample Assessment Process.......................................................................................................................13

1 Create Course group................................................................................................................................14

2 Creating Course Resources......................................................................................................................16

3 Submitting a View to a Course Group......................................................................................................18

4 Teacher provides feedback......................................................................................................................19

5 Student receives teacher feedbacK..........................................................................................................20

Helping students create Views........................................................................................................................21

Create views that can be copied to help guide students............................................................................21

Create multipage views..............................................................................................................................21

Adjusting image size...................................................................................................................................21

Video and Audio files..................................................................................................................................22

Scanning aretefacts....................................................................................................................................22

View layout – good practice.......................................................................................................................22

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Copying and Pasting content......................................................................................................................23

Giving Access to the view...........................................................................................................................24

Assessing Views...............................................................................................................................................25

Reducing Administration notifications............................................................................................................25

Administering Groups.....................................................................................................................................26

Changing Group settings.............................................................................................................................26

Administer Forums.....................................................................................................................................26

Changing forum settings – subscriptions and selecting moderators...........................................................26

Add new Topic options...............................................................................................................................27

Subscribing to forums.................................................................................................................................27

Site administration..........................................................................................................................................28

Changing the look of your tertiary institute’s myportfolio (themes)..........................................................28

Other services the site administrator can provide......................................................................................28

Technical Assistance.......................................................................................................................................29

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INTRODUCTION

Each Tertiary provider will have at least one Institution administrator – this will usually be the person who registered your tertiary institute.

An institute administrator is able to change and add user details and change some of the settings that apply to their tertiary institute. These options appear under the User Administration menu.

The next sections will take you through

the common administrative tasks required how to manage myportfolios more effectively. how to encourage the students to use myportfolio

USER ADMINISTRATION

User Administration > Manage Users

This is the area where you can change the rights and information of members who belong to your tertiary institute .

This includes the following

Resetting password

Changing maximum upload quotas

Suspending User

Changing the expiry date of membership

Removing users from your institution

Applying roles to members – Staff or Admin

ADD USERS

The first task you usually need to perform is to add users to the system. There are three ways that this can be done.

1 ADDING INDIVIDUAL USERS

Select User Administration > Manage Users > Add User

Add User – add individual users to the system. Once added, they will be sent an e-mail informing them of their new account, including their username and password. They will be asked to change their password upon first log in.

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Fill in the boxes with * besides them above and select Create User

If there are any problems the user will not get created and you will get a message outlining how to correct this.

For example, you can’t use an email address or username that has already been used.

2 BULK UPLOADING STUDENTS TO YOUR TERTIARY INSTITUTE

Select Administration > Manage Users > Add Users by CSV

This enables multiple users to be added to My Portfolio using a CSV file. Your student records system may export information from in the CSV file format. If this isn’t an option then you can add the information into an Excel spreadsheet and Save as a CSV file format.

The first row of the spreadsheet must be include the following text

username, password, email, firstname, lastname

You can also add optional fields such as preferredname, studentid, city.

For more details on adding users by CSV http://myportfolio.ac.nz/admin/users/uploadcsv.php

PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR WITH CSV IMPORT

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The data contains unusual characters such as ‘ or “

The first row does not contain fieldnames that are not exactly as shown (no capitals, spaces, hyphens)

The user limit for your tertiary institute has been exceeded

The system may be overloaded if you are adding lots of users

There may be duplicated usernames or emails – these will be listed with an error message saying what row of the spreadsheet file had the problems.

If there is a problem importing please contact myportfolio support (see last page for contact details) to help you through this.

3 STUDENTS SELF-REGISTRATION AT YOUR TERTIARY INSTITUTE

User Administration > Manage Institutions > Settings – tick the Registrations Allowed box

Self registration – members of your tertiary institute can fill in a registration form and select your tertiary institute.

