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What is a portfolio?
Bulb
Other options and platform comparisons
Portfolio content does not have to be limited to studies
Tips for different uses of a portfolio
Important to remember
Frequently asked questions about Bulb
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is above all your personal learning platform. Your portfolio collects the content you want to keep and use after your studies have ended. Your portfolio can contain various separate compilations on different topics for different purposes. You decide case-by-case whether to share the portfolio or parts of it with others.
A portfolio can serve as a tool for developing and demonstrating competence. Working on it supports the formation of your professional identity. In your portfolio you can collect various types of content that serve their purpose (for example your notes on service design tools or work samples to present when applying for jobs).
We recommend that you start compiling your portfolio at the beginning of your studies and supplement it as your studies progress – compiling is easiest when you do it little by little.
Bulb
Bulb’s license is paid by Laurea, so we provide the platform only to students studying in degree programmes leading to a qualification (incl. pathway students). As a Laurea student you must activate the service as follows. Note that the registration process is two-step:
- First, provide your details to Laurea that you are creating a Bulb account: Bulb registration form. We need this information for user account administration.
- After you have filled in the form you will receive a link that allows you to create your account on the Bulb EU server used by Laurea and additional instructions. Note that you cannot register as a Laurea user directly via Bulb’s website (data cannot be transferred between the servers and accounts created via Bulb’s site cannot be granted a paid license).
- When registering, make sure you give Bulb your Laurea email address and your correct name.
- Also add your personal (outside work/study) email address to the contact details in settings.
Bulb offers excellent user support in English, which we recommend using if needed (instructions on the site as well as chat service and tickets in English). You can also switch Bulb’s language to an understandable machine-translated Finnish if you prefer.
Note! If you do not actively use Bulb, we will revert your account to the free version. You will receive an email about this. If you are still a Laurea student at that time, you may, if necessary, get access again to a paid license. You will receive instructions on the procedures by email. No content is lost when the account type changes and all publishing settings remain as you have defined them. In the long run, license validity is aimed to be linked to whether you are a Laurea student.
User support at Laurea is provided by Service Desk.
Other options and platform comparisons
Canvas has a simple portfolio tool; instructions for using it are available in Canvas student guides. The tool is available to you during your studies.
You can also build a portfolio e.g. on WordPress or Wix. Find more information and platform comparisons in the linked presentation. Laurea does not provide technical support for using the platforms mentioned in the presentation.
You also have access to tools on the Microsoft 365 platform, such as the easy-to-use Sway, with which the above-mentioned presentation was created.
Portfolio content does not have to be limited to studies
A portfolio enables a broad view of competence. You can consider and include examples of
- your studies,
- working life,
- leisure activities such as charity work or hobbies.
At the start of your studies, a portfolio is an excellent tool for identifying competence and collecting the demonstrations needed for recognition and accreditation. During your studies a portfolio can be used, for example, to document the occupational integration of work (TOPI). In a thesis in portfolio form (login required) you can aim to make use of material you have previously added to your portfolio.
When producing important content, remember information security (personal data, trade secrets, etc.) and copyrights. Only upload material to the platform that would not be harmful if it were leaked to the internet.
Tips for different uses of a portfolio
- Personal learning environment: a place for notes, your own reports and other outputs as well as reflection on your competence
- A place to store materials; a so-called basic portfolio
- A place to collect and illustrate the learning process and results; a so-called process portfolio (e.g. describing and evaluating a project, documenting occupational integration)
- A place to demonstrate your competence by offering selected work samples; a so-called showcase portfolio
When compiling a portfolio, consider who you are making it for and why.
Updating, editing and sending a digital portfolio is easy. The portfolio can look however you want and you can use your creativity in designing its appearance and content. In an electronic portfolio you can include text, images, files, multimedia, a blog, a CV and embedded YouTube videos, for example.
