Harnessing digital portfolios for enhanced learning

Digital portfolios and learning

Digital portfolios are a powerful tool for showcasing student growth and learning. They:

• provide a comprehensive record of a student's work
• encourage reflection and ownership of learning.

By integrating digital portfolios into your classroom, you can enhance student engagement and foster a culture of continuous learning.

Platforms with digital portfolio capability

There are many platforms available for creating digital portfolios. You may already have access to some of these at your school. For example:

• Canva
• Adobe Express
• Microsoft Sway
• Frog portfolios
• Google Sites.

Key considerations when choosing a platform for digital portfolios

If portfolios need to be shared with individuals outside of the department, like family members or employers, it's important to choose a platform allows for external sharing. Keep in mind that platforms may change this at any time. (For example, as of February 2024, Google Sites can only be shared with individuals within the department .)

Additionally, if students are building their portfolio over time, considerations need to be made about accessing data from previous years.

How to guide your students

Building a digital portfolio is similar to creating a paper one. Teachers need to guide students on what to include and whether they need to annotate their samples.

Using templates or creating portfolios from scratch

Canva, Adobe Express and Microsoft Sway    offer a range of prebuilt templates.

You can also create specific templates for your classes, or students can build their portfolios from scratch.

If your school uses Frog you can use Frog’s ePortfolio feature .

Portfolio templates in Canva

To find templates suitable to use in Canva:

1. Open Canva  (via the EdPass portal) in a browser and navigate to the home page.
2. Select templates from the left side menu.
3. Type portfolio in the search bar at the top of the screen.

Use the filters to narrow your search and find a template which will work for you and your students.

Portfolio templates in Adobe Express

To find templates suitable to use in Adobe Express:

1. Check with your school that you have access to Adobe Express.
2. Open Adobe Express (via the EdPass portal) in a browser and navigate to the home page.
3. Select templates from the left side menu.
4. Type portfolio in the search bar at the top of the screen.

Use the filters to narrow your search and find a template which will work for you and your students.

Portfolio templates in Sway

There are a limited number of prebuilt templates in Sway. To access these:

1. Open Sway in a browser and sign in with your @schools email.
2. Scroll down to the start from a template section.
3. Use the navigation arrows to the side of the thumbnails to see the template options.
4. Select a portfolio template.

You can also create a Sway and share this with your students to use as a template.

Step 1: Create the Sway adding sections and instructions.

1. Select new to start a new Sway.
2. Select the plus sign under the title section to add new components.
3. Edit the components and add instructions as placeholder text.

Step 2: Share the Sway as view only.

1. Select the share icon in the top right.
2. Select those in your organisation with the link.
3. In the ‘invite people to’ field select view.
4. Select the copy icon to copy the share link.
5. Share this link with students.

Step 3: Get students to create a copy of the template to use themselves.

Students should:

1. Login to Sway and open the link to the Sway ‘template’.
2. Select the 3 dots (ellipsis) in the top right.
3. Select duplicate this Sway.
4. If they’re going to use the same design multiple times, for example each term, they can select save as template.

They can then edit and make changes to the Sway without editing your copy.

Additional resources

• The Reflect Initiative | White Paper | Researching electronic portfolios and learner engagement
• 11 essentials for excellent digital portfolios