Myportfolio also requires the letters from an image to be typed in for self registration to prevent spam robots from registering

also self register at http://myportfolio.ac.nz/register.php

MANAGE USERS

User Search enables you to search for all users in your organisation. Results can be retrieved in a number of ways including; by first name, last name, clicking on initials of first and last names or by entering an email address.

Once you have found the relevant user, click on the their username to access user settings

RESETTING USERS PASSWORD

If a user forgets their password the user can select Password Reminder link.

They can type in their username or email that they registered under and they will get an email telling them their login details.

If the user is unable to access their email the admin can reset their password

User Administration > Manage Users >User Search

Click on the Username link

Type the new password in the Reset password box –

You may also wish to type in Force password change on next login box

You will also need to inform the user of their new password.

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CHANGING USERS MAXIMUM FILE STORAGE SIZE

User Administration > Manage Users >User Search

Click on the Username link

By default the maximum file storage for each user is 1 Gigabyte.

This should usually be enough – if a student is uploading video or graphics then suggest that users

hosts these at another site eg youtube or photobucket. uses file compression to reduce file size of multimedia files

SUSPEND USERS

Whilst My Portfolio provides a secure personal learning environment, any system with discussion forums and other social networking functionality can be open to misuse. To tie in with your own local user policies and expected codes of conduct for students and staff, My Portfolio has the facility to suspend and, ultimately, remove users from the system in cases of repeated misuse.

Whilst in User Search, select relevant user and a Suspend User box becomes visible. Here you can explain why the user has been suspended and when their account will be reactivated. This message will appear on their next attempt to login.

Go to Suspended Users for a list of users pending removal (for repeated misuse) or reinstatement to the system.

Note – This suspension and removal procedure should also be followed if you wish to remove users from My Portfolio who were incorrectly added - rather than selecting remove from the bottom of the user’s screen.

EXPORTING AND IMPORTING USER EPORTFOLIOS

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This option lets users save their eportfolio so they can use it at another place of learning and helps support life long learning.

Select My Portfolio > Export

EXPORT FORMATS

STANDALONE HTML WEBSITE

Select this if you are not going to be using mahara or a LEAP2A eportfolio system in the future or the site that has your portfolio.

Select Generate Export

A zip file will be generated called mahara-export-html-user#######.zip

This file will contain all of the folders and files from your view with navigation to pages also created.

To view your eportfolio files in your web browser – unzip the mahara export file (usually done by double clicking the file) and open the index.html file.

LEAP2A

This is a standard specification for eportfolios that was developed with other eportfolio systems to enable information to be shared between eportfolio systems. Its purpose is to represent information that an individual creates or controls, the LEAP2A standard is stable and is also able to be extended.

Choose LEAP2A if you want to export this to another eportfolio system that supports this. Click on other LEAP2A compliant systems link to see the other eportfolio systems that support this standard.

Select Just some of my Views if you don’t want to export all your views

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There is a preview of the view in case you are not sure what the view looks like.

IMPORTING USER VIEWS

User Administration > Manage Users > Add User

The option to import a LEAP2A file is only available to institute administrators. The name and email details will be imported plus all of the files that have been used for the views.

Select the Upload LEAP2A File and then Browse and locate the eportfolio file that has been exported.

Select Create User

MANAGE INSTITUTIONS

Select User Administration > Manage Institutions

This will let you assign people to roles of staff or administrators so they can set up course groups and administer users.

This menu is only available to institute administrators.

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CHANGING SETTINGS FOR YOUR TERTIARY INSTITUTE

Select Settings

Options under this are to

change the name

change when myportfolio will be suspended

Change whether people can self register at your tertiary institute

Change the look of theme of your site – there are default themes that can be customised.

APPROVING REQUESTS TO JOIN OR INVITING PEOPLE TO JOIN YOUR SITE

Myportfolio users can request to join your tertiary institute and allow them to add an eportfolio to your site.

