Skip to Local Navigation
Skip to Content
California State University, Long Beach
Office of the Provost, Division of Academic Affairs Home
Print this pageAdd this page to your favoritesSelect a font sizeSelect a small fontSelect a medium fontSelect a large font
 
 

Sharing

Table of Contents

Sharing items

ePortfolio is a user-focused tool that empowers you to share your learning experiences and showcase your work. The sharing features of ePortfolio provide an easy way to seek feedback from your peers, mentors, and members of the broader community.

ePortfolio items are shared with other users through permissions. Separate permissions options exist for each artifact, collection, reflection, and presentation in your portfolio so you can pick and choose what content you share with others. You can give permission to see an item to individual users, sharing groups, groups of users based on course or department enrollment, or the general public through a URL (presentations only). You choose whether others can see the item, see comments, see assessments, add comments, add assessments, and/or edit the item.

Table of contents for Sharing Items

Permission options

Permission Description Available for

View (V)

Allows selected users to see your portfolio item in their Explore areas.

Anyone

See comments from other users (C)

Allows selected users to see the comments other users have left on your portfolio item.

Internal users

External user with personal invite

Add comments (+C)

Allows selected users to add comments on your portfolio item.

Internal users

External user with personal invite

See assessments from others (A)

Allows selected users to see rubric assessments other users have left on your portfolio item.

Internal users

External user with personal invite

*Not available for reflections

Add assessments (+A)

Allows selected users to evaluate your portfolio item using a rubric.

Tip: Make sure you add the rubric you want evaluators to use on the item's properties page.

Internal users

External user with personal invite

*Not available for reflections

Edit (E)

Allows selected users to make changes to your portfolio item.

Changes are tracked in the item’s Change Log.

Internal users

Note: To use the comments and assessments permissions you must make sure the comments and assessments check boxes are enabled on the item's properties page and that a rubric for assessing items has been attached to the item. These check boxes are selected by default, but it is possible to clear them (if you want to temporarily remove the ability to comment on or assess an item), and you can change the default setting so they are not selected on new items.

Back to top

Sharing items with internal users

You can share items with other users at your organization by selecting individual users, all users in a course or group you are enrolled in, or a previously saved sharing group.

For information on saving permission settings using a sharing group, see the Setting up sharing groups topic.

Assign permissions for a user or group of users

  1. Click Permission icon Share from the context menu of the item you want to make available to others.
  2. Select when you want users to be able to see the item in the Visibility section of the Sharing Setting dialog.
  3. Click Add Users and Groups.
  4. Browse for the users or sharing groups you want to add. Use the Search For field to narrow your browsing results. Users with cascading roles must perform a search to display results.
  5. Click on users or sharing groups in the browse listing to add them to the Selected Users list. Click the Remove icon Remove icon beside those users or sharing groups you want to remove from the Selected Users list.
  6. Select the permissions you want the selected users to have and click Add.

    Note: You can adjust permissions for individual users by clicking the Edit icon Edit Permissions icon beside their name in the Sharing List grid. You can adjust permissions for sharing groups you've created by clicking the Edit Sharing Group link beside their name in the Sharing List grid.

  7. Click Done or Done and Send Invite. You can send an invite to specific users in the Sharing List by selecting the check boxes beside their names before you click Done and Send Invite.

Back to top

Sharing presentations with external users

You can share ePortfolio presentations with people who are not a part of your organization such as friends, parents, or potential employers.

You can share presentations with external users in two ways:

  • You can make the presentation publicly available to anyone through a URL. When you share a presentation this way people can only view the presentation. They cannot see, add comments to, add assessments to, or edit the presentation.
  • You can send a personal invite to view your presentation via an email and the recipient can follow the attached link to view the presentation. The recipient must set up a username and password, and then they can see and add comments or assessments based on the permissions you gave them. External users cannot edit presentations.

Make a presentation publicly available through a URL

Note: If you make a presentation public via URL, the system includes social media icons (Twitter, Google+, and Facebook) at the top of your presentation to enable further sharing.

