Who is this guide for? This guide is intended for attendees of the PebblePad: Absolute Beginners staff

development course. It is designed to introduce users to the very basics of using

PebblePad

Last Updated: February 2011

e-Portfolio Pebblepad: Absolute Beginners

PebblePad: Absolute Beginners

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Orientation ........................................................................................................................... 3 

Logging into PebblePad via MAP .................................................................................. 3 

Navigating around the interface .................................................................................... 3 

Contextual help ................................................................................................................... 3

The welcome page .............................................................................................................. 4 

Introduction to the concept of assets ................................................................................... 4 

Single asset types ......................................................................................................... 4 

Presentational asset types ............................................................................................ 5 

File assets ..................................................................................................................... 5 

Creating assets ................................................................................................................... 5 

Your asset store .................................................................................................................. 8 

Send an asset to another user ............................................................................................ 9 

Add a comment to an asset ............................................................................................... 10 

File assets ......................................................................................................................... 10 

Linking assets .................................................................................................................... 11 

Customising your e-Portfolio ............................................................................................. 12 

Appearance ................................................................................................................. 12 

Preferences ................................................................................................................. 13 

Further Resources ............................................................................................................. 13 

Accessing via mobile devices ...................................................................................... 13 

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Orientation

Logging into PebblePad via MAP

Use My Aston Portal (MAP) to log into

Aston e-Portfolio either via

aston.ac.uk/map or the link to MAP on the

Aston home page. You’ll find the link to the

Aston e-Portfolio under E-Learning Links

Some members of staff will not have

access to MAP. In this case, you can

access PebblePad directly at

eportfolio.aston.ac.uk

Navigating around the interface

The PebblePad interface makes extensive use of popup windows, and as such your web

browser may block them. Look out for your browser telling you it has blocked a popup

window and allow it.

Rather than disable your pop up blocker completely, it is advisable to tell your browser to

allow all popup windows originating from eportfolio.aston.ac.uk. If you need help with this,

contact ISA via bit.ly/astonisa.

Contextual help

You can get a quick tip about an item on a pad by

clicking the question mark next to it, and get

more help by clicking on the box.

For help about the pad, click the larger question

mark at the bottom right of the pad. (However

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the help system doesn’t currently work with Google Chrome)

The welcome page

Once you have logged into PebblePad your

welcome page will look similar to the

screenshot at the left. There are four menu

options on the welcome page

1. Create new – list all of the wizards that help you record or create assets

2. View – allows you to view and search assets

3. Tools – contains tools for your settings, contacts

4. Upload file – allows you to upload single or zipped files.

The homepad sits on the right and side of the interface. It contains information about the

number and status of your assets. Except where there are zero assets you can click on

any of the homepad links to open your asset store to show, for example, your updated

assets.

Introduction to the concept of assets Items created in or uploaded to PebblePad are known as assets. There are three core

types of asset: single, presentational and file.

Single asset types

Allow you to record/plan events and activities

Ability - Skills, competencies or abilities that you have

Achievement - Achievements or accomplishments you would like to record

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Action Plan - Skills, competencies, abilities or experiences you want to plan for.

Activity - Activities or actions you would like to record

Experience - Personal or professional experiences you would like to record

Meeting - Recording meetings with others e.g. for mentoring or tutoring

Thought - A general record for thoughts & reflections

Presentational asset types

These assets act as collections and normally have other assets added to them. For

example, creating a blog will let you add thoughts and files to it and the webfolio lets you

collate links to other assets or external sites.

Blog - A tool for creating an online journal or diary

CV - Use data and records in PebblePad to create a CV

Profile - A self auditing tool for rating your skills or providing evidence of competence

Form - Tailored for created for your course or profession

Webfolio - A collection of assets brought together to create an e-Portfolio presentation

File assets

Upload files from your computer to your e-portfolio to use as supportive documents.

The PebblePad website has a comprehensive list of asset types and when to use them

http://bit.ly/pebblepadasset

Creating assets From the welcome screen select create new and then

choose the type of asset you require.

The arrow in the header toggles a menu containing basic

editing tools (cutting, copying, pasting, saving and spell

checking)

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Assets can be tagged and favourite tags can be selected from the drop down menu. Tags

are keywords you use to describe assets to help you organise them. Click on all tags to

access your full tag list or create new ones.

Navigate through the steps using the arrow or number icons in the footer

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Some of the asset wizards contain tools to help you organise

what you are writing. One such tool is the list tool, left, which

allows you to create items for adding to a list – in this case

steps towards completion of an action plan. Items are added

to the list by clicking on the chevron arrows. Once in the list,

items can be selected then edited, deleted or reordered.

This tool (right) is

called an accordion. It

allows multiple entries

to be made on a single page. In this case the

accordion presents categories of resources that

someone might use to help them achieve their

action plan. Click on the heading bars to move

between different parts of the accordion.

The penultimate page (left) when creating assets prompts

reflection on what you have learnt either from your

experience or from writing about it. The hours, points,

reminders link is for recording time spent on the activity, and

assigning points - for example, if your record of

achievements is rated in a points-based development

scheme. You can also add a reminder to reflect later, should

you wish.

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The last page on all new assets contains tools which

allow you to:

View – opens the asset in a webpage, which is how

others would see it if shared.

