How to Create and Manage Portfolio Tasks

Portfolio Tasks are structured prompts designed to guide students and inspire their best work within specific portfolios. By providing clear instructions and requirements, you can help students overcome the "blank page" effect and ensure they are creating meaningful, purposeful entries.

What are Portfolio Tasks?

When students enter a portfolio, knowing where to begin can feel intimidating. Portfolio Tasks solve this by allowing administrators to provide custom tasks and prompts that guide students.

If you are familiar with Class Activities, Portfolio Tasks function very similarly. They allow you to define clear instructions, attach helpful media, and set specific requirements (such as the number of posts needed to complete the task). However, rather than being tied to a specific class, these tasks are completed directly within a student's portfolio. They can be put to a wide range of uses, from supporting district-wide initiatives and competency-based education to Individual Pathways Plans and career-life planning.

How to Create a New Portfolio Task

Tasks are created directly inside individual Portfolio Templates.

1. Navigate to the Portfolio Templates page and click + Add Template, or edit an existing template.
2. Scroll down to the Portfolio Tasks section, located below your Sections setup.
3. Click + Add Task.

[Insert image showing the + Add Task button inside a Portfolio Template]

4. Define your task requirements:

• Task Name (Required): A short title for the task, up to 100 characters.
• Instructions (Optional): Rich text directions guiding the student on what to do, up to 5,000 characters.
• Grade(s) (Optional): You can tie a task to specific grades (e.g., Grade 9 only). If grades are selected, only students currently in those grades will see the incomplete task.
• Section(s) (Optional): You can require that the post fulfilling the task be created in a specific portfolio section. If defined, the system will automatically pre-select this section for the student when they start the task.
• Required # of Posts to Complete (Required): Specify how many posts the student must create to fully complete the task (the default is 1).
• Media (Optional): Attach up to 10 files or links to support the prompt.

5. Click the blue checkmark to save the task, then Publish your template.

[Insert image showing the completed Task creation panel with instructions and media]

The Student Experience

We have designed the student experience to be intuitive and highly visible, ensuring students always know what is expected of them.

• Portfolio Dashboard: Students will see a new banner highlighting portfolio tasks, and their portfolio cards will display a quick progress indicator (e.g., Start Tasks, 1/3 Tasks, or Tasks Completed).
• Tasks Tab: When students open a portfolio with tasks, they will see a dedicated Tasks tab listing their "To Do" and "Completed" items alongside their regular feed.

[Insert image showing the student view of the Tasks tab]

• Task Instructions: Clicking on a specific task card opens an instruction panel—much like an Activity—displaying the directions and any media resources.
• Creating the Post: By clicking Start Task from the instructions, the Create Post screen opens with the relevant task and portfolio section automatically pre-selected, minimizing friction.
• Manual Selection: Alternatively, students can click to create a regular post and select the task from the Portfolio Task dropdown menu on the right side of their screen.

Updated on: 29/04/2026