ePortfolios and Mahara

ePortfolios and Mahara Meredith Henson

Overview  Introductions  ePortfolios − What is an ePortfolio? − Why use an ePortfolio? • Mahara — Background and Overview — Features — Roadmap

Introduction Meredith Henson • Project Manager at Catalyst IT Ltd — Moodle and Drupal projects — Moodle administration, training and business analysis • eCDF ePortfolio Project Manager (Massey) • NZOSVLE I & II Project (Open Polytechnic)

Introduction Catalyst IT Ltd  Established 1997  Over 100 staff − Wellington, Kerikeri, Nelson, Christchurch, Australia and United Kingdom  Completely Open Source focused  Moodle and Mahara Partner  www.catalyst.net.nz

ePortfolios What is an ePortfolio? • An electronic portfolio is an online collection of reflections and digital Artefacts • Students and staff can use an ePortfolio to demonstrate their learning and development over time to various audiences • An environment to facilitate and record personalised, life long, reflective and evidential learning

ePortfolios Definitions  Artefacts – Electronic evidence of learning — documents, images, blogs, résumés, multimedia, contact information etc.  Views – An access controlled collection of Artefacts

ePortfolios Applications for Students  Student ownership and control of portfolio  Area for showcasing work and reflection — Critical review of assessment items — Life-long learning and development tool  Online résumé — CV for potential employers

ePortfolios Applications for Students  Online résumé cont. — Programme and course applications — Scholarship applications  Social networking with other students — Collaborative projects — Peer review and feedback

ePortfolios Applications for Staff  Area for staff to demonstrate professional development — Publish works and presentations — Create individual development plans — Performance reviews

ePortfolios Applications for Staff  Networking — With internal and external colleagues — Distribution of résumés, staff exchanges  Research — Peer review and feedback — Sharing and distribution  Teaching tool

ePortfolios vs LMS’ Learning Management ePortfolio System Course centric Student centric Teacher makes rules Student makes rules Courses typically Student portfolio may be structured structured Grades given and managed No grading infrastructure Content attached to course User defined content with and generally available to highly granular access all students Social networking often User defines their social revolves around course network Tied to an institution May be institution agnostic Limited to time studying Life long learning

ePortfolios Moodle Portfolio API • ePortfolio agnostic • Ability to publish items from Moodle to external portfolio systems • New in Moodle 2.0, sponsored by MHQ • Ready for download now! • Puts “Send to Portfolio” buttons throughout Moodle

Mahara Background • Funded by TEC’s eLearning Collaborative Development Fund • 4 consortium partners - Massey University (lead), Auckland University of Technology, The Open Polytechnic and Victoria University of Wellington • Case study partners – consortium members and TWoR, NMIT and Tai Poutini Polytechnic

Mahara Background • Technology Provider - Catalyst IT Limited • The ePortfolio Project was charged with developing an open source ePortfolio application and to provide implementation strategies for the New Zealand tertiary sector

Mahara ePortfolio Project Deliverables • Generate a theoretical framework for student ePortfolios • Develop an open source ePortfolio application • Facilitate a series of case studies • Create documentation for implementation strategies, user guides and suggested policies • Establish an open source group for further development

Mahara ePortfolio Project Deliverables • Research report • Case studies • Implementation guidelines • Mahara.org

Mahara Introduction  Mahara is based on an Artefacts, Views and Access framework  Users can create any number of Views and assign access to individuals, communities, groups, keep it private or make it public

Mahara Overview

Mahara Features • File repository — Create folder and sub folders structures — Upload multiple files quickly and efficiently — Give each file a Name and Description — Manage their file allocation Quota — When uploading a file users must agree to a configurable Copyright disclaimer

Mahara Features • Blogging — Create blog posts using a WYSIWYG editor — Attach files to posts — Embed images into postings — Comments on/off — Create draft postings for later publishing

Mahara Features • Résumé builder — Contact and personal information — Employment and education history — Certifications, accreditations and awards — Books and publications, professional memberships — Personal, academic and work skills — Personal, academic and career goals

Mahara Features • Profile Information — Preferred Name — Student ID — Postal address and contact phone numbers — Skype, MSN, Yahoo & Yabber name — Introduction — Profile Icons images

Mahara Features • Social Networking — Users create and maintain a list of Friends and Groups within the system - building a digital identity — Users can interact via Friend Messaging and Groups based Forums

Mahara Features • Administration — Language packages and themes — Session and account lifetimes — Authentication methods — Core page and Main Menu editor — Artefact types may be configured, disabled or enabled, according to the organisation’s requirements.

Mahara Points of Difference • Students have complete ownership of their ePortfolio • Users have the ability to set permissions of access to various nominated groups • All Artefacts have associated metadata including user defined tagging • Contextual help is available throughout the system

Mahara Points of Difference • Social networking functionality • Flexibility to be used to create formal, informal, personal and/or professional environments • Modular design, best practice programming and full documentation • Language translation package based

Mahara Points of Difference • Designed for scalability, security and interoperability • Multiple authentication methods • Strong consideration to pedagogy and policy during development

Mahara Moodle Integration • Portfolio API – export items from Moodle to Mahara • Mahara can do single sign on (SSO) with Moodle — New in Mahara 1.1 and Moodle 2.0 — Allows users to send data from Moodle to Mahara — Includes account transferral

Mahara Moodle SSO • Users can roam from one application to another without re-logging in • Moodle/Mahara SSO built on MNET so is secure • Identity Provider (IDP) - system with the users (Moodle) • Service Provider (SP or CP) - system where the users go (Mahara)

Mahara Moodle SSO • Accounts can be automatically be created on the SP the first time the user logs in • Single Sign Out — logging out in one place logs you out everywhere • Theme support — Roaming users can see Moodle/Mahara branded like their IDP

Mahara Current State of Play • Mahara 1.1.5 released 22/6/09 • ~1000 downloads per month • New! Improved! Mahara.org • Partner programme — 14 Partners (including Catalyst) • Mahara Moot UK09

Mahara Roadmap • Mahara 1.2 — Import/Export portfolios — Files area improvements — Templates and CSS simplification • Future releases — Ongoing usability work — Tagging and searching improvements — Statistics and reporting

Mahara Roadmap • Future releases cont. — Groups, bulk add/invite — Blogs – RSS support — Views– feedback improvements, PDF generation — Résumé custom fields, PDF generation — Advanced Messaging

Mahara Who is using it?  MyPortfolio — UCOL, AUT, CPIT, Massey, Open Polytechnic, Victoria University, NMIT, University of Auckland...  Universities especially across Europe − Glasgow, Birmingham Uni Krems, Cambridge... • Schools across the world — Cumbria and Lancashire, Sylvan Union, others in England, Spain, Germany...

Mahara Examples http://myportfolio.ac.nz/view/view.php?id=933

Mahara Examples http://myportfolio.ac.nz/view/view.php?id=932

Mahara Examples http://cterfile.ed.uiuc.edu/mahara/view/view.php?id=81

Mahara More Information • http://demo.mahara.org • http://mahara.org • http://catalyst.net.nz • http://eduforge.org/projects/mahara • #mahara on freenode

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ePortfolios and Mahara

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