Send to – to share with others you would send to a

person. You can also send to a gateway (of which we

will cover in a later tutorial), a blog, or a printer.

Add a review – these are additional fields of information

which add new thoughts or reflections to an asset.

Add/edit link – these can be links to other assets, uploaded files or email/web links

Tag this asset – making it easier to organise your assets and to link similar items together.

Your asset store To find assets you have already created, click on view then

my assets (left) from the welcome page. The newest assets

appear at the top, or you can use the arrow on the my

assets tab to filter to those of a certain asset type.

Clicking on any asset in the list opens the overview

pad. This contains the same options you find on the

last page of an asset wizard, albeit organised

slightly differently. The edit tab contains the options shown to the right.

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The info tab (left) contains information about the asset

including whether it is shared, published to a gateway or has

comments. This information is clickable so that, for example,

if it tells you that the asset is shared, you can find out who

has access.

The third tab, shared, lists the users who have access to the

asset, and allows you to revoke or change access. If the

asset hasn’t been shared with anyone, this tab will not

appear.

Send an asset to another user All assets that you create remain private unless you choose to share them with others.

They can be posted to gateways, of which we will cover in another tutorial, but the

simplest way is to share with another chosen PebblePad user. Note: assets can be made

public using the web option.

1. From the welcome screen, select view then my assets

2. Use the asset store to locate and select the item you want to share (see Your asset store

on page 8).

3. In the pad which opens, select send to… and then

person

4. Your my contacts list will be blank, so you’ll need to

add a contact

5. Enter the first name and family name of the person

you want to send the thought to, then click on the

tick to the right.

6. In the results, click on the required person, then click

the tick at the bottom of the pad

(You could repeat steps five and six to add other contacts)

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7. The pad on the right of the screen shows the sharees. Click the arrow at the bottom to

advance to the second page

8. The second page allows you to set permissions on the asset you have just shared. Let’s

allow the recipient to comment on the asset and click the tick at the bottom to save and

close.

The user(s) you’ve selected to share the asset with will receive

an e-mail telling them they have received an asset in PebblePad, and they’ll have a

notification on their homepad saying there is a new received/updated asset

Add a comment to an asset Find the asset using the asset store, either using the my assets tab or received assets tab

depending on if you’re commenting on your own asset or one that has been shared with

you. Select view this asset which will open the asset in a separate window.

Clicking the speech bubble in the top right will let you comment on the asset.

When commenting, you can choose to make the comment private; only you and the

author or the asset you’re commenting on will have access to the comment.

File assets

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Files are treated as any other asset within PebblePad. There

are four types of file asset you can upload: a website,

gallery, multiple files, and single file.

To upload a single file, from the welcome page click upload

file then single file

In the pad that opens (right) there are areas to add a title,

select tags and add a description for the asset. When you

have filled out the form select upload file. A pop up window

will let you choose the file to upload. When you’ve done so, click upload

As with other assets, the final stages of uploading a file allow you a moment of reflection,

the ability to log time spent on this activity and give you tools to manipulate the asset (see

page 7).

Linking assets Linking assets together is a way of contextualising or providing evidence. For example,

you may want to link a thought with an action plan.

1. Find and select the asset you want to attach a link to

(see Your asset store on page 8)

2. From the edit tab, select more options… and then

add/edit link

3. You will be presented with a second asset store, use

this to locate the asset you want to link to the first

asset and then click the green tick in the bottom

of the pad.

4. The link is complete. You can view this asset to

confirm.

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Note: By creating and uploading various types of assets you build a rich and detailed

hyperlinked record of achievements or reflections. This method of

continual/developmental use of an e-Portfolio is key to its inherent strength and flexibility.

Customising your e-Portfolio On the welcome page, select the tools menu then my settings.

Appearance

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You can customise many aspects of the PebblePad interface. The basics are choosing a

theme, and altering screen size, font size, type and colour. The icons at the bottom of the

pad let you make much more detailed changes, giving you the ability to recolour nearly

the entire PebblePad interface.

Preferences

The preferences tab lets you control how you interact with

PebblePad, and how PebblePad interacts with you. You can

set preferences relating to the interface, when PebblePad

sends you e-mail and the default permissions when you

share an item with another user.

Accessing via mobile devices : There are four ways to access PebblePad on the move

Basic HTML – works on the majority of devices with a web browser

iOS – App’ available from the iTunes store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

PDA – For mobile phones running Windows Mobile 2003 and above

Java – For those mobiles which can run java apps.

To access your Aston e-portfolio: http://eportfolio.aston.ac.uk/mobile/

Further Resources

Using PebblePad

PebblePad website - pebblepad.co.uk

Help - pebblepad.co.uk/help

FAQs - pebblepad.co.uk/faqs.asp

Examples – pebblepad.co.uk/examples.asp

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Effective Practice

Supporting Learning & Teaching - pebblepad.com.au/supporting_landt.asp

pebblepad.co.uk/conference.papers.asp

recordingachievement.org

electronicportfolios.org

blog.helenbarrett.org

qaa.ac.uk/scotland/pdp

eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/introduction.html

www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios

wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios

www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=case-studies-all

qmu.ac.uk/eportfolio/index.htm

pre2009.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/pid/494

research.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh&catcode=_re_rp_02&rid=14007

digitalstorytellingsynthesis.pbworks.com/Examples-of-Digital-Storytelling-Use