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 enable you to seek feedback from your peers, mentors, and members of the broader community.

Use permissions to share ePortfolio items with other users. You can set up separate permissions options for each artifact, collection, reflection, presentation, and learning objective in your ePortfolio so you can pick and choose what content you share with others. You can assign permissions to individual users, sharing groups, groups of users based on course or department enrollment, or the general public through a URL (presentations only). You can choose whether others can see the item, see comments, see assessments, add comments, add assessments, and/or edit the item.

Table of contents

1. Sharing items with internal users
2. Sharing presentations with external users
3. Permission options
4. Sending invites
5. Inherited (cascading) permissions

Sharing items with internal users

You can share items with other users in 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 Setting up sharing groups.

Assign permissions for a user or group of users

1. Click Share from the context menu of the item you want to make available to others.
2. Select when you want users 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 beside 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. View more detail about permission options.

   Note  You can adjust permissions for individual users by clicking the 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. If you want to send an invite to specific users in the Sharing List, select the check boxes beside their names and click Send Invite.
8. Click Close.

Sharing presentations with external users

You can share ePortfolio presentations with people who are not 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 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 Close. Share the provided URL with others.

Make a presentation externally available to specific people and assign them permissions

1. Click Share from the context menu of the presentation you want to make available to external users.
2. Click Add Users and Groups from a presentation's Sharing Settings.
3. Click Click to share the presentation with an external user.
4. Enter the External Email Address of the external user you want to send an invite to and click Add.
5. Select the permissions you want the external users to have and click Add. The system automatically notifies external users of their granted permissions. View more detail about permission options.
6. Click Close.

   Note  The recipient must follow the link in the invite and set up a username and password to view the presentation. The invite expires after three days (or another amount of time set by your organization).

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Permission options

Permission	Description	Available for
View	Allows selected users to see your ePortfolio item on the Explore page.	Anyone
See comments from others	Allows selected users to see the comments other users have left on your ePortfolio item.	Internal users External user with personal invite
Add comments	Allows selected users to add comments on your ePortfolio item.	Internal users External user with personal invite
See assessments from others	Allows selected users to see rubric assessments other users have left on your ePortfolio item.	Internal users External user with personal invite *Not available for reflections
Add assessments	Allows selected users to evaluate your ePortfolio item using a rubric. Tip  Make sure you add the rubric you want evaluators to use on the item's Edit page.	Internal users External user with personal invite *Not available for reflections
Edit	Allows selected users to make changes to your ePortfolio item. You can track changes 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 Edit 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.

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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, they will receive the message in their email, the Invites area of their dashboard, or an RSS Reader. Recent invites also appear in the Message alerts on the minibar.

Send an invite

1. In the Sharing Settings dialog for an item, send invites to specific users in the Sharing List by selecting the check boxes beside their names, then click 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.

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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 ePortfolio. 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 individually.

Inherited permissions do not override existing permissions on items. For example, if you give an individual the view, see comments from others, 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.

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See also

• Setting up sharing groups
• Removing sharing permissions
• Viewing items shared with you