What is a portfolio?
Your portfolio can contain many different, separate compilations that cover different topics for different purposes. You decide on a case-by-case basis whether to share the portfolio or parts of it with other people.
A portfolio can function as a tool for developing and demonstrating competence. Working on it supports the formation of your professional identity. In your portfolio you can gather a variety of content that serves its 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 if you do it little by little.
Watch a video in which our student Iisa talks about her portfolio
Bulb
Laurea pays for the Bulb license, so we only offer the platform to students in degree-awarding education (including pathway students). As a Laurea student, you must activate the service as follows. Note that the registration process is two-stage:
- First, provide your details to Laurea so that you are registered as creating a Bulb account: Registration for the Bulb portfolio platform. Log in with your Laurea credentials. We need the information for user account maintenance.
- After completing the form you will receive a link to create your account on the Bulb EU server that Laurea uses, along with further instructions. Note that you cannot register as a Laurea user directly through Bulb’s pages (passing information between servers is not possible and accounts created via Bulb’s pages cannot be granted a paid license).
- When registering, make sure you provide your Laurea email address and your correct name to Bulb.
- Also add your personal (non-work) email address to your contact information in settings.
Bulb offers excellent support in English, which we recommend using if needed (instructions on the site as well as chat service and tickets in English). You can, if you wish, change Bulb’s language to a machine-translated Finnish.
Note! If you do not actively use Bulb, we will convert your account to a free version. You will receive an email about this. If you are still a Laurea student at that time, you can, if necessary, obtain a paid license again. You will receive instructions by email on how to proceed. No content will be lost from your portfolio as a result of the change in account type and all publication settings will remain as you have defined them. In the long term, license validity will be tied to whether you are a Laurea student.
User support at Laurea is provided by servicedesk@laurea.fi.
Other options and platform comparisons
You can also work on a portfolio using, for example, WordPress or Wix.
You also have access to tools from the Microsoft 365 platform, for example the easy-to-use Sway.
The content of a portfolio does not have to be limited to studies
A portfolio enables a broad examination of competence. You can consider and include examples of
- from studies
- from working life
- from leisure time, for example charity work or hobby activities.
At the start of your studies, a portfolio is an excellent tool for gathering the evidence needed for recognition and accreditation of prior learning. During your studies, the portfolio can be used, for example, to document work-based formalisation (TOPI). In a portfolio-style thesis you can aim to utilise material you have previously created for your portfolio.
When producing important content, remember data security (personal data, trade secrets, etc.) and copyright. Only upload material to the platform that would not be harmful if it leaked onto 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 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, work-based formalisation)
- A place to demonstrate your competence by offering selected work samples; a so-called showcase portfolio
When compiling a portfolio, think about who you are making it for and why.
Updating, editing and sending a digital portfolio is easy. The portfolio can reflect your own style and you can be creative in its design and content. For example, you can include text, images, files, multimedia, a blog, a CV and YouTube embeds in an electronic portfolio.
If you are interested in continuing studies, it is important that you can, when necessary, describe your evidence base, i.e. the literature and other information sources and materials you have used at different stages of your studies. These should always be referenced in your reports and presentations, from where you can compile them if needed for further study applications.
If you wish, you can create a compilation of your evidence base on the portfolio platform. You can group sources by topic and even compile professional information relevant to your field into 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, this is considered publishing. When publishing content, be careful about whether you have permission to share the content and under what conditions (cf. permissions, references, quotations).
Always respect copyright. In group work, always state your role in the output, acknowledge other contributors and ask them for permission to use the work.
Remember data security: protect both your own personal data and that of others. Do not share your personal identity number or, for example, customer or patient data on the platform. Do not publish photos of people without their permission.
Frequently asked about Bulb
I have registered, but I cannot log into my account and cannot change my password.
Check that you are logging in at https://eu.bulbapp.com (i.e., with ‘eu’ in the address). If this is missing, you are on the US equivalent site’s page, and your account will not be found there.
How do I change the language?
You can change the language from the login page (watch 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 to public. Always test the link in a browser’s incognito 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 selection dialog. Once you have set a page to public, the page’s URL will also function as a shareable link.
Be aware that if you share a custom link on a public site, your page may become visible in search engines.
How do changes to a page update?
Changes are saved automatically, but they will only be visible to those you have shared the page with after you publish the changes. When you leave the page you have been editing, Bulb will ask if you want the changes to be visible to those with whom you have shared the page.
Can my page be commented on?
Commenting is possible for a user logged into Bulb, provided you have not disabled the commenting feature. Comments made are visible to everyone who views the page while logged in. Comments can be hidden by disabling the commenting option.
You can also use the commenting tool for commenting on text sections. This tool allows marking the exact area you are commenting on.
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 into other sites by releasing on top of the destination site. To move up a level, drag the page or site on the breadcrumb trail to the site you want the content moved to.
How can we do group work?
Bulb is not a group collaboration tool. We do not recommend sharing your login details.
If you want to produce shared content in Bulb, we recommend using the commenting tool and templates. In practice, the work is always done on one group member’s account, from which content can be copied to others’ Bulb accounts using a template. Finally, the account on which the work 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 refers to the ability to copy a page or site. Copying a page as a template is possible after it has been designated as a template and the user shares the page or site link; the recipient can then click “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. As of (13.3.2023) it is not possible to display content directly from the cloud service. After connecting, you can retrieve your files from the cloud, and they will be saved in Bulb’s own asset library.
Where do I find settings?
You can access settings by clicking your name. In the view, select “more”. Settings are located under this.
What happens to my account after graduation?
Your account and its contents will remain as they are (including the sharing settings you have configured), but your account will be removed from Laurea’s accounts. According to current terms (18.10.2022), your account will remain available to you for one year free of charge with the existing functionalities, and thereafter as a free account with limited functionalities, which will affect the creation of new content. Bulb offers the option to continue using the service with full features for a fee. Terms of use may change, and Bulb is responsible for informing its customers of such changes. Make sure that your account contact information is up to date.