User administration > Manage Institutions > Members

Alumni institute

When students leave your institute the institute may no longer need to pay for the hosting of their portfolio but the student may wish to keep their eportfolio as evidence of their learning. One solution is for the student to export their eportfolio as a website or LEAP2A standard and then import the file into the new eportfolio system that they are using.

Another way to achieve this is for the tertiary institute to create an Alumni institute for students when they leave the tertiary institute and students to request membership of this. This way students will retain their eportfolios and current students and old students will not get mixed up.

Select users on the left hand side and move to the right hand side with the button

When you have moved all of the members over to the right hand column select Add members or Decline requests

You can use the same process of selecting Institution Staff and Institution Administrators.

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Manage institutions allows you to configure how the site looks to users and to assign access permissions to users.

Institution settings – here you can edit aspects of how the site appears to users, such as display name, self registration facility and locked fields. Locked fields are profile fields that can’t be edited by the account owner. Typically this would be first name, last name and email address, but you could add other fields such as student ID.

Institution members, staff and administrators – when you add users to My Portfolio they will, by default, be Institution Members. Here you can change those roles, for example to give any teaching colleagues Staff permissions. You can also add colleagues as extra Administrators. For example to make Institution Members Institution Staff, click on Institution Staff and move names from the left hand box to the right, using the arrow buttons, then Click Submit.

When you have finished, or wish to use My Portfolio for your own teaching or personal development purposes, click on Return to site.

INSTITUTION VIEWSIt is possible to Create a view that can be copied – when you allow a view to be copied there is also an option to Copy this to all new members of your tertiary institute. Making a View that is able to be copied can assist students with what their view should look like and the contents of it contain. This view can contain general resources in how to sue myportfolio in your tertiary institute.

Manage Institutions > Views > Edit View access

INSTITUTION FILES Manage Institutions > Files

This is where you can include files that can be included in the Institution views.

SETTING UP COURSE GROUPS FOR STUDENTS TO SUBMIT VIEWS

Administrator or Site staff roles are able to create course groups.. Users can submit their views to the course group . Once a student submits their view the student cannot change their view until their teacher has released the view. It is also possible to share views and files with other members of the group. This can help enable group projects, sharing of files amongst teachers , the use of a view that can be copied by members of the group to help provide guidance on the assessment requirements.

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Note An eportfolios main purpose is to document informal learning such as work experience, interests, talents, performances. Formal assessments are suitable for capturing with a learning management systems

CHANGING INSTITUTION SETTINGS

User Administration > Manage Institutions

This lets the institute administrator change the name that is displayed for the institute.

Registration Allowed is by default set to off . This means that non members cannot register as a member of your institute.

There is also an option default membership period – by default this is set to no end date. You can set this to the maximum date that someone will be at your institute before they are deleted. Users will get a reminder email before they are deleted.

There is also an option to change the theme for your institution – there are some standard themes that can be modified with your graphic and colour choices.

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SAMPLE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

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1 Create course group

Either Course Invite groupTeacher uses find Friend, request friendshipstudent accepts friendship teacher invites to groupstudent accepts invitation or, Course Request groupstudent finds group and requests to be a member

2 Create assessment resources

Teacher Create assessment view for student guidancemakes view copyable Creates teacher resources for course group and gives access to other teachersStudentCopies assessment view

3 students submit assessment

Studentcreates view from scratch or copies viewmay create a group and a group view if group work is required for assessmentSubmit s view to course group

4 teacher provides feedback

Teacherreceives notification of view submissionClicks on the link to go to submitted view Clicks on the feedback linkmay attach files to help may release view if view can be resubmitted

5 student receives feedback

Studentprovides feedback to feedback from teachermodifies their view when their view is releasedsubmits again if allowedsaves view, gives other access or modifies

1 CREATE COURSE GROUP

The Groups tab is the area in which you can begin to make contact with other My Portfolio users and search for friends and Groups of interest to you.

