In case you missed it, Blackboard for the first time is offering an opportunity to catch all the BbWorld keynotes, product roadmaps, and many of the other sessions by registering at bbworldlive.com
The schedule of live streamed sessions is available here.
At MCC (http://www.monroecc.edu/) we are rolling out Blackboard Portfolios this Fall with a pilot group. Like NIU, we had Portfolios turned off. One reason we had them turned off was because of the lack of functionality beyond our institution. Blackboard allows the student to Export their Portfolio as a zip file, which is basically useless unless you (and anyone you send it to) is comfortable with working with offline html files. How is NIU addressing this issue? How are others from other institutions addressing this as well?
Hi Tom. Prior to upgrading to the Bb Learn 9.1 April 201 release in May 2015, we hadn’t even considered using the Bb Portfolio tool because of how limited it was. The Portfolio tool now is a viable option and one that both our First-Year Composition and Introduction to the University (UNIV101) programs at NIU are eager to pilot this fall.
The way we are approaching the export as .zip file which you mentioned is to position the Bb Portfolio as the academic portfolio tool for students to use while completing their coursework, showcasing their achievement of competencies demonstrated through the various course artifacts that they include. The tool isn’t designed for students to continue to make use of after graduation, but the exported portfolio can be shown offline or uploaded to some student-owned web space (or, even a cloud storage tool like Dropbox) for the student to “own” indefinitely.
The tool, at present, isn’t a “lifelong portfolio” but I’d love for Bb to consider that down the road…