Introduction delivered by Jim Judges at the Warwick University Mahara User Group

1. Mahara User Group
2 - 07 - 14

2. • Progress
• Integrations, developments & plans
• Department Examples
• Q & A and discussions
Updates – Sharing – Networking - Development

3. Progress
Main Departments:
• CPE
• CLL
• WMS
• Language centre*
• SCS

4. Integration & Development
- Authentication via Moodle (MNET)
- Moodle-Mahara Assignment submission tool
- Mobile Uploads
- New complimentary theme
- http://moodle-test.warwick.ac.uk/
- http://mahara-test.warwick.ac.uk/ (SSO)
- Upgrade to Mahara 1.8 (August 2014)

5. Mahara 1.8 new features
• Content / artefact chooser is now on the left-hand side
• Flexible page layouts allowing users to align content in rows and not only columns
• Import Leap2A files into an existing account
• New icon set and updated stylesheets
Other notable new features include:
• Attachments on text boxes
• Embedding of PDFs in a page
• Drag and drop files into the files area
• Tags on all internal artefacts
• Admin features & bug fixes

6. > artefact chooser is now on the left-hand side

7. > flexible page layouts

8. > attachments on text boxes

9. > embedding of PDFs in a page

10. > drag and drop files into the files area

11. Departmental Progress & Examples

12. Q & A and Discussion Prompts
• Mahara vs MyPortfolio
Your plans:
• How do you plan to use Mahara?
• How could your learners & colleagues use
Mahara?

13. • Assessment
• Demonstrate student competency and skills. Educators and
peers can provide comments and feedback
• Development
• Of students' educational goals, providing evidence of the
advancement of knowledge and skills. Can provide support
for personal development too
• Showcase
• Demonstrate exemplary assignments and other work, as
well as student skills. Designed for potential employers or
educators and can be used instead of, or to supplement
one's CV.
Types of ePortfolio
“In most cases ePortfolios are not used for a single purpose.
Instead, they tend to combine 2–3 types of portfolios thus
creating a Hybrid portfolio” Balaban, I.; Bubas, G., (2010)

14. • Level 1 & 2: Scrapbook & Curriculum Vitae
• Level 3: Curriculum Collaboration
• Students can share views with peers, tutors & employers
and receive comments
• Level 4: Mentoring
• Educators are intensely engaged in guidance & feedback
• Level 5: Authentic Evidence for Assessment, Evaluation, and
Reporting
• Structured, organised, used for assessment & feedback
Based on Love et al (2004) cited in Balaban, I.; Bubas, G., (2010)
“Because of its features, ePortfolio offers support for reflection,
which is one of its main advantages over other systems”
Suggested Levels of Portfolio Use

15. Mahara eportfolio can help:
• To externalize learners’ ideas and thoughts.
• To understand other students’ ideas
• To deepen their knowledge by combining other’s ideas and
thoughts.
Sawazaki, T. & Tanaka, Y. (2013).
Designing Courses based on SECI model with Mahara, e-Portfolio.

16. • Progress
• Integrations, developments & plans
• Departmental Progress & Examples
• Q & A and discussions

17. Mahara User Group
2 - 07 - 14

18. References
• Love et al (2004) cited in Balaban, I.; Bubas, G., "Educational potentials of ePortfolio systems:
Student evaluations of Mahara and Elgg," Information Technology Interfaces (ITI), 2010 32nd
International Conference on , vol., no., pp.329,336, 21-24 June 2010
• Sawazaki, T. & Tanaka, Y. (2013). Designing Courses based on SECI model with Mahara, e-Portfolio.
In T. Bastiaens & G. Marks (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate,
Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2013 (pp. 1355-1358). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.editlib.org/p/115065