Hi Arthur,

Only making slow progress I'm afraid :) We're still using it on our Test
Server so I'm presuming that we haven't got much further than you, if at
all. Staff/student feedback is going to be crucial.

I've heard of one other person having the two portfolio problem but
haven't experienced it on our system. ...Yet.

Something like that would be annoying to have to explain to students as
it's a blatant flaw whereas the other things we've mentioned seem
(mostly) to be design changes/issues.

Portfolios aside, have you noticed any other positive/negative features
of 7.2?

Guy

-----Original Message-----
From: Blackboard/Courseinfo userslist
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Arthur
Loughran
Sent: 10 May 2007 11:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Blackboard 7.2 vs 7.1

Guy,
Glad to here that someone is making progress with this ........, words
fail me.

Forgot to mention that when using a template as the basis for a new
Personal Portfolio the system creates two identical personal portfolios.
Have you come across this act of generosity from Bb?

You can always delete the additional one though.  Always a workaround
available.  

best,
Arthur


>>> Guy Ian Scott Pursey <[log in to unmask]> 09/05/2007
10:21:24 am >>>
Thanks Arthur and hello again Paul,

I had noticed some of the problems concerning the navigation
menu/layouts before but I think this is not so much of an issue as a
difference from the way Basic Portfolios display. It may throw off those
who have been using Basic Portfolios but it seems to be a stylistic
issue.

I suppose the bigger problem of moving to 7.2 in terms of portfolios
when it comes to familiarity is that, even though Basic Portfolios are
still present alongside Personal Portfolios, the whole interface for
them has changed from 7.1. "Content" and "Manage" buttons have been
replaced by "Modify" and "Remove" which may confuse those who have been
having trouble getting used to the feature more generally. We've
prepared help documents to guide any students who might have trouble
adapting to the upgrade.

The Portfolio Template function however does allow what some staff here
have been waiting for - to provide the students with a simple structure
to which they can add content. In addition to this provision, it's
possible to lock down individual aspects of the template so that
students cannot change the navigation style/layout - this is something
that needs to be discussed but could potentially be a way of avoiding
certain problems (that admittedly should not be there in the first
place...)

The Personal Artifacts function may not seem intuitive but I think it
could be an improvement on the Content System as it allows direct
addition and reuse of content while avoiding the previous two-step
process of adding-to-personal-area before linking-to-from-portfolio
(though this is still possible too). I need to investigate permissions
issues further. However, we still need staff and students to feedback on
this. Like Arthur, I've only been investigating and I'd be grateful for
information from anyone who has progressed further. 

Yet again, I hope this helps,
Guy

PS. Arthur, I will have to try out the Basic Portfolio issue that you
mentioned.



-----Original Message-----
From: Blackboard/Courseinfo userslist
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Arthur
Loughran
Sent: 08 May 2007 16:33
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: Blackboard 7.2 vs 7.1

Hi,
Problems with Personal Portfolios are:
 - the navigation menu has a fixed width,
 - it does not extend the full length of the page,
 - the buttons option does not work (and they are not buttons as we
would know them),
 - if the template 3 navigation layout option is desired the tables in
webpages and artifacts must be no more than 
   approximately 75% in width (which can be a pain if you are building
a page with artifacts that have tables wider than
   75%), 
 - when using the template 4 option the header is set above the
navigation menu .

It is also not particularly intuitive to use, ie the structure of pages
(which are really web pages) containing artifacts (which are files and
or other web pages) can get quite confusing for those not used to
building web pages (ie most staff and students).

Transferring existing "Items" from Basic Portfolios to artifacts is as
slick as superglue, ie you have to cut and paste the HTML code from the
basic portfolio item into the artifact or page.

I have only been investigating Personal Portfolios for as few hours and
am quite happy to take guidance for those on the list who have managed
to develop their use more fully.  I would be delighted if those who have
developed Personal Portfolios could share them with the list to help us
all understand the potential. I have also asked Blackboard to provide
the same.

Oh and by the way (as we say in Glasgow), when you download a Basic
Portfolio which contains templates which contain links to multiple
files, the zip file contains only the first linked file in the template
and the html code for all the other links is changed to link to the
first file in the template.  Now that is some trick.  A ticket is in on
this one.  In fact a ticket is in on all of these things.

regards,
Arthur Loughran









>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dr. Arthur J. Loughran
Senior Lecturer
Centre for Academic and Professional Development (CAPD)
University of Paisley
Paisley PA1 2BE
tele:     +44-(0)141-848-3558
fax:      +44-(0)141-848-3822
email:   [log in to unmask] 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>> Guy Ian Scott Pursey <[log in to unmask]> 08/05/2007
11:14:33 am >>>
Hi Paul, 

We've been testing Blackboard's Application Pack 2. The main advantage
seems to be that it has "Personal Portfolios" in addition to what are
now called your "Basic Portfolios".

With "Personal Portfolios" you can create a layout/structure, with
labelled items already in place, which students can then access as a
template and use. From what I can see, you cannot provide page
templates
as with the "Basic Portfolios" but, last week, someone from Blackboard
told me that I was wrong on this but I'm waiting for them to get back
to
me on how it can be done. For the most part however, "Personal
Portfolios" do seem to be an improvement and, for us, they are the
main
driver for adopting 7.2.

I saw a demonstration of other 7.2 features last week, among them:
improved content management and manageable building blocks. To be
honest, I've yet to do any testing on these myself so wouldn't want to
say too much for now.

If you want any more information on the new portfolios feature though,
feel free to get in touch.

Hope this helps,
Guy

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Guy Pursey
e-Learning Support Officer
CDoTL (Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning)
Room 4, HumSS
Whiteknights
University of Reading
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