Discussions and ePortfolio

isobel_williams
Community Contributor
10
2335

Our system has not opened the Parent app yet, so I have been looking for a way to show student work to parents, while staying in the Canvas environment.

I have been investigating the idea of using a discussion - set up using groups, so that there is only one student and the teacher in each group.  Students then have a private communication line with their teacher.  They can add images, text, audio etc using it as a reflective journal space.  If the discussion is set to be marked and it then becomes available to add as a submission to the ePortfolio.  Teachers can then ask the students to share the link to the eportfolio with their parents.

The class teacher can monitor the discussion, provide feedback and make suggestions.  The eportfolio is updated as new posts are made, so it is always up to date.   Parents can see what their child is doing at school. 

I still have to check that it will work in a real class but it has potential to solve our issues until the Parent app is released.

10 Comments
canvas_support8
Community Participant

This is a creative solution which I am sure parents will appreciate. You are probably aware however that the e-portfolio sharing settings are under the sole control of the student. They have the ability to share publicly and allow public comments on their e-portfolio. Teachers do not necessary have visibility of this. The K12 schools I work with regard this as a safeguarding risk and so have disabled e-portfolios. I'd be interested to hear how you mitigate against this risk.

We are rolling out parents accounts this month and I'd be happy to share our experiences of this.

isobel_williams
Community Contributor

Thanks  @canvas_support8 

Yes i know that the ePortfolio is under student control and have not really shared it with teachers i work with yet (except for their own use)  Teachers would need to get students to share with them too .  We are still at least 6 months from the parent app being ready and we have lots of teachers using other solutions to share with parents that are outside our system completely.    Interested in your roll out experiences.

Bobby2
Community Champion

Hi  @canvas_support8 t will be good to hear how you get on with giving parents access. Will you be using the pairing codes? 

Interesting that the ePortfolios were disabled and the reasons behind that decision.

Gosh there's a lot to think about isn't there.

canvas_support8
Community Participant

We don't allow 'parents who create their own Canvas Parent accounts to connect to students at [our] institution using the Canvas Parent mobile app' - this is a Feature Option in Account Settings which we have turned off. Instead we follow the following process:

  1. We create the parents accounts by exporting data from the school SIS and importing a SIS file of new users. But we do not set or manage passwords - instead parents use the 'Forgot Password' link to create their own passwords.
  2. Once the parent accounts have bee created we import a SIS file to set up the observer roles - this links a parent to their child.
  3. We have tweaked the permissions on the Observer role to prevent parents from viewing Discussions. If this were allowed parents would be able to view comments from students who are not their own children, which would breach privacy / data protection legislation. If graded discussions are used, parents can view (only) their child's contribution to a discussion in the SpeedGrader.
  4. Parents go to the Desktop site (not using the mobile app) and use the 'Forgot Password' link to create a password. This sends an email to them with a link in to reset their password. This can only be done on the desktop site, not the mobile app.
  5. Parents can now log into the desktop site and act as observers of their children.
  6. If parents want to use the mobile app they can search for the school by URL and log in using their username and the password they have selected. Strangely, their children do NOT automatically appear in the app, so they have to add them individually from the settings menu in the app. This involves their each of their children entering their username and password into the parent app.

All this seems a bit convoluted but does mean we retain total control over who has accounts on our platform, whilst leaving the management of passwords to the parents themselves.

We don't use the paring codes and would be interested to hear other peoples' experiences.

 

Bobby2
Community Champion

This is very helpful thanks  @canvas_support8 

How will  @isobel_williams 's idea be used at your school?

isobel_williams
Community Contributor

Hi  @canvas_support8 

Thanks for explaining that process.  We have are working with more than 1 school  but this will be a useful scenario to consider.  

thanks

canvas_support8
Community Participant

This is the process we are using across the 24 UK schools that are all using the same Canvas instance.

chrystalblack
Community Novice

Wow, parent involvement is very critical and it lets the child know that their parents is involved. This will definitely impact the child, teacher and parent because everyone will be held accountable for the students online learning through a Learning Management System that is effective.  

canvas_support8
Community Participant

Further to this, we have now removed the ability for our (K12) students to share their eportfolios publically. This was done using a CSS script at account level. Students can still share the eportfolio using a link, but the person viewing has to be logged into Canvas to see it. We feel this is much safer and we have therefore re-enabled eportfolios for students and will be actively promoting their use. Every student in Year 12 or 13 will be expected to produce an eportfolio which will be shared with potential employers etc.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Hi  @isobel_williams ‌

I am about to pilot BulbApp over a 6 week period. I will be blogging about my experiences. Been very impressed with the features and security.

The first instance is here - https://community.canvaslms.com/people/Gideon.Williams 

Gideon