  1. Click Permission icon Share from the context menu of the presentation you want to make available by URL.
  2. Select Anyone with the URL below can access this item from the presentation's Sharing Settings and click Done. Share the provided URL with others.

Back to top

Sending invites

When you send an invite to internal users you are sharing an item with, you have the opportunity to leave them a message about why you are sharing the item and what you’d like them to do with it. Depending on how the user’s preferences are set up, the message is delivered to their email, the Invites area of their portfolio, or an RSS Reader.

Send an invite

  1. Click the Done and Send Invite button when setting up permissions for an item. You can send invites to specific users in the Sharing List by selecting the check boxes beside their names before you click Done and Send Invite.
  2. Complete the invite and click Send.

Important: If you send an invite to a sharing group that includes all users at your organization or all users in a particular course or department, all of the users in the group will receive the invite. This may be bothersome to users who do not know you.

Back to top

Inherited (cascading) permissions

Items in collections and presentations

When you include an item in a collection or presentation, the item inherits permissions from the collection or presentation (permissions are cascading), with the following exceptions:

  • The Add Assessments permission is not inherited because it requires that a rubric be associated with each item.
  • The Edit permission is not inherited because it would allow users to make major, possibly unwanted, changes to your portfolio. If you want individuals to be able to edit items in a collection or presentation, you must give them the Edit permission on each item.

Inherited permissions do not override existing permissions on items. For example, if you give an individual the view, see comments and add comments permissions for a specific item, but only the view permission is set for a collection that contains the item, the individual is able to see and add comments to the item. This is the case regardless of whether it is accessed from the collection or outside the collection.

Items associated with a reflection

When you associate a reflection with another item, the reflection does not inherit permissions from the item, nor does the item inherit permissions from the reflection.

Sharing a reflection associated with an item, only allows users to view the name of the associated item. However, sharing an item associated with a reflection allows users to view the reflection as part of the item.

Quicklinks to ePortfolio items and eP item links

If you include a quicklink or an eP item link to an ePortfolio item in a form, reflection, artifact, or presentation, the referenced item does not inherit permissions from the item containing the link. This means that individuals viewing an item from the quicklink or eP item link must also have direct permission to view the referenced item and follow the link; otherwise, they receive an error message letting them know they do not have permission to view the item.

Similarly, if you include a quicklink in an ePortfolio item to a Learning Environment item, such as a content file, individuals can only follow the link if they have permission to view that item; otherwise they receive an error message letting them know they do not have permission to view the item.

Back to top

Setting up sharing groups

Sharing groups let you save the permissions you want a user or group of users to have so you may reuse them with other items. You can create sharing groups for individual users or for all users in a particular course or group. You can have multiple sharing groups for the same users that you apply in different situations. For example, you could create sharing groups named "Comment" and "Edit and Review" and share them with the same group of peers. You would use the first sharing group for items you want to collect general feedback on and the second sharing group for items that you want others to collaborate on or revise in detail.

An organization, department, or course can also set up sharing groups and share them with you. Sharing groups that are shared with you are either optional (you can choose to apply them to specific items) or forced (you have to use them). Forced groups are either visible (appear in your Sharing Groups area) or hidden (information on the group is not available to you).

Table of contents for Setting up Sharing Groups

Access the Sharing Groups area

  1. Click the ePortfolio link in the navigation bar or My Settings widget on My Home.
  2. Select Sharing Groups in the ePortfolio Areas panel.

Create a new sharing group

  1. Select New Sharing Group on the Permissions Profile page.
  2. Give the profile a Name and Description.
  3. Click Save.