A Group is an online community comprising selected or invited My Portfolio users. Groups can be used to develop and support learning and social activity in a social networking environment.

Group Membership Types include

You may create as many Groups as you wish. To create a Group go to My Groups and select Create Group. From the Group Membership type select preferred Group from the drop down box.

CONTROLLED OR REQUEST MEMBERSHIP

REQUESTING MEMBERSHIP OF A GROUP

Groups >Find groups

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Click Request to join this group link or Join this group if this is not a course request group

TO ACCEPT A REQUEST TO JOIN GROUP

Locate the group there will be a link called requests with the number of requests next to it if anyone has requested membership of the course group. select Requests

Select Add member name

You should see the member details under the Members tab of your group.

Note - only staff and site/institutional administrators can create Course Groups

CONTROLLED –

This lets the teacher choose the students they want in their course group –

This process can be quite time consuming as you need to

Find the user , with Find Friends

– request friendship ,

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– student accepts friendship ,

teacher clicks on their user profile,

select the group to invite to,

send invite and Invite them to the group

student accepts invitation and becomes member of the group.

Note - You may also receive invites to join Groups from students and colleagues, or be added to a Group by fellow staff members.

REQUEST MEMBERSHIP –

This is a simpler way for teachers to add students to a course group , where

Select Groups > Find Groups

Groups I’m not in

Request to join this group

The teacher will receive a notification of the request to join the group.

All Groups which you own will appear as a list on the top right of your screen when you login. All Groups in which you are a member can be viewed at the My Groups tab.

2 CREATING COURSE RESOURCES

Teachers can create views at the following levels and allow the view to be copied. When a view is copied all of the files associated with the view are able to be accessed.

Institute level User Administration >Manage Institutions > Views > Create view

This will allow you to use files uploaded to the Institute file space User Administration >Manage Institutions > File

When you get to step Three – Access. You can select Allow copying and also choose to have this view copied for new institute members.

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Course groups also allow the group admin to select the roles of group members or admin.

Group level

Groups > select course group >Views

Only members of course groups who are in the Tutors and Admin role are able to create group views

Group level files

Groups > select course group >Files

Upload file

You can choose who can View, Edit and Publish this file

Groups > select course group >Files >Edit

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Individual level

Every myportfolio user also have their own file repository – the files can be used in user views which can be made copyable

3 SUBMITTING A VIEW TO A COURSE GROUP

A View is an ideal way of preparing work for assessment or as evidence of continuing professional development. If you are an owner or tutor in a Course Group, you can use the submit View process to help manage and mark students’ assessed activities

Select My Portfolio > My Views > Edit View access > Submit this View to

A message will come up warning you that you can’t edit the View once submitted

Select Yes to Submit this

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4 TEACHER PROVIDES FEEDBACK

The tutor will get a notification of a Group message to say that a view has been submitted.

Change your notification preferences to get this by email or activity log

Click on the view link above this will open the view click on the More link

Select the Place feedback link at the bottom of the view

This will give you the opportunity to attach a file or use the editor

Students will receive notification of feedback on their view

When the view is opened by the student the teacher feedback will be visible.

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Public feedback

If Make Public is selected for feedback on a view then everyone who has access to the view is able to see the feedback. If this is not selected then only the view owner will be able to see the feedback

RELEASING VIEWS

This is only available to group tutors or admin

Groups > Select Group name > About tab

Click on the view link under the Views submitted to this group heading.

Select Release View button

5 STUDENT RECEIVES TEACHER FEEDBACK

Select Settings > Notifications >Feedback or look in the Unread messages block on the home page(depending on your preferences for receiving notifications)

This will show your feedback , click on the More… link at the bottom – this will take you to your submitted view.

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Move to the bottom of the submitted view – this will show your feedback.

Select Place feedback link to open up the editor and then click on the Place feedback button when this is completed.

