General questions
What is an e-Portfolio?
“e-Portfolio” is short for “electronic portfolio”. It’s much like the traditional portfolio of an artist – a way of making one’s work and learning visible to others – but in an electronic format that makes it easily accessible on the Web.
What is Digication and how does it relate to e-Portfolio?
“Digication” is the name of both the e-Portfolio software at BU, and the company that produces it. Digication is to e-Portfolios as Google is to Internet search, or as PowerPoint and Microsoft are to electronic presentations.
Why would I use an e-Portfolio?
The basic goal of an e-Portfolio is to make learning visible. By putting the products or objects of learning on the Web, a portfolio makes them more available – easier to see and to access. For detailed ideas about what this means, see our portfolio about portfolios .
What’s the difference between an e-Portfolio and a website?
An e-Portfolio is a website – just a particular kind of website. An e-Portfolio is a website that contains information selected to showcase learning and experience. All e-Portfolios are websites, but not all websites are e-Portfolios.
Can I use e-Portfolios on a smartphone or tablet?
Yes, with some limitations. Most of the functions of the software will work, but you can’t use anything that requires drag-and-drop, such as the Organizer tool. You’ll need a desktop or laptop computer for those. You can read more here: Digication on a Mobile Device
Is there a way to see all my students’ portfolios in the same place, or have them see each other’s portfolios?
Yes. Create a course in Digication. Our portfolio about portfolios explains how.
Creating an e-Portfolio
Where do I go to create an e-Portfolio?
Go to bu.digication.com and log in with your standard BU login name and Kerberos password. Then press the blue plus button on the upper right corner in My e-Portfolios section.
Do I have to save what I write?
Several seconds after your last change to your content , your changes will be automatically saved and a notification will be displayed at the top of your window letting you know your changes have been saved. In order for others to see it, you also need to click Publish.
Is there a limit to the size of files that I can upload?
You can upload as many files as you would like up to 1GB in size.
Is there a limit to the number of e-Portfolios I can have?
No. And they can all be as big as you want.
How do I embed video?
To embed video, you will first click the blue plus Button , at the bottom, right-hand side of an open ePortfolio Then choose the Embed option on the Add Content from any page. See more here:Embed Media in ePortfolio
How do I limit who can see it?
Click Portfolio Tools (on the top right) and Settings, then go down to Permissions. There are three preset options: Private, which means that only you will be able to see the portfolio, Private within Boston University, which means that every BU user will be able to see your portfolio, and Public, which means that your portfolio will be viewable by anyone on the internet (and will also appear in search engines such as Google). In addition, you can select Custom Permissions, which allows you to select individual viewers, such as your professors or classmates.
Think carefully about how and when you would like to share your work with other viewers. Once you make your portfolio visible to the entire BU community or make it public on the internet, you allow a wide audience of viewers to forward the link to your work to others or to copy and use materials from the portfolio for other purposes. For that reason, you should consider choosing the “private” setting for your portfolio as a default until you have had a chance to curate the portfolio contents carefully.
Can I make some parts of a portfolio private and others public?
No. Privacy settings are set at the level of the entire portfolio. This is by design; if users could alter it on a page-by-page basis, it would be easy to forget what was public and what wasn’t. If you want to make some pages public and others not, create a second portfolio and use the Organizer to copy and move materials back and forth.
Other people can only see part of what I put in my portfolio, but I want them to see all of it.
You might not have published all of it. Check the pages of your portfolio; if any modules on a page have a red bar labelled DRAFT, you should click Publish This Page to make it viewable to all the people you want.
I can’t see all of the content that students put in their portfolios.
Probably the same thing. Let your students know that they need to publish all the pages of their portfolio.
How can I rename my portfolio?
Go to Portfolio Tools (on the top right) and click Settings. This will take you back to the page you saw when you first created your portfolio, with various options for configuring it. At the top of this page is a box labelled Title of your e-Portfolio, which will contain your portfolio’s current name. Delete this name and replace it with the new name you want. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save.
How can I delete my portfolio?
Go to Portfolio Tools (on the top right) and click Delete, then confirm. Be careful – there is no undelete option, so once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Where can I go to get additional help with e-Portfolios?
We have more comprehensive documentation available at the Portfolio about Portfolios. To speak to a person about ePortfolios directly, contact the Help Center via the Help button on this page (or email at ithelp@bu.edu< or call at 353-HELP). The Help Desk can answer simple questions directly by phone or email. Through the Help Desk you can also schedule in-person sessions with an educational technologist, whether about technical training or about the pedagogical uses of e-Portfolios in class.