Add or change permissions for a sharing group

  1. Select the sharing group you want to manage by clicking its name.
  2. Click Add Usersto add new users to the sharing group.
    1. Browse for the users you want to add. Use the Search For field to narrow your browsing results. Users with cascading roles must perform a search to display results.
    2. Click on users or groups of users in the browse listing to add them to the Selected Users list. Click the Remove icon Remove icon beside users or groups of users in the Selected Users list to remove them from the list.
    3. Select the permissions you want the selected users to have.
    4. Click Add.
  3. Click the Edit icon Edit icon for the user or group of users for which you want to edit permissions. Select new permissions and click the Save link.
  4. Click the Remove icon Remove icon to remove a user or group and their permissions from the sharing group.
  5. Click Done.

Back to top

Set a default sharing group

A default sharing group can make sharing easier if you consistently share items with the same group of users. However, all items that meet your filter criteria are automatically shared with your default group, so ensure you set up your filters correctly.

For example:

  • If you only want to share presentations, add a type filter.
  • If you only want to share some items, add a tag filter and then tag the appropriate items with that tag when you create or edit them.
  1. Select Dashboard in the ePortfolio Areas left tool menu.
  2. Select Settings in the top tool menu.
  3. Select a Default Sharing Group in the Default Sharing Settings section.
  4. Use the Type Filter check boxes to specify which item types to automatically apply the default sharing group to.
  5. Use the Tag Filter to restrict which items the default sharing group applies to by tags.
  6. Click Save.

Back to top

Removing sharing permissions

Remove permissions from an item

  1. Click the ePortfolio link in the navigation bar or My Settings widget.
  2. Open the main page for the type of item you want to remove permissions from (artifact, collection, reflection, or presentation).
  3. Click the Permission icon Sharing icon beside the appropriate item.
  4. Click the Remove icon Remove icon next to the user or group of users you want to remove permissions from.

Remove permissions in a sharing group

  1. Click the ePortfolio link in the navigation bar or My Settings widget.
  2. Select Sharing Groups in the ePortfolio Areas left tool menu.
  3. Select the group you want to modify permissions for by clicking its name.
  4. Click the Remove icon Remove icon next to the user or group of users you want to remove permissions from.

Note: You cannot modify sharing groups that your course or organization shares with you.

Delete a sharing group

  1. Click the ePortfolio link in the navigation bar or My Settings widget.
  2. Select Sharing Groups in the ePortfolio Areas left tool menu.
  3. Click the Delete icon Delete icon beside the group you want to delete.

Note: You cannot delete sharing groups that your course or organization share with you.

Temporarily hide an item from all users

Change the Visibility options on the General Availability tab of the Sharing page for the item.

Tip - Temporarily hide an item when:

  • You want to make changes to it and don’t want others to see it in draft stages.
  • You want to make it available on a specific, predetermined date and want to set up sharing permissions in advance.

Back to top

Reviewing content shared with you

The Explore area of ePortfolio manages the items others have shared with you. The Users tab lets you search for items by the user's First Name or Last Name. The Items tab lets you search for items by the item's Name, Description, Tags, Type, Last Edited date or Last Accessed date. Note: If you wish to no longer see an item that has been shared with you, you must content the owner of the item.

Tip: Set your dashboard display options to notify you when others send you an invite.

Table of contents for Reviewing Content Shared with You

Access the Explore area

Click Explore in the ePortfolio Areas panel.

View an item

Click on the item’s name.

Leave a comment

  1. Open the item you want to leave a comment on from the Explore area.
  2. Click Add Comment.
  3. Enter your comment.
  4. Click Add.

Back to top

Leave an assessment

  1. Open the item you want to evaluate from the Explore area.
  2. Click Add Assessment.
  3. Select the rubric you want to use to evaluate the item, and click Add.
  4. Select the appropriate rubric level.
  5. Click Add.

Back to top

Edit an item

  1. Click the Edit option in the top tool menu when viewing an item.
  2. Make your changes.
  3. Click Save.

Note: You can use the Change Log to see what changes have been made to the file. If you make changes to an item that another user is sharing with you, your changes will affect how much disk space the owner of the file is using.

Note: If you wish to no longer see an item that has been shared with you, you must content the owner of the item.

Back to top

​