HELPING STUDENTS CREATE VIEWS

CREATE VIEWS THAT CAN BE COPIED TO HELP GUIDE STUDENTS

To enable students to understand what the expected content and layout of a view should be. it is good practice to create a view that can be copied by students that have the blocks required and described the content that should go into the blocks. If there are any images or files in the view the files will also be copied

My Portfolio > My Views > Create a View (or Edit this View for a view that already exists) Allow copying

Add the students that you want to copy your view Edit view access – (it is a good idea to create a group for these students and then add the group to the View Access)

Students will be able to copy the View by selecting MyPortfolio > My Views > Copy View and selecting this view.

The view name will have the words Copy of added to the start of the view – this can be changed if required.

CREATE MULTIPAGE VIEWS

Sometimes a student’s view will contain a lot of content which extends over a screen, To make the content easier to navigate it is possible to link views together with a text box that is used to link to the other views.

To do this create a Text Box block under General tab in each view with Link URL to the other views.

Type in the description of the view, click on the Insert/edit Link icon in the text box editor.

Copy the URL of the view by right clicking on the view and selecting Copy Link Location and then pasting this into the Insert/edit Link box.

Copy the text box and position this in the same location on the other view pages to make this consistent.

ADJUSTING IMAGE SIZE

Some of students photos will come from cameras, the images may need to be resized and the picture quality reduced to enable the graphics to be quickly seen by viewers of the portfolio.

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This will require a photo editing program which will enable you to reduce the picture quality. You should aim to get a file size of less than 100 kb – most digital cameras produce image sizes of over 1000kb or 1 megabyte and save in JPG format.

The photo editing program may have a save as web image or picture quality option which will create smaller files. Some photo editing programs allow you to convert several images at once to a specified size.

Some free photo editing software includes irfranview (www.ifranview.com), GIMP (www.gimp.org)

There are a large number of formats for graphics – common formats include JPG, PNG,GIF.BMP which are supported by myportfolio – you will need to convert these to a format that is supported by myportfolio.

VIDEO AND AUDIO FILES

Again there are lots of formats for these and all formats are not able to played in every browser.

The types of files that are able to be uploaded into myportfolio include

AVI Video File FLV Flash movie MP3 Audio File MP4 Video File MPEG Movie Quicktime Movie SWF Flash movie WMV Video File

Some of these formats are proprietary and require the user to have a certain player software.

For greatest compatibility use the FLV Flash movie format – this creates movies that are small in size that can be played on most common browsers. Some of the other file format can only be played using specific players.

You may need to use a video or sound editing program to create files that are an acceptable size, quality and format.

There are a range of resources that are available to be copied and used for educational purposes . these are known as OER resources For more information go to http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/index.php?title=Repositories

SCANNING ARETEFACTS

Student may need to scan hand written notes or pictures – this will require access to a scanner. Use a setting that is appropriate to the screen resolution. Screen resolutions are 96dpi so scanning an image at any more than this resolution will not be viewable on the screen. Scanning at a lower resolution will also take shorter time to scan. If you can setup a scanner with these settings saved it will save you time.

If scanning still have some issues you can take a picture of the item – this is good for objects that are difficult to scan or where a scanner is not available, taking pictures also saves time.

VIEW LAYOUT – GOOD PRACTICE

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Views design is similar to web page design where there are lots of different ways that pages can be designed with common guidelines on what makes a good web page design.

View title – describes content of the view accurately and concisely Headings used to describe content – larger font size and/or bold – consistently applied Multimedia content – resized to fit view content, file size appropriate for web viewing, good quality,

have a clear purpose- use labels Text is easy to read – good use of white space, use concise sentence structure, is appropriate for

audience, uses columns to make text easier to read (aim for no more than 10 words across for large sections of text), is consistently applied

Uses colour effectively – has good contrast so text is easy to read, text colour is limited to three, complement each other, is used consistently throughout the view

Content – up to date, well organized, contains no typographical or grammatical errors Navigation – easy to find content, hyperlinks used effectively – no broken links and clearly labeled Accessibility –include descriptions of the multimedia file in case people aren’t able to view the

images. Searchability – encourage students to add tags for their artifacts – this makes them easier to find to

be reused in other views.

