Presentation delivered by Samantha Moss of the Solent Uni eLearning team to the JISC Netskills Effective Practice with ePortfolios workshop on 10th November 2010

1. E-Portfolios November 2010
Solent’s Mahara Journey
Looking at E-Portfolios
Samantha Moss
E-Learning Support Officer

2.  New university (5 years old!)
 19,000 students
 Strong focus on skills for employment
 Key subjects: Maritime, Fashion, Business, Journalism, Sport Science
& Animation/Media
 Strategic Development Plan:
◦ Flexible delivery
◦ Forming partnerships with local businesses & FE providers
◦ Commitment to social justice
Solent Profile

3. Led by Dr Barbara Lee
Analysis of course documentation
Considering how Career Box and any portfolio project would
link
Evaluation of available portfolio products
Identifying how to take forward the development of an e-
portfolio product that links to Moodle
Project 1: Fostering PDP (2008/09)

4. Student Feedback
Online survey: 81% of students said that they would use an E-
Portfolio
“I am currently signing up to commercial job websites that offer this service
but I don't think they’re very successful in finding the right employers. If
there was something similar affiliated with the university, I believe it would
instantly be taken more seriously by perspective employers.”
“Any aid which assists in getting a job would be useful.”
“It would just be so much easier to use a tool that organised and kept
track of everything bit by bit, rather than having to go back and piece it
together bit by bit in retrospect.”
“It would save me a whole lot of stress!”

5. Staff Feedback
“In relation to the students I deal with most, I think their own professional
development can be enhanced by posting evidence of their own work
(publications), conference papers and other professional activity which
may be of interest to prospective employers. This would be of particular
use for post graduates.”
“It would be good from the perspective of skills development for a
university career. It would be ideal and deter them from using Facebook;
it would be more academic.”
“Mahara would be useful for the students who are away for 6 months doing
tasks. It would be good if work could be authenticated by supervisors as
they have a problem with fake signatures. Time would be saved if
portfolio work was carried out in real time as opposed to when they
return from their task.”

6. Project 1: Outcomes
 Adoption of Mahara
 Creation of ePortfolio animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOFSrV3QOWM

7. Why Mahara?
• Met all requirements
• Easy to customise
• Integration with Moodle
• Large support community
• LEAP2A
• No commercial tie-in
• If it breaks we can fix it (we hope)

8. Project 2 :
Implementing Mahara 2009/10

9. Customising Mahara
Solent theme
(theme shown
is 2010/11)
Changed the
language
Fixed-width applied
Changed ‘help’
files

10. Pilot units
Journalism & Media writing
35 students
Online CV
3rd years – develop an online presence
Curriculum Plus – CV & Career Building Unit
50 students
Submitting work for feedback
Increased student engagement

11. Usability study group
Mahara 1.1.6
9 Students from all levels and course types
5 set tasks: Creating ‘views’ for CV, Personal Interests,
Examples of Uni work and Reflections on a project, as well as
their Profile.
Students to submit ‘secret URLS’ via myCourse assignment
upload tool (online text)
Then student would write in a reflective journal their thoughts
and experiences during that task

18. Student Feedback:
Positives:
It got easier – became more creative with pages
Give them the edge
Would use it from September to collect their work
Negatives:
Long time to upload big files – off campus issues
No option to change page themes and background colours
Profile pages confused them (Single Sign On – our fault!)
Wish list:
Snap boxes horizontally - Merge boxes within boxes
Templates for each page
Less randomly generated ‘Secret URL’ – i.e. customisable

19. How are we doing?
Full-scale Mahara implementation
4 x 0.25 Teaching & Learning Fellow posts
(Mahara, Assessment & Employability)
Mahara Development Group
Innovation projects
Sharing ideas & experiences with external
stakeholders
http://uk.movieposter.com/poster/A70-12212/Toy_Story.html

20. Want to see it?
http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk
November 2010

21. Final thought…
MyPortfolio
It is not just a CV builder & file store
This is a tool to help lecturers come up with inventive ways
to support the delivery of employability skills to their students
during lessons.
It is a professional platform for students to promote
themselves to the outside world

22. Contact me:
Samantha.Moss@solent.ac.uk
Twitter: @samwisemoss
More details:
http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/eportfolios
My ePortfolio:
http://mahara.solent.ac.uk/user/view.php?id=5
November 2010

23. Any Questions?