At the University of Liverpool we have available a couple of ePortfolio systems.

PebblePad

PebblePad is a comprehensive portfolio tool for which the University has an insitutional license. You can use it with students for a wide range of application, from asking students to simply keep a portfolio or their activities or reflections over time, to setting out 'workbooks' for students to complete, to undertaking forms of assessment. PebblePad is integrated into Canvas and it has a decent mobile app so that students can carry out reflections on the move. This is a fully-featured tool but does take a bit of a learning curve to get setup. We would recommend this approach if keeping a portfolio is going to be a big component of your module or programme. CIE have produced some explainer text and case studies within the Hybrid Active Learning course in Canvas: PebblePage ePortfolio system. For help getting started please contact CIE's Digital Education team (digitaled@liverpool.ac.uk).

Canvas ePortfolio

A second option is Canvas's own ePortfolio tool. This offer very basic ePortfolio functionality, allowing just the creation and organisation of portfolio pages. The ePortfolios sit outside of courses, and is instead set up and owned by each individual (student/staff member) in Canvas. You can try this out for yourself by going to your Account button in Canvas, and clicking on ePortfolios.

Key features are: Different ePortfolios can be created for different purposes. Each portfolio works a bit like Canvas pages with an editable landing/Welcome page, then a configurable structure of Sections and New Pages within those. The user can then edit each page to insert content - such as blocks of text, file uploads/images, HTML/videos, and assignment submissions from their courses - into a linear order. Under Settings the Portfolio can be made public which allows the portfolio to accessible externally or submitted as a URL to a Canvas Assignment for monitoring or grading. Each page can be set to allow comments so you could encourage students to share their portfolios with each other. The system allows the student to download the contents of a portfolio as a Zip file in case they want to take it away with them at the end of their studies.

The ePortfolio tool has a built in user guide (via the ‘How do I’ button), but these links could be useful to share with students:

Canvas Basics - What are ePortfolios?

ePortfolios Overview - Student Video Guide

How do I create new ePorfolios ? - Student Guide