COPYING AND PASTING CONTENT

If you are using text boxes to create content – there is an editor that allows you to format your text. It is also possible to copy and paste html code into the editor modify appearance. (select the HTML button). You will need to know a bit about HTML tags to modify this.

If the content is in a Word processor you can copy this and then Paste into the editor – in most cases the extra html code will be deleted, to check this has been done select the HTML button in the editor

If you have images in your word processed document you will need to save these images as a separate file using an image editing program such as Gimp or IrfanView. You can then upload these images into your file area.

To include this image in a text box -

Right click on the image file in My Portfolio > My Files , Select Copy Link Location

Select My Portfolio > My Views > Edit this View

Select General tab > Text Box

Select the Insert/Edit image icon below.

In the Image URL box press CTRL + V

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You can fill in the other fields depending on your requirements.

Continue typing in text and select Save .

GIVING ACCESS TO THE VIEW

The view author controls who and when their view is able to be accessed.

Views can also be submitted to course groups by group members with

Secret URL

MyPortfolio > My Views > Edit View access > Add Secret URL

Students may want to give access to other Internet users who are not registered with myportfolio – for example parent may want to see their child’s work but not want to create a myportfolio account. A secret URL can be created for a view - this URL can be copied and pasted into an email.

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Dates that the view is visible for can also be included in the From and To: box above.

The person who has access to the view is able to Place Feedback on the view if they want to

Note

An administrator is not able to give access to a student’s view – only the view creator is able to give access to others.

ASSESSING VIEWS

Views can be used to show a student’s evidence of learning to an employer, teacher or for self reflection.

In the case of a tertiary training provider they can be used to assess informal learning. Informal learning is learning that occurs outside of learning institutes by doing an activity and adopting or adapting what you have learnt. The adapting and adopting by students can be shown in student blogs a discussion forum or contact with a mentor. .It is estimated informal learning makes up around 70% of workplace learning.

Videos are also good to show that a student is able to achieve a practical task and also adapt or adopt based the tasks according to what is happening.

eportfolio’s are good for documenting informal learning – formal learning is able to be assessed using Learning Management Systems.

REDUCING ADMINISTRATION NOTIFICATIONS

Settings > Activity Preferences

As administrator you may get overloaded with notifications when something is changed in myportfolio. It is possible to change the way notifications are delivered for the following areas.

System message * Message from other users * Feedback * Watchlist * New view access * Institution message * New forum post * Group message * Contact us Objectionable content Repeat virus upload Virus flag release

The settings you prefer depend on your usage of myportfolio - messages that you don’t want to miss are better to be delivered by email. If there are too many messages then you should consider using the email digest which group together notifications every 24 hours and emails these.

Messages that are not important can be saved into an Activity log – the message will appear as an unread message alongside your name. Click on the link.

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ADMINISTERING GROUPS

All users on myportfolio are able to create Groups.

Only Administrators are able to create Public Groups that are able to be seen by non users of Myportfolio.. Non myportfolio users will be able to see the members and forum discussions but will not be able to post messages or view users profiles.

There are a number of ways that members can join groups including

Open membership - any user can join Request – a user has to request membership and this is accepted or declined by the group admin Invite Only – users need to be invited to join the group Controlled membership – this is only available to institute admins and staff. Group admins are the

only people who are able to add and remove people from this type of group.

Groups are useful to enable people with similar interests to work together, share files and communicate with each other.

There are also Course groups that can be set up to allow views to be submitted as discussed above.

CHANGING GROUP SETTINGS

Each group created has an area for storing Group views, Group files and forums. To enable group members to work together to produce a group view and to discuss common interests.

