An e-portfolio is defined as, “…a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the web.”
In the past schools wishing to use e-portfolios often had to set up a specialised system requring students or staff to upload their work into their portfolios. But students already have their work on the school’s network – often organised by subject, or school year (or both). Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to turn their existing folders into e-portfolios with a few simple clicks?
Foldr has a very powerful feature known as the fLink. We went into some detail in a previous article about fLinks but essentially they are short URLs to files or folders on your network which can be shared with other users or, if the link is marked as public, anybody. Public links are a secure way of sharing network resources without having to move them or upload them to another system saving time and preventing duplication.
The great thing is that since the resources remain on your network you do not need to recreate a link every time a file is updated. So a student can create an fLink to their home folder – or a subfolder which contains their work – and they have an instant, online e-portfolio. Even better, parents can bookmark the link to keep up with their child’s progress whenever and wherever they want.
An example of an fLink-ed folder is shown below…
Users can browse through the various folders, download individual items, download the whole folder…
…or preview individual files…
Foldr and fLinks make creating e-portfolios and showcasing students work online easy and fun.