Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Mahara presentation (current)
Similar to Mahara presentation (current) (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Mahara presentation (current)
- 1. Mahara: A Student’s Perspective Bradley Gavin @BradleyGavin Southampton Solent University
- 2. Outline • About me • My use of Mahara • Reflections • Questions
- 3. Thank You!
- 5. Foundation Year • Used in one unit • Produced a portfolio that investigated current issues and stories in marketing • Link to view: http://bit.ly/1x9XYNv
- 7. First Year of Degree • Used in one unit • Produced a portfolio that ran alongside a live client brief, which also embedded evidence of CV development • Free reign over the portfolio • Link to view: http://bit.ly/1qtYhSH
- 9. Second Year of Degree • Used in one unit • Produced a portfolio that evaluated the effectiveness of Coca-Cola’s stakeholder communications • Mahara or Office? • Link to view: http://bit.ly/1oB4EQZ
- 11. Moving Forward
Editor's Notes
- About Me My name is Bradley and I am a marketing student about to head into my third year of studies. I’ve worked for a number of retail companies but have recently ventured into what I have studied for, working for a digital marketing agency and since setting up my own small business offering marketing services to clients. I’ve also ventured abroad to work, spending a year and a half in America coaching football, in that time I was also made camp director. To this point I’ve achieved firsts in my two years so far at university and have obtained my introductory certificate in Marketing from CIM. Some of my other favourite things in life are up on the slide. So when I started to use Mahara it was a relatively new concept to the university. I don’t believe it was used too often and I think it was viewed as an ‘extra’ thing you could use to improve your employability whilst studying (through creating portfolios of work and so forth). With teachers and other advocates of Mahara, it has been pushed through and embedded into units at university. Personally, I love Mahara because it goes way beyond what you can do in Word, simple, easy to use and fun.
- As some of you may be aware, a foundation unit comes before the Bachelors degree. I did a foundation year to not only ease me into university life, but to assure myself that I was heading in the direction I wanted. I had a marketing unit titled Introduction To Marketing, where my tutor saw the potential Mahara had for blended learning. You can follow the link at the bottom of the slide if you would like to see the portfolio in all its glory.
- As you can see from the two screen shots, I tried to match the theme to the product or marketing story I was talking about. Lucozade bottles (orange) – Sunset theme Tesco Logo – Blue and Red – Aqua I had already recognised that I could be creative with my work, and because tutors seemed to be a little slower on the uptake so I actually went on to assist foundation students the year after in developing their own portfolios, something that I particularly enjoyed. Simple things such as embedding a video, could not really be achieved in Word, at least not with ease. I also learnt how to hyperlink, add pictures and create a menu, all in the same portfolio. A testament to its intuitiveness and how user friendly it is.
- I had moved into my first official year of my degree. I was fortunate in the sense that I had already had a head start over some of the students with Mahara, largely because I used it in my foundation year. We were given free reign over what we included in the portfolio, but were asked to keep it professional looking – something that an employer would enjoy looking at. I think it’s important to give students the chance to become creative, because the software as a whole has a personal feel about it. No two portfolios look the same. If you start to limit what goes into the portfolio, students will take the easy route and stick to what they know (here’s looking at you Microsoft Office).
- This was a portfolio I kept more professional, hence the consistent colour scheme throughout. All the text has been justified and because of my confidence with the software I began to experiment with different add ons, including adding an image gallery, and using Issuu and Slideshare. What I would like to be able to do, is change the size of each box I use. The columns are great for organising, but I would like to control the size of text box, pictures and everything else.
- I was truly comfortable with Mahara by my second year of university. I was asked to produce a portfolio that evaluated the effectiveness of Coca-Cola’s stakeholder communications. Within this I also had to suggest alternative methods for communicating with stakeholders. Of course I was given the choice of using either Mahara or Office to submit my work. But I have reached a point where I proactively use Mahara wherever I have the opportunity to do so! I was really pleased with the look and feel of the portfolio and I think it would be a useful way of demonstrating my work to potential employers. It would be more than just telling them about me work; now I would be able to show them with ease. It’s not just my industry that It is useful for, the fashion industry is somewhere else it would be extremely effective. It saved printing costs!
- I was really pleased with the look and feel of the portfolio and I think it would be a useful way of demonstrating my work to potential employers. It would be more than just telling them about me work; now I would be able to show them with ease. It’s not just my industry that It is useful for, the fashion industry is somewhere else it would be extremely effective. It saved printing costs!
- I think this image was interesting, it represents the fact the opportunity is there for all of us to take. That’s for developers all the way down to the users. You as developers have the opportunity to make the software the best it can be, and as a student I have the opportunity to make the best of the software available to me. I am excited to be an advocate of Mahara and to see some of the new features coming to the site, such as the profile completion bar, skins and new layout designs. Thanks for having me!
- I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer all the technical questions but I will try my best to answer questions on my own experiences!