Looking to extend the documentation of learning beyond your teachers' Classes and Spaces? The Portfolios feature allows adminstrators to set up custom templates with separate sections to organize content in new ways, whether it's for an entire district, all students at a particular school, or individual grade levels.
This article outlines the options for setting up new Portfolio Templates, customizing template details, and accessing content for students and teachers.
❗Portfolios are an optional add-on for SpacesEDU Pro
Access to create and publish Portfolio Templates is limited to District Administrator accounts with Full Permissions (Independent Schools licensing SpacesEDU Pro would already be configured as their own separate 'district')
If you don't see these options in your account but you believe you should have access, please contact SpacesEDU Support with the messaging option in the corner of your screen
Creating a Portfolio Template
To create a new Portfolio Template:
Log in to a District Administrator account with Full Permissions
Click Portfolio Templates in the left-hand navigation menu
Click Add Template
Fill in the following required fields
Name: this will be displayed to students and teachers as the title of the Portfolio
School(s) or District:
In this drop-down menu you can either select the district name, listed first, or the names of one or more individual schools
If the district name is selected, the option to add a school is disabled, since the portfolio is already visible to all schools
To remove an option selected here, click the 'X'
Teacher Access:
This option determines whether teachers will be able to see the portfolios for all students at the school, or only for the students in their classes
Use caution before applying the setting to allow teachers wtihin the school to view ALL student portfolios, as this will allow any teacher to view content added to portfolios for any student at the school
Teachers still have the option to filter and view only their students, if you have the option to view all students enabled
Update the following optional fields based on your needs
Description: you can use this to explain what the portfolio is for, what type of content should be added, etc. (max. 5000 characters)
Media: up to 10 files and/or URL links can be included along with the description, to appear at the top of each portfolio
Grade(s): You can leave the Grade setting empty, meaning the portfolio will be accessible to students in any grade at the selected school(s), or specify which grades should have access to the portfolio
Note: in order to configure grade-specific portfolios, you will need to ensure that your students have a grade level set on their SpacesEDU accounts, and in any rostering data you provide
Students without a grade set will not be able to view any grade-specific portfolios, but they can still view those without a grade configured
You can check in the Students tab for any accounts without a grade, and assign one by clicking the menu button at the right-hand side, then Edit Account
Sections: you can add, remove, and re-order separate sections within the Portfolio, including custom titles for each (max. 20 sections and 100 characters per title, min. of 1 section)
Once you're happy with all the details you've entered, click Create Template at the top right of the screen
This will save your portfolio in an unpublished state, meaning it will not be visible to students and teachers at the school yet.
To go live with the portfolio when you're ready, click on the toggle button to the right of 'Unpublished', then confirm Yes, Publish. The portfolio will be visible in teacher and student accounts right away!
Editing Portfolio Templates
The Portfolio Templates screen in the district admin account will always display all templates for the district, even if you have selected a specific school at the top left. Clicking or hovering your mouse over the i icon for any school-specific portfolio will show which schools have it enabled.
You can access additional options for each portfolio by clicking the contextual menu button (three dots) on the right-hand side:
You can Publish/Unpublish from here, or via the toggle to the left
You can Duplicate an existing template, for example if you'd like to create similar templates with a few variations for different grades
You can Delete a portfolio template - only do this if you're really sure, as there is no way to restore a deleted portfolio!
However, posts will remain in the Archived tab of their Portfolios page even if a portfolio is deleted
You can go back and Edit the details for an existing portfolio template
When editing a portfolio template, if you delete an existing section and try to save changes, you will be prompted to confirm you're sure
As with deleting portfolios, use this option with caution, as any content from deleted sections won't be accessible to those viewing the portfolio, and can't be restored into the portfolio (but will remain saved in students' accounts)
Portfolio Access
Student Access
Students access Portfolios using the tab at the top of their home screen. If the option isn't visible, they'll need to click the back and/or home button at the top left of their screen until they reach the home screen:
Once a Portfolio has been Published, it will appear in the Active tab for all students within the visibility settings applied (school/grade) by the district administrator
If a portfolio is unpublished, deleted, or not set as visible to a student based on their grade, and they have not added anything to this portfolio, it will not be visible to them at all
If a student has access to a portfolio, adds posts (or a teacher adds them on their behalf), and later the portfolio is deleted, unpublished, or access is removed based on their grade level, the student will retain access to the portfolio and its contents in the Archived tab
Students and teachers do not have access to add new posts in Archived Portfolios
Teacher Access
Teachers also access the Portfolios option from their Home screen. As with students, if they option isn't visible, they'll need to click the back/home button at the top left one or more times.
The content accessible to teachers will depend on the Teacher Access settings applied by the district administrator
All teachers can access Portfolios where the visibility is set to allow teachers to view ALL students: by turning OFF the filter to 'Only show my students,' they can view and add to portfolios for any students at the school
With the visibility set to 'Teachers within the school can view ONLY their Students' Portfolios', they will only have access to the portfolios for students within their classes
Students can be associated with teachers either via class rostering, or by joining a class using a code
If students are removed from classes, or a teacher is removed from a class, the teacher will lose access to their portfolios
Student access to portfolios does not depend on enrollment in a class
Admin & Family Access
The Admin account does not have a direct point of access to individual students' portfolios - to access the content added by students, you'll need to use the Switch to Teacher Account option
This will allow access to any Portfolios where the visibility is set to allow teachers to view ALL students: by turning OFF the filter to 'Only show my students,' you can view and add to portfolios for any students at the school
With visibility set to allow teachers to view only their own students' portfolios, administrators would need to be rostered into classes of their own, or invited to join teachers' classes as co-teachers in order to access student portfolios
Linked family members also do not have direct access to Portfolios at this time, however this is a planned future update
In the meantime, they can view portfolios by logging in together with students using their account credentials or QR Code
Access Troubleshooting
As noted above, if you set up a portfolio which is accessible only to specific grades:
it will only appear in the 'Active' tab for students within the grades you have set
it will not be visible in any student accounts without a grade assigned
If certain students are not seeing the expected portfolios for their grade, you can check in the Students page of your admin account for their school
Locate the student and click the menu button (three dots) on the right-hand side
Click Edit Account
Set the correct grade level and click Save Changes
If teachers add themselves to their own class as a student, this student account does not have a grade set, and so they may not have access to grade-specific portfolios in their student interface
At this time it's not possible to update the grade within the student account, but if any teachers do wish to access grade-specific portfolios, you can follow the same steps to apply a grade to their student account from the Admin account
To locate a teacher's student account, you may need to click the red 'Missing student IDs' button near the top right of the Students page
Portfolios without specific grades set in the Admin account should be visible to all students and teachers at the school
Still have questions? Contact us with the messaging option in the corner of your screen!