You will notice as you use Reflect that it has been upgraded since 2017/2018. Menu and dashboard items have been changed to make it more user friendly and you will also see improvements to the page creation process and a new facility to rotate images.

Most things that you want to do with your portfolio, you will be able to access directly from the Dashboard. If you want to create a new portfolio page, just click New Page. If you want to view or edit an existing page, click on Manage my Portfolios. If you want to share your page with a colleague or someone external, just click Share my Work.

When you move beyond the dashboard page, everything you need to do can be managed through the hamburger menu in the top righthand corner. From here, you can edit your profile, access and share pages, view groups that you are in, or view/delete files from your portfolio.

Firstly, make sure your account is activated! Go to Loop, and click on Loop Reflect icon in the Quick Links section. Once you have done this, you can continue to log in this way or login via reflect.dcu.ie using your usual Loop username and password.

A page is a single portfolio page which you may be tasked to do for an assignment. Creating a new page can be done directly from the Dashboard by clicking on New Page. 

This will open a dialog box where you can enter all details relating to the page you want to create including the Title, Description, and any Tags that you want to assign to that page. This dialog box now allows you to immediately choose an appropriate Layout so that you can lay out the page as you want. 

Finally, you have more flexibility to directly customise your pages through the Skin option. Here you can change fonts and add background images and colours to create a page that is more reflective of you!

After this, choose ‘Save’ then you are ready to add content to the page.

Another way to create a new portfolio page is to use the Hamburger menu. Click on the dropdown arrow beside Portfolio and choose Pages and Collections

To create a new page  click on the Add button and choose Page. This will bring you to the same dialog box as above.

Firstly, create a portfolio page. To add content to a page you will need to move to Edit mode. To do this from the Dashboard, click on Manage my Portfolios.  You can also get to this page list via the Hamburger menu by choosing Portfolio, then Pages and Collections.Find the page you wish to edit and click on the 3 dots underneath it and choose Edit. Alternatively, you can click on the page to open it and then click on Edit this Page in the top righthand corner.

Content is added to a portfolio page by dragging blocks to a page. The most commonly used block is the Text block. This block can hold text, links and images so is very flexible.  You will see in in a menu on the left hand side of the page in Edit mode and all you need to do is to click drag the Text block into position on the page.

 Text

The block title is editable and can be updated by you. You can type directly into the block or paste text from Word or another application.

Basic formatting features for text are found in the menu bar and you may choose to click on the first menu item, a drop down arrow for more choices.

Hyperlinks

To add a hyperlink, first type in the link text eg this is a link to ... and then highlight the word to serve as the hyperlink and click the paper clip icon on the tool bar.

Type in the the URL you wish to link to eg www.dcu.ie

A new feature with Reflect is that you can now directly link to another portfolio page if you so wish. To do so, click on Link List and then the page you wish to link to. 

Images

You may add an image/s to a text block by clicking on the picture icon on the tool bar.

Click on Image  and then Choose File to select the image you wish to display. Set any formatting options you wish and then click Submit. 

Notes on Images: You have  50MB of space only for all your portfolios. Conserve this space by using images that are small in file size or by running them through TinyPNG before upload. Alternatively, images can be put on a page by using a Google Apps block and linking to an image stored in Google Drive. This uses no space at all.

Reflect displays images in landscape format. If you have a portrait image, it will display as landscape and you will need to rotate it. To rotate an image, click on the Hamburger menu, click on the dropdown menu beside Content and then choose Files. Review your files to locate your picture, then click on the pencil icon beside it to edit it's properties. Here you can change the orientation.

When you have added all the content to your text box, click on Save. If you wish to reopen and re-edit your text block, click on the settings wheel 

Videos can be very easily added to a Portfolio Page. You will need to be in Edit mode on your page (for details on this, please see the Adding Text/Images/Hyperlinks section).

From the menu on the lefthand side, click on External. Then click on External Media.

Copy the URL from the YouTube/Vimeo video you wish to post and paste it into the URL/embed code section and press Save. 

Videos will display and play live in your portfolio page.

