Mahara: An overview of the ePortfolio application
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The document provides an overview of the Mahara electronic portfolio application, which allows students and staff to showcase their learning and skills over time. Mahara offers features like complete ownership of portfolios, flexible access controls, and social networking functionalities, making it a suitable platform for lifelong learning and professional development in New Zealand's education sector. The application is currently being piloted by several tertiary institutions and is designed to integrate seamlessly with the Moodle learning management system.
Mahara: An overview of the ePortfolio application
- 1. An overview of the ePor.olio applica3on Meredith Henson 4/07/2007
- 2. Introduc)on • An electronic por.olio is an online collec3on of reflec3ons and digital Artefacts (such as documents, images, blogs, résumés, mul3media, contact informa3on). • Students and staff can use an ePor.olio to demonstrate their learning, skills and development over 3me to selected audiences. • Mahara (Te Reo Māori for ‘think’ or ‘thought’) has been developed as part of the eCDF ePor.olio Project, which is charged with crea3ng an Open Source ePor.olio applica3on and to provide implementa3on strategies for the New Zealand educa3on sector.
- 3. Introduc)on to Mahara • Mahara is currently being piloted by seven Ter3ary organisa3ons via My Por.olio: – Massey University – The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand – Auckland University of Technology – Victoria University of Wellington – Te Wānanga o Raukawa – Nelson Marlborough Ins3tute of Technology – Tai Pou3ni Polytechnic • These organisa3ons are preparing implementa3on case studies and along with implementa3on guidelines and full user documenta3on, these will be provided as part of the Mahara download package. • Together with Mahara, My Por.olio (hp://mypor.olio.ac.nz and hp://myportoflio.school.ac.nz) is designed to provide a life-‐long learning and social networking environment for New Zealand students and teachers.
- 4. Introduc)on to Mahara What sets Mahara apart from other exis3ng open source ePor.olio pla.orms? – Students have complete ownership of their ePor.olio – 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 – Social networking func3onality – Flexibility to be used to create formal, informal, course related, personal and/or professional environments – Modular design, best prac3ce programming and full documenta3on allows for new features and func3onality to be easily integrated into the applica3on – Language transla3on package based – Designed for scalability, security and interoperability – Strong considera3on to pedagogy and policy during development
- 5. Mahara Framework • In order to provide permissions of access control, Mahara is based on an Artefacts, Views and Access framework. • Views are a collec3on of any number of Artefacts that exist in a user’s por.olio. • Users can create any number of Views and assign View access to any number of individuals, Communi)es and/or Groups as they wish.
- 6. Mahara Framework This framework may be represented by the diagram below :
- 7. Mahara Framework For example:
- 8. Communi)es • Communi)es are a reusable collec3on of users who may be added to the Community area by a number of different invita)on mechanisms. • Communi3es are designed to be a collabora3ve environment for members and will allow for sharing of ideas and informa3on.
- 9. Crea)ng Views ePor.olio owners create Views using a 4 step process: 1. Naming the View and providing access dates 2. Selec3ng a display template 3. Placing selected Artefacts within that View and 4. Assigning access to the desired Groups, Communi3es and individuals
- 10. View Templates • A variety of templates are available that vary in colour, font and overall design. • There are templates designed for specific Artefact types such as a Blog template and a template to display a gallery of images. • Templates are associated with a category of use so that users can find the most appropriate template for their View.
- 11. View Access • Users then assign access to their Views to the required Groups, Communi3es, individuals or they can make their View available to all their Friends, make it publicly available or keep it private. • Each user or collec3on of users can be given access between a certain date and 3me window.
- 12. View Features • ePor.olio owners can receive public or private feedback on their View and Artefacts within that View. • Users accessing a View can report any objec)onable material directly to the Site Administrator. • Users can add Views and Artefacts within a View to their Watchlist and receive automated no3fica3ons of any changes or updates. • ePor.olio owners can Submit a View for Assessment by a tutor or teacher allowing for a snapshot of the View and associated Artefacts on a certain date.
- 13. File Repository • Mahara includes a file repository which allows users to: – Create folder and sub folders structures – Upload mul3ple files quickly and efficiently – Give each file a Name and Descrip3on – Manage their file alloca3on Quota • When uploading a file users must agree to a configurable Copyright disclaimer.
- 14. Blogging • A comprehensive blogging tool is provided, where blogs and blog pos3ngs are considered Artefacts and may be added to a View. • The blogging tool allows users to: – Create blog posts using a WYSIWYG editor – Aach files to posts – Embed images into pos3ngs – Turn Comments on/off – Create draH pos3ngs for later publishing
- 15. Social Networking • Mahara provides a social networking facility where users can create and maintain a list of Friends within the system. • ePor.olio owners choose whether other users can add them to their Friends list automa3cally or by request and approval. • An ePor.olio owner’s Friends lists shows those Views to which they have been assigned access.
