1. Exercises
Logging on
1. Open your web browser
2. Type in www.myportfolio.ac.nz
3. Type in your Username and password – if you forget you password select lost Username
password and this will be emailed to the email that you registered with myportfolio
4. If you haven’t got a username then the institute administrator can create a username for
you – this requires your first and last name, a unique user name and unique email address
If any of you colleagues want to learn a bit more about myportfolio there are some exercises on
http://wikieducator.org/Mahara/Training_Workshop_1 that take around 2 hours to complete.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 1

2. Editing your profile
To edit your profile
1. Select Profile > Edit profile
2. Select the About me
3. Add text in the Introduction box – try some of the formatting options
4. Take a look at the information in the Contact information, Messaging, General and change
any of the information that you want to
5. S elect My Resume tab and scroll down to Book and Publications
6. Select Add and add information about your published research (the fields in red with the *
have to be filled in the other fields are optional)
7. Select Save when finished
8. Select View profile page
The default profile page is automatically created . This includes information you have just entered
and any groups, views, or friends that are associated with you. This page is customisable and is
shown when other users click on your name from within myportfolio. Your personal information
such as contact details is not included. Notice that the books and Publications expands when you
click on the heading.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 2

3. Editing your profile page and adding a text box
1. Select Profile > Edit profile page
2. This will bring up the Blocks that you can add to your page by dragging to your profile page.
3. Select the General (2) tab
4. Click on the Text Box icon and drag this block into the position you want it to appear in your
view
5. Type in the Block Title – the heading for the text block eg Subject areas
6. Fill in the Block content and Save
7. This will show the new block in your profile page (this is a called view )
8. Select Done
9. Select Edit profile page to edit the text block
10. Click on the block just created and drag it to a new position
11. Click on the Configure button on the text box just created and change some of the text
and use the formatting buttons of the text editor.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 3

4. Creating a View
Select MyPortfolio > My Views > Create View
Step One Layout
1. Select Change my View layout
2. Choose the Number of columns (3) .Next
3. Select Larger centre column > Change my View layout
4. Select General Tab and drag a text box into position
5. Drag to the middle column to see the different width
6. Add text that would be useful to support a course that you are teaching – eg you can copy
and paste the course outcomes .(Use the Paste from Word button if copying content from
Word.).
7. Select Next
Step Two Details
1. Type in the View Name and View Description and Tags
2. Click on the ? to get online help on the tag field.
3. Select Next
Step Three Access
1. Add a user from the training group to give access to this view
2. Select Allow copying this will allow people that you have access to your view to copy this.
3. Select Add Secret URL and copy this address.
4. Logout of myportfolio and paste this address into your browser – this allows non users of
myportfolio to see the view.
Copy a view
1. Select My Portfolio > My Views > Copy a view
2. Select from the list of views the view you want to copy – this will bring up the Create View
wizard so you can reorganise this. This is useful to allow students to copy a view that they
can base their work on.
3. Place feedback on a view that you have access to by clicking on the Place feedback link at
the bottom of the view
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 4

5. Uploading files and link file to Profile Page view.
1. Select My Portfolio > My Files
2. Tick the Yes Upload file box to agree to the copyright terms and conditions.
3. Select Browse to view files on your computer
4. Select an image File to upload (limit of 50mb)
5. Confirmation of the Upload will show and the file will be listed under the Home folder
6. Select Edit to add a description of file
7. Add a tag to further help classify this – use the show my tags to view any tags you have
already used.
8. Select Profile > Edit profile page
9. Select the Files images and video tab.
10. Select An image block and drag this into position
11. Select the My Files tab (selected by default0
12. Type in a suitable description or leave blank in the Block Title
13. Type in the width you want to restrict the graphic to the minimum screen width is around
600 with 2 columns type in 300.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 5

6. Managing Files
Navigate and create folders tomanage files
1. My Files > Create folder
2. Type in the name of the folder you want to create
3. Folders can have subfolders - click on the Parent folder link to go up a level
4. If you copy a view the view files will be stored in a subfolder under the viewfiles folder and
the view number as the subfolder name
Upload a zip file
1. My Files > Upload file
2. Browse for the zip file
3. This will upload with a unzip link next to it on My Files
4. Click on the unzip link to unzip this file – the folder structure of the zip file will be cerated on
My files
Add a tag and description to files
1. Select My Files
2. Select Edit on the file
3. Type in the description
4. Type in the tag box to create a new tag – tags are currently only defined and available for
individual users
5. Select Show my tags and view this new tag
6. Select the Tags block in the right hand column and select a tag
7. Select whether you want to search by File, Image or views
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 6

7. Managing Messages
Any changes to myportfolio that affect you will generate a message notification
To read any messages sent to you by myportfolio
1. Select the unread messages box in right hand column underneath your username.
2. To see all messages including read messages choose Settings > Notifications
3. Click on the message to read it and click on the Delete button to delete this.
4. If there are lots of messages you can select an Activity Type and select the type of message
you want to see.
To change the email options for messages being delivered to you.
1. Select Settings > Activity preferences
2. Select the notification type and whether to get these delivered by email, email digest or
Activity log of myportfolio.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 7

