Use template or import file to generate structured e portfolios.

[nicholas_eastha]

Idea is currently in development

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 We work with about 1000 pre-service teaching students a semester while they are in their field experience or internships. We are currently using iWebfolio, and can have students generate portfolios using pre-built templates. Canvas would be a great environment for our students, but we foresee problems with them building out their portfolio sections. Please incorporate a feature that allows students to use a template to build their portfolios (or import a file that we have generated) so that they can focus on populating sections with content, rather than focusing on building the required, structured sections.

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @nicholas_eastha ​, and thank you for submitting this idea!

I am not a fan of the Canvas ePortfolios, and mostly because they are not particularly user friendly (teachers or students), and frankly are rather featureless!

That being said, I did find a similar idea archived for lack of votes that you can review at   When reviewing this one, please scroll down and read the comments made by  @robin_bartolett . I think you will find them interesting.

There are no similar current ideas, so I will recommend your be opened for voting during the next period and I will support it - ePortfolios need all the love they can get.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the voting process at How does the voting process work for feature ideas?​

KLM

[nicholas_eastha]

Thanks for the information and support. We really want to use Canvas for this. I had looked for other template requests in the community, and the other one I found had gotten archived.

[jordan]

Thank you for your Feature Idea submission. We wanted to call your attention to the idea Kelley noted " modifiedtitle="true" title="ePortfolio Templates plus a couple other similar suggestions ​ and     which were submitted in different voting periods, but archived due to lack of votes or inadequate response. You may want to reference these ideas for insight.

Since archived ideas can be re-submitted, your idea will be open for vote in the next voting cycle.

In the meantime, help your idea gain traction by posting a link to this idea in the comments of the other, archived idea (which will notify author and anyone who is following the idea) and share your idea to colleagues and peers as well.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. July 6, 2016 - Wed. October 5, 2016.

Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!

[kblack]

I agree basically with what  @kmeeusen ​ says, but we have to use what we have, at least, and for that reason I'm voting this "up" as well.  I hope that Instructure will decide to devote some time to improving the ePortfolios, but I gather it's on the back burner.  But yes, individual templates would be nice!

[garth]

The institution I'm working with is very interested in leveraging the ePortfolio in Canvas, without having to implement yet another 3rd party app.  Let's all combine our efforts, please vote for these other ideas that are currently open for voting, and let's see if we can get Canvas behind this feature:

If we can get the community to show enough interest, across all of these ideas, maybe Canvas will get more interested.

Thanks.

[rachel_powild]

We would also very much like to move over to use Canvas for a course that requires ePortfolios but are unable to do so because of the lack of ability to provide templates for students. Until this is implemented we are restricted to using our current LMS and potentially 3rd party solutions, which does not make for a seamless student experience, which we were hoping we could deliver through Canvas, as it has ePortfolio provision built in, but the current tool is unfortunately far too basic and unstructured for our students to use both for formative use but also for assessment purposes and accreditation with an industry body with legal requirements. Students need guidance and support to use reflective tools such as these, and even the ability to add instructions to them would help massively.

[GideonWilliams]

Happy to vote this idea UP as we desperately need to see development in this area. ePortfolios are surely the way to go in supporting project based learning, personalised learning and staff CPD evidence to name but three features.

Linking badges to the portfolio would also be a huge step.

One option would be for Canvas to work with Mahara (the best open source eportfolio system around) to fix/develop/improve the LTI feature. There are many colleges and universities in the UK moving to Canvas that use Mahara that would appreciate this. Currently the version in the AppCentre is two years old.

[mcsmith]

eportfolio is not a feature that we have plans to advance in the next 6 months.  Priorities can change, however I am confident enough that we will not be modifying eportfolios that I am going to archive this thread. Clearly eportfolios are a priority for you folks. I encourage you to continue having great discussions around eportfolios so we can continue gathering data which in return drives our priorities.

[GideonWilliams]

Anyone looking at portfolium? Free ePortfolio with some users in K12...

Portfolium - Your digital portfolio to land amazing jobs

Portfolium Student User Demo - YouTube

Engaged Learning Tools Suite Overview / Intro to Portfolium - YouTube

[sendres]

The ePortfolio tool is useful but the look and feel an the completed pages is spartan. It would be awesome if there were a way to choose from several themes for the ePortfolio appearance, much as you can choose a WordPress theme. There could be a cottage industry of Canvas theme developers, or, at minimum, the institution could provide a few different options for students and faculty to choose from.

[r_agterberg]

What is the status of this feature idea? Do you think that it's fixed in 2018?

[Renee_Carney]

 @nicholas_eastha  

Thank you for your inquiry.  This idea is not on the scope of any current projects.  Please continue to follow this thread and updates will be added if/when they are available.  You can also follow https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas?sr=search&searchId=9b6ac576-a2a9-48dc-836a-a9aa165bf...‌ to see some of the ongoing priorities.

[leasher]

We also would like to be able to add a template, but we want to use e-Portfolios for faculty/instructor dossiers for promotion and evaluation.  We used Blackboard previously, and trust me, not only students have difficulty building out their portfolio sections etc! It is true, we want them them to concentrate on building content, not the structure of the portfolio.  Also, we need a way to import/migrate the artifacts from Blackboard to Canvas (not only for the courses, but for the portfolios!)  And, we need a way to have our Evaluation and Promotion peer review committee access them to 'grade'.  

[leasher]

We looked at this for our students, but I am not sure how this would work for faculty evaluation and promotion dossiers, which need specific elements in a certain order.  Any suggestions would be helpful!

[Boekenoogen]

Anything to help improve the e-portfolio would be good. 

[macdonal]

Ditto to this request to make it possible to use templates (or import zip files) in ePortfolio!!

I see it's been a couple of years since the voting on this idea... and some of us still need/want/hope for this option in the Canvas ePortfolio tool! Any chance it may get reconsidered or moved forward in 2018?

[GideonWilliams]

Would really like an eportfolio tool that I am not paying any extra for!

[andywright1980]

Having the ability to setup a pre-defined structure/template here is literally the deciding factor between us using this tool, or recommending that students use wordpress or similar. We want to use this but we know it'll get messy if we don't provide a template.

[kpaynter]

Yes, please make portfolio templates so that someone can make a portfolio and students can use it for standardization! Very inefficient for each student to have to manually create each page!