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Set-up the Portfolio Tool in myCourses

Portfolio tool settings

  1. Select the Portfolio tool on your myCourses Navigation Bar. See the article Edit the navigation bar (navbar) in myCourses for information about how to add the Portfolio link to your Navbar; this will allow your students to access their portfolios. 

  2. From the Portfolio page, click Settings.

  3. To use Funsters instead of profile photos of students, select Use friendly Funster avatars instead of profile photos.

  4. Under Evidence Approval, choose the methods for adding evidence that require your approval.

  5. Click Save.

Student avatars

You can turn on a setting that displays Funster avatars (cartoon characters) instead of student profile photos. This avatar setting only applies to the instructor view of the students in the class.

When a student visits their myCourses Portfolio, the avatar that appears follows the following rules:

  • If the student has a myCourses profile avatar, use it.

  • If the student does not have a myCourses profile avatar, but they have been in a course that assigned them a Funster, use the Funster.

  • If the student had neither a myCourses profile avatar nor a Funster, use the default profile image.

If students are in a course that was configured before the January 2018 upgrade, the avatar defaults to the Funster.

Evidence approval

You can choose the methods for adding evidence that require your approval. This ensures that evidence collected with a specified method does not appear in the student's portfolio until you approve it. The available options include:

  • The Portfolio web tool.

  • The Portfolio app in Class Device and Family Device modes.

  • The Portfolio app in My Device mode.

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Set-up the portfolio app

The Brightspace Portfolio app is available for download from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally updated at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically or you may have to manually check for new versions.

File types supported by the portfolio app

You can upload or view any evidence that is a .pdf or can be converted to a .pdf in the myCourses Portfolio tool. The supported file types include:

  • Video: SWF, MPG, MPEG, RM, MP3, MP4, M4V, M4A, AVI, WAV, RAM, ASF, MOV, RA
    There is no limit to the size of videos; however, they are naturally limited by the device's capacity and bandwidth.

  • Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIF, TIFF

  • Text documents: RTF, PPT, PPS, PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPTX, XML, XLS, TXT, WPD, XLSX, XLS

  • Web documents: HTM, HTML, MHT, MHTML

  • External links to Google Drive

  • External links to Office 365

When downloading image evidence for viewing, the evidence is downloaded in the original file type and resolution. For example, if a student uploads a full resolution JPEG file, the image may adjust size and resolution in the Portfolio viewer; however, an instructor downloading the image downloads a full resolution JPEG file.

Region and language support

Brightspace Portfolio is supported in the following geographic regions:

  • U.S.

  • Canada

  • Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA)

  • Asia Pacific (Singapore and Australia)

Brightspace Portfolio is available for use in the following languages:

  • English (U.S.)

  • French (Canada)

  • Spanish (Latin America)

The Brightspace Portfolio app reflects the language preference selected on the user's device, not what is set in myCourses.

Operating system support

Brightspace Portfolio is supported on tablets and mobile devices with the following operating systems:

  • AndroidTM 5.0 or later on tablets or phones

  • iOS® 10.0 or later on iPhone®, iPad®, and iPod® touch

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Key features in the portfolio tool

Upon selecting the Portfolio tool on the Navigation Bar, you can view and manage student portfolios. You can choose to view all students or evidence in a course, in list or tile format. 

To change the display of course portfolios, click any of the following toggles:

  • Students - displays all student portfolios in the course.

  • Evidence - displays all evidence in the course.

  • Tiles - displays information in a tile format.

  • List - displays information in a list format.

Select a specific student to view their:

  • Evidence Collected

  • Unapproved Evidence

  • Spotlighted Evidence

Select a specific piece of evidence to view:

  • Feedback Provided

  • Categorized

If you are viewing evidence, you can filter the evidence by category. Click Filter, select School Categories or Class Categories, and then select one or more categories.

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While this resource is accessible worldwide, McGill University is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgment is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.

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