Today I finally got around to installing Mahara, the new Open Source ePortfolio system from New Zealand on my server. What makes Mahara so special, well let me tell you.
To best summarise what Mahara is about in a succinct paragraph lets her it from Penny Leach, one of Mahara’s developers:
Mahara means to think, thought, reflection in Te Reo Maori. Mahara is an electronic portfolio system that is designed to run alongside Moodle, and provide a student-centered space to create and store learning related artefacts, present them to different groups of people in varied ways, as well as some social networking functionality.
Mahara is the first portfolio system to start tying in with Moodle. as of 1.8 Moodle has included a Networking function to allow external systems to connect and share information with it. The logical use of this was to allow users to access multiple Moodle installs. But Mahara is the first external application to make use of this to allow for users to jump between two different web applications.
The integration is still in it’s early days as the new Portfolio API is not yet complete. Once completed, the new API will allow for:
- When portfolios are enable, every page or major piece of content in Moodle has a little “Capture this” button beside it.
- User clicks one of these buttons
- User is able to choose from a list of configured portfolios (this step will be skipped if there’s only one).
- User is asked to define some metadata to go with the captured content
- The content and metadata is COPIED to the external portfolio system
- User has an option to “Return to the course” or “Visit their portfolio”.
But for now the integration does allow for SSO (Single Sign On) and also brings user data across from Moodle.
Having just installed the Mahara/Moodle bridge I am starting to explore the functionalities and possibilities that they provide. I thought that I would share my discoveries with you as vodcasts attached to these blog posts. As I explore and better understand this application I hope to continue to bring these to light in the blog.
If you have questions or features you would like to see highlighted, please post them in the comments and Ill tray to answer them in the next installment.
Useful Links
- Mahara Homepage
- Portfolio API’s in MoodleDocs
- Open Source in NZ Education Article
- Why Use ePortfolio’s?
Popularity: 21% [?]
This post is tagged demo, eportfolio, Mahara, Moodle, vodcast
9 Comments
No speech just music in the audio of that video
How does Mahara stack up against using existing standard Moodle activities for portfolio work?
- Eamon
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thanx for that..video re-encoded and audio fixed.
Issues with portfolios inside moodle is that, at lest from a K-12 perspective, we normally erase student data to prepare fro the next year. Having an external system means that although the moodle is renewed every year, the portfolio content remains intact over the 5-8 years the student is with us.
Also the idea of a portfolio is to take resources further than just assessment. This allows for reflection and peer review. Lastly Mahara also provides tools not yet covered (wait til part 2) is CV creation and blogging.
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We ran into an issue when we upgraded Moodle versions - Mahara versions didn’t keep up as quickly. We also did some usability testing and found that the user creation process what a bit tedious. We ended up dropping Mahara and doing a refined Moodle installation based on what http://www.georgetownprofessor.net/gportfolio/ did.
I still think Mahara has potential - we just weren’t there yet.
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How do you think this will stack up against MyStuff, the OU’s E-Portfolio offering for Moodle???
http://sclater.com/blog/?p=46
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Hi
I just want to tell there is an e-portfolio recently created for younger students and integrated in the Moodle platform in Portugal. If you have time take a look . I am interested in e-portfolios myself and moodle and that’s how I ended up seeing your blog.
isabel neves, Portugal
http://centroeducatis.net/esbmoodle/course/view.php?id=20
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One of the major issues that Higher Education institutions are dealing with in terms of their accrediting bodies is demonstration that their students are mastering the learning outcomes for programs and the courses that make up those programs. An e-portfolio system is a solution because it places students at the center of demonstrating mastery of learning outcomes. There are many e-portfolio systems available but we have found none that allow for the effective assessment and documentation of mastery of learning outcomes in a way that allows us to effectively manage 1000’s of students.
To meet our needs an e-portfolio system would need to encompass five features: storage across the entire program, provide information management through matrices to facilitate students and instructors, provide connections between courses, programs and practicum experiences, smooth the process of student-centered assessment, and facilitate communication of mastery of program outcomes.
To meet this need we have developed and beta tested a new e-portfolio system for Moodle. You can see a demonstration of the system at http://testmoodle.embanet.com/UVCMS/login/index.php
To get a preview log in as student password: student. This will open a Moodle interface. You will see some test courses, just ignore those. On the right side you will see the e-portfolio block. Select the E-portfolio Tutorials and watch the tutorial on the Student Folder, the Course Matrix and the Practicum Matrix. The Capstone tutorial is not active here. Go back to the e-portfolio block and select Capstone Tutorials and you will see a presentation of the Capstone function.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
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