- 16. Résumé Builder • Mahara includes a résumé builder which allows users to create digital CV’s by entering informa3on into a variety of op3onal fields including: – contact and personal informa3on – employment and educa3on history – cer3fica3ons, accredita3ons and awards – books and publica3ons, professional memberships – personal, academic and work skills and – personal, academic and career goals. • Mul)ple résumés may be created for use within different Views for different audiences such as poten3al employers.
- 17. Profile Informa)on • Within Mahara users are able to share details through a variety of op3onal profile informa)on fields including: – Preferred Name – Student ID – Postal address and contact phone numbers – Skype, MSN, Yahoo etc name – Introduc3on – Profile Icons images • Each Profile field entry and Icon is an Artefact and therefore may be added to a View.
- 18. Account Op)ons • Users can customise their Account through a variety of op3ons including contact and language preferences. • Users can set Ac)vity Preferences and specify how they wish to be contacted by the system and other users. • They can also choose how they receive no3fica3on of Recent Ac)vity on those Views and Artefacts they have added to their Watchlist.
- 19. Metadata • All Artefacts have metadata which includes: – Title – Artefact Type – Owner – (Op3onal) Descrip3on – Date of crea3on – Date of last modifica3on – File size or number of posts (blogs) • Mahara also provides user defined, searchable tagging on all Artefacts.
- 20. Administra)on • Administrators are able to customise Mahara via a number of configura)on seNngs which include: – Language packages and themes – Virus protocol – Session and account life3mes – Authen3ca3on methods • Mahara contains a page editor which allows for customisa3on and dynamic edi3ng of: – Terms and Condi3ons and Privacy Statement – Logged in and logged out Homepage – Copyright disclaimer – A public and logged in user Main Menu
- 21. Administra)on • With the Modular plugin structure of Mahara, Artefact types may be configured, disabled or enabled, according to the organisa3on’s requirements. • Users on the site may be associated with par3cular ins3tu3ons which have their own configurable user sejngs. • A Site Administrator may suspend a students account (for example while a claim of misconduct is being inves3gated)
- 22. Scalability • Mahara has been designed as a web applica3on with a plug-‐in architecture. • This means it is possible to scale the applica3on up by separa3ng hardware for search, database, file storage and web servers. • It is also possible to replicate each of these opera3onal components to further scale the system upwards. • In addi3on Mahara is designed to: – be load balanced across several web servers – have a share file data from a centralised file server – and have a separate database server. • This hos3ng set-‐up has proven scalability for similar systems like Moodle.
- 23. Security • Mahara automa3cally detects system sejngs that a pose security threat. • Session key handling code has been 3ghtly integrated with the core form/request APIs. • Provides database abstrac)on that prevents any database injec3on aacks and input valida)on that prevents script injec3on aacks. • User authen)ca)on can be 3ed to external systems such as student management systems or other databases such as their Student ID number.
- 24. Interoperability • Mahara is built using PHP web scrip3ng language and leverages PHP5's OO features. • All plug-‐ins follow a consistent structure and inherit from a common base class (core func3ons of plug-‐ins are implemented once) • Mahara currently supports plug-‐ins for Artefacts, Authen3ca3on and Search. Therefore interopera3ng with an exis3ng product simply requires the development of a plug-‐in.
- 25. Moodle Integra)on • The integra3on of the learning management system, Moodle and the ePor.olio system Mahara has now been developed and is currently undergoing tes3ng. • The use of Moodle is widespread both within a New Zealand educa3on context as well as interna3onally. • Users will have a seamless login between these two systems allowing them to showcase their learning and development within a course context.
- 26. My PorPolio and Moodle Users
- 27. ePorPolios for Staff • Area for staff to demonstrate professional development – Published works and presenta3ons – Individual development plans – Performance reviews • Networking – Between colleagues both internal and external to organisa3on – Distribu3on of résumés, staff exchanges • Research – Peer review and feedback – Sharing, distribu3on • Teaching tool – Upda3ng course material for electronic delivery – Reflec3ve and cri3cal review learning outcomes within assessment
- 28. ePorPolios for Students • Student ownership and control of por.olio – Contents of unpublished ePor.olio private – Access control • Area for showcasing work and reflec3on – Cri3cal review of assessment items – Life-‐long learning and development tool • Online résumé – Programme and course applica3ons – Scholarship applica3ons – CV for poten3al employers • Social networking with other students – Collabora3ve projects – Peer review and feedback
- 29. Further Informa)on • Mahara.org (hp://mahara.org) – Roadmap, Download, Community, Support and Training etc • Mahara Documents hps://eduforge.org/docman/?group_id=176 – ePor.olio Research Report – Student and staff userguides – Helpdesk Reference Guide – Implementa3on Guidelines – Case study ques3ons • Contact Meredith Henson on meredith@flexible.co.nz