Group admins are able to change the group type , Group Name, change membership, and delete the group altogether.

When you create a group view all Group members are automatically given access to the view – you can add others to the view. Group Views have a reduced number of blocks that are available – they do not have the Profile and Resume blocks as these blocks are linked to an individual user.

ADMINISTER FORUMS

Groups > My Groups Select the Group , select Forums tab, Edit > Settings

When each group is created a forum for the group is automatically created called General Discussion.

CHANGING FORUM SETTINGS – SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SELECTING MODERATORS

Each group forum can have the settings below changed.

If you want to make sure that students get postings to the forum by email then select Yes for automatically subscribing users to the forum. Students will have the option of unsubscribing to the forum at any time if they want to. The email will have a link to reply to the post and also to unsubscribe to the forum.

It may be a good idea to create a forum for a course group for important announcements and make this automatic subscribe users to this forum and only let moderators able to create new topics.

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The group administrator can also change the group type, role of a member, delete the group.

As moderator you should try and make users follow acceptable behavior, actively participate and lead discussions. You are able to edit others postings as well as your own

ADD NEW TOPIC OPTIONS

Groups > My Groups Select the Group , select Forums tab

Select New topic button

The group admin and forum Moderator has the option to make a topic Sticky or Closed

Sticky topics should be chosen for important topics – these will remain at the top of the topic list.

Closed topics can be viewed by all group members but only replied to by moderators. could be chosen for teachers to discuss resources such as marking schedules or discuss assessments that you don’t want students to see.

Try and keep on top of these by deleting or marking theses as read.

SUBSCRIBING TO FORUMS

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Groups > select group name > Forums > Subscribe

Forums can be subscribed to which means you will get a notification any time a new post is made to the forum.

If you have chosen to receive notifications by email Settings > Activity preferences > New forum post > Email

You will receive an email with the contents of the forum posting and a link Reply to post online and a link to Unsubscribe from this forum.

Remember you do not have to answer every forum posting – if students rely on you to do this then this may constrain open discussions and also increase your workload.

SITE ADMINISTRATION

Myportfolio hosts over 150 schools in New Zealand, there is also a myportfolio.ac.nz site for over 20 tertiary providers in New Zealand

As well as a tertiary institute administrator there is a myportfolio site administrator who is able to change some options for the overall site.

CHANGING THE LOOK OF YOUR TERTIARY INSTITUTE’S MYPORTFOLIO (THEMES)

User Administration > Manage institutions > Settings

Select the default Theme from the drop down list – you can use this as a basis for a new theme.

It is possible to customize the appearance of a tertiary institute’s myportfolio page – you can include your logo and apply a colour scheme.

You will need to contact myportfolio support to discuss the changes required and they will provide you with an estimate of how much this will cost.

OTHER SERVICES THE SITE ADMINISTRATOR CAN PROVIDE

logging in as another user to help trouble shooting Deleting a user or institute Moving a users eportfolio from one tertiary institute to another Setting up another Institute – for example an alumni institute for students who have left your tertiary

institute but still want to retain their eportfolios Exporting and Importing to other eportfolio systems – any user can export selected views as a

standalone website or LEAP2A eportfolio standard. Administrators can Import views through

User Administration >Manage Users > Add User select Upload LEAP2A File

Integrating with the Moodle Learning Management system with single signon and sharing of data between the two systems.

Installation of plugins or customization of plugins Increasing the maximum number of users for your tertiary institute Training Reporting and tracking bugs Requesting features

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TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

If you require any technical assistance in using My Portfolio take a look at the online video tutorials at http://myportfolio.ac.nz and remember to use the Contextual help throughout the site, wherever you see this

symbol

For an overview of the features of Mahara, the software which powers My Portfolio, watch this short video http://www.scivee.tv/node/6372

If you are unable to find the answer to your query Contact us at

support@myportfolio.ac.nz

ph 04 801 6683 or 0800 801 668

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