If you are interested in further studies, it is important that you can describe your theoretical basis when needed, i.e. the literature and other information sources and materials you have used at different stages of your studies. These should always be cited in your reports and presentations so that you can compile them for an application to further studies if needed.
If you wish, you can create a compilation of your knowledge base on the portfolio platform. You can group sources by topic and even collect professional information related to your field in the portfolio.
Important to remember
You are responsible for the content you create on the platform and for ensuring that the content is lawful.
If you share a page with someone else, that is considered publishing. When publishing content be careful about whether you have permission to share that content and under what conditions (e.g. licenses, references, quotations).
Always respect copyrights. In group work always state your own role in the output, remember other contributors and ask their permission to use the work.
Remember information security: protect both your own personal data and that of others. Do not share your personal identity number or, for example, customer or patient information on the platform. Do not publish images of people without their permission.
Always keep a copy of important information and files on a hard drive or a reliable cloud service. Laurea is not responsible for lost data if the service is discontinued.
Frequently asked questions about Bulb
Frequently asked questions about Bulb
I have registered, but I cannot log in to my account and I cannot reset the password.
Check that you are logging in at https://eu.bulbapp.com (i.e. that the address contains “eu”). If this is missing, you are on the US version of the service and your account will not be found there.
How do I change the language?
You can change the language from the login page (see the video) or from settings.
How do I publish and share a page or site?
We generally recommend using a custom link. Sometimes it may also be appropriate to set a page or site as public. Always test the link in your browser’s incognito/private mode or in another browser where you are not logged into Bulb.
To share a page or site: click “share” and choose “custom” or “public”. You can copy the shareable link from the dialog. Once you have set a page to public, the page’s URL also works as a shareable link.
Note that if you share a custom link on a public site, your page may appear in search engines.
How do changes to the page get updated?
Changes are saved automatically, but they only become visible to those you have shared the page with after you publish the changes. When you leave an edited page, Bulb asks whether you want the changes to be visible to those you have shared the page with.
Can my page be commented on?
Commenting is possible for a user who is logged in to Bulb, provided you have not disabled commenting. Comments are visible to everyone who views the page while logged in. Comments can be hidden if desired by disabling the commenting function.
You can also use the commenting tool to comment on a text section. With this tool you can highlight the area you are commenting on by drawing.
How can pages and sites be organized?
Grab and drag a page or site to the position you want. Release when a blue bar appears indicating that you are moving the page. You can also move pages and sites inside other sites by releasing over the target site. To move up a level, drag the page or site on the breadcrumb trail to the site where you want the content to be placed.
How can we do group work?
Bulb is not a group work tool. We do not recommend sharing your login credentials.
If you want to produce joint content in Bulb, we recommend using the commenting tool and templates. Practically, the work is always created on one group member’s account, from which content can be copied to others’ Bulb accounts using a template. Finally, the owner of the account where the final product resides can allow other group members to copy the final product by setting the site as a template.
What is a template and how is it used?
A template means the ability to copy a page or site. After a page has been designated as a template, copying the page is possible when the user shares the page or site’s link and the recipient clicks “use template” while logged into their Bulb account.
Templates can be used to share, for example, lecture notes.
How do I fetch content from cloud services?
You can connect your Microsoft and Google cloud accounts from settings. For now (13.3.2023) it is not possible to display content directly from the cloud service. After connecting, you can fetch your files from the cloud and they will be saved to Bulb’s own asset library.
How do I access settings?
Access settings by clicking your name. In the view select “more”. Settings are found beneath this.
What happens to my account when I graduate?
Your account and its contents remain as they are (including the sharing settings you have defined), but your account will be removed from Laurea’s accounts. According to the current terms (18.10.2022), your account will remain available to you for one year free with the current functionality and thereafter as a free account with limited features that affect the creation of new content. Bulb offers a paid option to continue using the service with full features. Terms of use may change, and Bulb is responsible for informing its customers of such changes. Make sure your account contact details are up to date.