The journal can be used to record a sequence of thoughts, experiences and reflections.  By default every learner has one learning journal in Loop Reflect. You can create multiple journals by editing your settings. To do this, click on the dropdown arrow beside your profile picture.

Scroll through the settings and change the option Multiple Journals to Yes.

Journalling supports reflective writing  which is an important part of learning and assessment. Advice on how to write reflectively is provided elsewhere on the Loop Reflect Resources page online.

 To add a new entry to a journal,  click New entry. Give your entry a ‘Title’ and add some content in the ‘Entry’ box. The box can contain text, images and links and file attachments can also be added to the journal. You have the option to give your entry some tags demonstrate your achievement of DCU Graduate Attributes, module learning outcomes, or other elements. Simply start to type into the box.  For more information, click the Graduate Attributes link on the Dashboard. Click ‘Save entry’

Journals can not be submitted directly to your lecturer however you can drag an entire journal or even just a single journal entry into a portfolio page. To do this, create a new portfolio or edit an existing one. Choose Journals from the menu on the lefthand side. Select which type of journal entry you want to add to the page and drag it on. Any journal entries will automatically be displayed on the page and then the page can be submitted to Loop for correction

There are so many types of media that you can add to your portfolio pages. 

Audio files or podcasts created in Sound Cloud or similar can be added by just using a hyperlink in a text box

Prezi, Glogster, Vokis, Slideshare, and Voicethead files can be added by using the External Media block under External and pasting in the URL.

A slideshow of images can be added by using the Image Gallery block under Media

Files and folders to hold multiple files can be added by using the relevant blocks under Media

Links to your Twitter/Facebook accounts can be added though the Social Media block under Personal Info (assuming you have entered your Twitter/Facebook details on your profile)

Skins can be used to customise your Reflect pages, to make them standout and to allow you to bring your personal creativity to your portfolio. You can change fonts used or background images displayed. This can be done as you create your page or aftwards once it is completed.

To design your skin as you are creating the page, scroll down and click on Skin. 

If you have already created your page, you can still design a skin to customise it by opening your page and clicking on Settings.

By default, you page has a white background and no additional graphics but Reflect comes with some public skins to change the colour scheme if you wish. Simply, click on the skin you prefer and click on Save. To view the page as it will be seen, click on Display Page.

Alternatively,  you can create your own colour scheme and background images. To do this, click on Manage Skin and then Create Skin.  This series of dialog boxes allows you to change the font type, colour, and size as well as the hyperlinks, background colours and images.

Choose Save when you are happy with your skin and then go into the page and apply via Settings as above.

You can link to documents stored in your Google Drive, which saves your storage space, by following the below steps. First you need to get the link from Google Drive and change the sharing settings so that others may view your file. Then copy the link to Loop Reflect.

• Open Google Drive in a new tab. First click with the right mouse button on the file and chose Share.
•  Click on Advanced
•  Click on Change to change who can see your video file and select Anyone with the Link
•  The link that appears in the dialog box is the one that you will post into Loop Reflect. Click Ctrl and C to copy or right click and choose Copy
•  You are done with Google Drive and you can close the tab.

 In Reflect, open up the text block by clicking on the settings wheel or create a new text block where you want the link to go.   Type your link text, eg, This is my reflection. Highlight the word reflection, and click on the Insert URL button from the top toolbar. Paste in the copied link from Google Drive into the space for URL.

Click Ok and the link is live.

When designing and adding content to your page, it is important to consider the file size of elements you are adding. As each learner has 50 MB of file storage, please consider linking to files and images in your Google Drive to conserve your storage rather than embedding them in the page. This can be done through the Google Apps block or by copying the file link from Google Drive into a Text block.

For video, consider using video from YouTube or uploading your own video to YouTube and linking to that via the External Media block rather than embedding video directly in the page.  Embedding large images on your pages will result in using up storage space so you may also consider using a tools such as TinyPNG to compress the image size prior to uploading. If you receive a message saying that you are close to the limit of your file storage, you can examine which files are using most of your data by clicking on the Hamburger menu, choosing the dropdown beside Content and selecting Files. Here you can delete files to free up some space.

Copyright, Fair Usage and free image resources

Reflective Writing Guide

Reflective Writing Guide - University of York