Overview Educator Activities

Activities

Activities in PortfoliOH are structured experiences that help students build skills and reflect on their learning. You can create and assign activities for various purposes—like classroom projects, job fairs, or internships.

When creating an activity, you’ll choose from a range of activity types and add activity tasks for students to complete. Tasks can be:

  1. Custom Tasks you define, or
  2. Periodic Reflections, commonly used for work-based learning opportunities.

You’ll also have access to activities shared by others in your school, organization, or district, which you can use with your own groups

View Activities

  1. Click on the Activities icon () in the navigation menu.
  2. You will see a view of all activities for your organization. On larger screen sizes, switch between list and card views using the red and white toggle button in the upper-right corner. The List icon () represents the list view and and the Grid icon () represents the card view.
  3. Explore the tab options:
    1. All – Displays all activities for your organization, including both those you created and those created by others.
    2. My Activities – Shows only the activities you created.
  4. Use filters and sorting to find activities more easily:
    The filter options at the top of the page allow you to narrow down the activities. You can also use the sort feature in the list view by clicking the arrows ( ) next to column headers to organize activities by title, created date, or other details. The arrows appear when you hover over the column headers.

Important: To view an activity’s overview page, click its row in list view or its card in card view.

Create Activities

  1. To create an activity, you’ll use the activity creation form. There are three ways to access this form:
    1. From the Activities Page
      Click on the Activities icon () in the navigation menu. Click on the Create Activity button.
    2. From the Dashboard
      Click on the Dashboard icon () in the navigation menu. Click on the Create Activity button.
    3. From a Group (this method automatically assigns the activity to the selected group)
      1. Click on the Groups icon () in the navigation menu.
      2. Select the group by clicking its card.
      3. Click the Assign Activity button in the upper-right of the screen.
      4. In the Select Activity dialog, click Create New.
  2. Select one of the activity types to continue. These options appear in a grid—select the one that best matches your activity.
  3. Setup
    Enter general details about your activity (hint: Don’t have an activity cover image? Click the Google Icon () to search for an image). When you’re finished, click the red Next button in the bottom-right corner.
  4. Task Type Selection
    Choose Custom Tasks or Periodic Reflections for your activity. Click the red Next button to continue to the next step.

    • Custom Tasks – Create a set of unique tasks, each with its own title, duration, instructions, evidence type, and skills. This option is ideal when you want full control over task content and structure.
    • Periodic Reflections – Generate a series of identical reflection prompts. This option gives students flexibility in how and when they respond. This method works well for open-ended or ongoing work-based learning experiences.
  5. Task Setup
    Enter details for your selected task type, then click Next.
    Hint: If you’re creating Custom Tasks, click Add Task for each individual task you’d like to include. Once you’ve added all your tasks, click Next to continue.
  6. Review
    Review your activity details. Click Submit to finish.

Edit Activities

  1. Click on the Activities icon () in the navigation menu.
  2. Go to the My Activities tab and use the filters to find the activity.
  3. Click the Edit Icon () from either:
    • The Action column in list view, or
    • the bottom section of the activity card in card view.
      (See the view activities section above for more about list and card views.)
  4. Use the stepper form to update your activity. Click Next to move through each section. In some cases, Edit Icons () will help you jump directly to fields you want to update.
  5. Review your changes and click Submit to save.

Note: Any changes you make will affect all instances of this activity, including ones already started by students.
For example, editing a custom task or periodic reflection will change what students see, and deleting one will remove it entirely – even for students who have already started it.
It is not recommended to edit an activity after it has been assigned. Use caution.

Assign Activities

From the Activities page:

  1. Click on the Activities icon () in the navigation menu.
  2. Go to the All or My Activities tab and use the filters to find the activity.
  3. Assign the activity.
    • If you are in the list view:
      1. In the Action column for the activity, click the More Options icon ().
      2. Select the Assign Activity action.
      3. In the Assign Activity dialog, select the group(s) you want to assign the activity to.
      4. If this is an activity that uses Periodic Reflections, enter the number of reflections you would like students to submit. See Setting the Number of Reflections for more information.
      5. Click Assign Now.
    • If you are in the card view:
      1. Click the Assign Activity button at the bottom section of the activity card.
      2. In the Assign Activity dialog, select the group(s) you want to assign the activity to.
      3. If this is an activity that uses Periodic Reflections, enter the number of reflections you would like students to submit.
      4. Click Assign Now.

 

From the Groups page:

  1. Click on the Groups icon () in the navigation menu.
  2. Select the group by clicking its card.
  3. Click the Assign Activity button in the upper-right of the screen.
  4. In the Select Activity dialog, check the boxes next to the activity titles you want to assign to this group.
  5. Click the red Assign Activity (or Assign Activities) button in the bottom-right corner of the dialog.
  6. If the assigned activity uses Periodic Reflections, a dialog will appear for each one. Enter the number of reflections you want students to complete, then click Assign.
  7. The group’s Assignments tab will now show the newly assigned activities. For activities using reflections, the selected number will appear in the Reflections column; otherwise, it will display N/A (Not Applicable).

Setting the Number of Reflections

When assigning Periodic Reflections, enter how many reflections students should complete.

How Reflection Time Is Calculated
The total activity time is divided evenly across the reflections to determine how long each one represents.

Maximum Number of Reflections
You can assign up to 4 reflections per full day of activity (1 day = 8 hours).

The maximum number of reflections is 10, no matter how long the activity is.

Examples:

  • 8-hour activity → up to 4 reflections
  • 16-hour activity → up to 8 reflections
  • 24-hour activity → max 10 reflections

This keeps reflections manageable and balanced with the activity length.

Export All Activities

  1. Click on the Activities icon () in the navigation menu.
  2. Click on the Download icon () in the top-right corner, next to the Create Activity button. This will automatically download an XLSX file with activity information and metadata, including the activity title, type, associated skills, and the number of students that have participated.
    Hint: If you don’t have Microsoft Excel, upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets.