Two kinds of portfolio, and why the difference matters
Most of what schools call an IB portfolio is their own learning record: work, reflection and feedback that shows a child's growth and can be shared with families. That is a school decision, and any good portfolio app can support it.
The IB also collects some portfolio-style work itself. In the MYP, eAssessment includes ePortfolios of coursework in the contexts where the IB requires them, and those go to the IB through its own systems. A school's day-to-day portfolio and the IB's ePortfolio are not the same thing, and an app that blurs them will disappoint at submission time.
Core features to look for
Ask to see each of these live, on a real class, rather than take a feature list on trust.
- Rich media: photos, video, audio and written work, from a phone or tablet
- Reflection: prompts, and the student's own words attached to each entry
- Teacher feedback and review that stays with the entry
- Tagging to the things you actually report on, such as approaches to learning and learner profile attributes
- Permissions: who can add, see and comment, by role
- Family sharing, with control over what is visible and when
- Search and filtering by child, unit, tag and date
- A connection to reporting, and to the gradebook
- Reliable export of everything, including the media
PYP considerations
PYP portfolios document inquiry, reflection, student growth and communication with families, so the features that matter most are quick capture during a lesson, reflection prompts that young children can use, and family sharing that works without training. The practice side is covered in PYP portfolio evidence.
MYP considerations
The IB notes that MYP eAssessment includes ePortfolios of coursework in relevant contexts, and its current documentation is the authority on what is required and how it is submitted. Schools should distinguish general portfolios from programme-specific submission requirements, and ask any vendor plainly whether their product carries the IB's submission route or only holds the school's own record. The exam and ePortfolio process is explained in the MYP eAssessment guide.
Where skodle fits
This section names our own product, so weigh it accordingly. It is one option, and measured against the feature list above it is stronger in some places than others.
Against that list, skodle today looks like this. Media: an entry takes one photo, video, audio file or document of up to 12 MB, on a web app rather than a native one. Reflection: IB portfolio items carry a student's reflection, and there are no prompt templates. Teacher review: student IB submissions go through open, reviewed and approved. Tagging: free text on general entries, and approaches to learning and learner profile attributes on IB items. Permissions: staff, students and parents are distinct, and parents can like and comment but not post. Family sharing: immediate, with no per-entry control. Search: a media-type filter only. Export: an administrator's per-student data file holds entry text, not media or comments. See student portfolios and the IB Engine.
The limits that matter most for an IB school. In the general portfolio a family sees the text, tags and comments but not the attached photo or video, and portfolio media does not appear in reports; a teacher can cite an entry in a progress report only as a title and date label. skodle does not carry the official IB route for registration and coursework submission, so MYP ePortfolios are submitted in the IB's own systems.
Pricing is per user, per month: $2 per user for up to 150 users, $3 from 151 to 500 users and a custom plan above 500, with parents at half the rate and every feature in every plan. Every new school starts with a free 30-day trial, so the fair test is your own data. See pricing.
Diploma and CP considerations
Older students use portfolios differently. Diploma students keep records of CAS experiences and reflections, and extended essay supervision involves dated reflection sessions, and the IB's own guides are the authority on what has to be kept. A portfolio app for these years needs to hold reflection and feedback over long periods and to let a coordinator see who has not logged anything, more than to capture video.
Questions to put to every vendor
Put the same questions to each product, and ask to see the answer.
- Show me an entry made on a phone, tagged, reflected on and reviewed by a teacher
- Show me exactly what a parent sees, and when they see it
- Show me how a portfolio entry reaches a report, and in what form
- Which IB submissions, if any, does the product carry?
- Show me the export of one student's whole portfolio, media included
Data ownership, export and exit
A portfolio is a multi-year record, and the question that matters most at renewal is how you would leave. Ask what a full export contains (media in original quality, comments, tags and dates, not just text), in what format, and how quickly. A product that cannot answer clearly is holding your students' records hostage in a polite way.
Common implementation pitfalls
Buying for the showcase and forgetting the reflection. Letting every teacher invent their own tags. Turning on family sharing before agreeing consent rules. And treating the app as finished at launch, when its value depends on habits built over a year. The wider guide to running one is digital student portfolios for international schools.
