To publish the portfolio, you’ll have to share it with other users. Sharing can be done with tutors, instructors, external users, as well as courses, organizations and institution roles, so everyone related to it can see the portfolio. This is done from within ‘My Portfolios’ in the tab Portfolio. Below a stepwise explanation.

1/ Sharing

1. Choosing Shared users
   Move your mouse above the name of the concerning portfolio and click on the downward arrow that will show up. It will bring up a popup-menu, choose ‘Share’. You will be directed to a new window ‘Share Portfolio’:
   
   Click ‘Share a snapshot with’ to go to the menu with all the kinds of shares you are able to choose. In the example above, we chose the option ‘Users’. You will be directed to the screen below in which you are able to enter the shared users and to formulate an accompanying text.
   
   .
2. How will the portfolio be displayed?
   Different types of users will see the portfolio differently:
   – Blackboard users: they see the snapshot in ‘Shared with me’;
   – External users: they will receive an e-mail of the URL of the snapshot;
   – Courses of Organizations: the snapshot will be placed in the portfolios tool, where members are able to view it. Members are able to search for the portfolio;
   – Institution roles/system accounts: the concerned users may search for the snapshot and view it.
   .
3. Selecting the users
   Click ‘Browse’ to go to the selection screen below.
   
   Fill in a part of the name in the search field in the screen. If you need to, you may issue another searchfield (like first name/email) or another search criterion (starts with/equal to), click ‘Go’ to execute the search. Now select the users you want the portfolio to be shared with in the screen with the search results, and click ‘Submit’. The users will now be added as shared users.
   Note: not all Blackboard users can be found via this search function. Users can indicate themselves that they do not want to be found in this database. If you cannot find a user here, please contact the user yourself to request his details.
   .
4. Finishing
   Select wether the users will receive e-mail (selection-button above the editor part) and wether you would like to receive a copy for yourself too (selection-buttons below the editor part). Blackboard already formulated a text to be sended to the shared users in the Editor, which you can alter there.
   When ready, click ‘Submit’ to finish and execute the sharing.
   .
5. How do others view a snapshot of your portfolio?
   Others are able to look at the snapshot you have been sharing with them in ‘Shared with me’. In the screen below you can see the existence of a folder called ‘Classmates’ and a received snapshot:
   
   Every snapshot listed is accompanied by a short description (if existing), the owner and the time of creation. For every snapshot or folder, the following functions can be used:
   – ‘Open’ shows the contents of a folder or it opens a view to the snapshot.
   – ‘Move’ directs snapshots (or folders) to another destination, like to a folder or to the ‘Top Level’.
   – ‘Delete’ removes the snapshot.
   A few other functions are available on this page:
   – You may create folders with the button ‘Create Folder’.
   – If you received a lot of snapshots, ‘Search’ helps you to find the correct one.

Sharing an updated Portfolio
You only share a snapshot of your Portfolio. This allows you to further create and change your Portfolio without this influencing the shared snapshot. When you want to share your updated Portfolio you need to share a new snapshot.
To share a new snapshot you need to first remove the current snapshot. Then share a new snapshot as described in the steps above.
All comments that you received in a shared snapshot will be kept available.

2/ Changing the share availability

The share is influenced by the availability setting of the portfiolio itself. If a user received an invitation for a share of the portfolio, it can only be seen while the ‘Availability’ setting has been turned on.

Go to the section ‘My Portfolios’ of the tab Portfolio. Blackboard lists all of your portfolios, similar to the image below:

Move your mouse above the name of the concerning portfolio and click on the downward arrow that will show up. It will bring up a popup-menu, now choose ‘Settings’. The window below is brought up, which has a few settings that can be altered:

Adjust settings in the following manner:

• ‘Available’: it is a good practice to make a portfolio ‘Unavailable’ while you are designing it, to prevent users to look at an unfinished portfolio. After the portfolio has been finished and you want to publish it, you’ll make it available.
• ‘Comments are Private’: this is to prevent users to see all the comments that have been added to the portfolio. The creator of the comment and you, are the only ones that are able to see the comment. Usually comments are set open to the users during the creation-phase and set to private after the portfolio has been finished.

Click ‘Submit’ to save the modifications.