8. Creating groups
To create a group
1. Select Groups > My Groups > Create group
2. Give your group a name and Description
3. Select a Group type of Course Controlled group – this group type is able to be created by
institute admins and staff where you can control membership of the group and enables
views by students to be submitted to the group.
Add members to the group
1. Select Groups > Find Friends
2. Type in the username in the search box
3. Click on their name link to bring up their profile.
4. Select Add to Add and select the Course controlled group you have just created
View members of your group
1. Select Groups > My Groups
2. Select the group name
3. Select Members tab
Create group forums
1. Select Groups > My Groups
2. Select the Group name
3. Select Forums tab – there is a forum called General Discussion
4. Select New forum button
5. Fill in the Forum title and Description
6. Click the Settings to see what options you have – accept the default. and Save
7. Select the forum and select New Topic button
8. The new topic will appear is will appear in the forum along with a link to your profile and a
reply link.
9. Click on the Reply link to make a reply to your posting
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 8

9. Create a group view
1. Select Group > My Groups
2. Select the Group to create a view
3. Select Views tab > Create view
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 9

10. User administration
Search for User
1. Select User Administration – type in their first name and/or surname – this only searches for
people who are members of your institute.
2. Click on the username link to see more details on the user and allow you to change user
settings
Change user setting
1. Locate the user (see above ) this allows you to change a users
• Password
• File quota
• Suspend user
Adding new Users
1. User Administration > Manage Users > Add User
2. Create new user from scratch
3. Fill in the user details – each user requires a unique email and username (there are other
around 10000 users registered so one may be taken
Suspend a user
1. Search for the username and click on their name.
2. Add reason for suspension and select Suspend User
3. There is also an option to Remove user from this institution
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 10

11. Creating Advanced views
Submitting a view
1. Use the Course group set up (only institute staff or admins can do this) – standard members
of this group can submit views to a Course group
2. Select My Portfolio > My Views and select the Submit this View to drop down box
3. Select yes that you don’t want to edit this view.
Giving feedback on a view
1. Click the Place feedback button on any view that you are able to access
Getting notification when a view has changed
1. Select the view – Myportfolio . My Views
2. Add View to watchlist
3. A notification will be sent to you when the view has been changed
Adding a blog to a view
1. Create a blog – MyPortfolio > My Blogs > Add Blog
2. Add a Post to the blog
3. Attach a file to a blog posting
4. Add blog postings to a view - My Portfolio > My Views > Edit this View
5. Select the Blog Post block and drag into position in the view
6. Select a blog Post
Adding an external feed,
1. This allows updated content from a website RSS feed to be displayed .You could use this to
publish recent content from Twitter
2. Go to an RSS feed and copy the URL of this and add this to the Feed location box in the
External Feed block.
Inserting Multimedia
Embed external files and content into a view
1. Copy the embed code from a You Tube video you want to include in your view.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 11

12. 2. Select the External Video block
3. Paste the code into the Video URL box
4. Google videos, teacher tube is also supported – in the newest version of myportfolio content
from a lot more web sites such as vimeo, slideshare to be embedded in a view.
Linking views
1. My Portfolio > My Views > Create View
2. Create a text block that will be used to navigate between views
3. Type the name of the view you want to go to
4. Select Insert hyperlink
5. Copy and paste the view ID of the link in eg http://myportfolio.ac.nz/user/view.php?id=1726
6. Copy this block into the same location of all the blocks you wish to navigate from
7. The navigation between blocks has is has been automated through Collection
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 12

13. Using myportfolio to support elearning
• Create an eportfolio view of your own to give details of your achievements and interests.
• Give your colleagues and students access to this view.
• Build the use of an eportfolio into course assessments
• Give feedback on views
• Implement Single Sign On between Moodle LMS and myportfolio
• Create course groups with forums and group vies for collaboration
• Create groups for communities of practice across courses
• Create copyable views that can be used for assessments
• Join groups on mahara to discuss eportfolio
• Look at research into eportfolios – eg
• Try and link to employment opportunities to encourage use of eportfolio
• Make the eportfolio available to students after they have completed their study
• Create Alumni organisation – contact support to set up
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 13

14. Research links
The impact of e-portfolios on learning
Celebrating learning - JISC
NZ Ministry Of Education ePortfolio report
ePortfolio Assessment for learning
eportfolios their use and benefits
Helen Barrett – resources on eportfolios
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 14

15. Assessing views
The following points can be used to assess students vie
Aesthetics
• Headings standout
• Consistently applied
• Appropriate use of colour
• Image quality and size
• Use of white space
• Easy to navigate
Content
• Clear purpose
• Answers questions
• Research used and referenced
• Summarised content
• Good use of labels
• Reflection used where appropriate to show learning journey
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 15

16. Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 16

17. New features of Myportfolio v1.3 (upgraded at end of the year)
Login to demo.mahara.org for a look at the new features
User-configurable home page (Dashboard View)
Simpler main navigation
Basic Mahara information & help on home page
View/artefact feedback enhancements:
Collections (sets of Views that are linked to one another)
Plans (task lists)
Users can change the theme for individual views
Configurable number of items in external feed, blog blocks
New block types: notifications, recently modified views, recent forum posts
More user-friendly notifications & help text
Show entire thread when replying to personal messages
External objects that have <embed> or <object> tags can be embedded into blog posts, text
boxes or uploaded within an HTML file
Locking of blogposts and files in submitted views
Atom feeds for public blogs and forums
new flash-based video player with support for .mp4 files (H.264)
Moodle Repository plugin support (allows a user's Mahara files to be accessed from their
Moodle account)
Portfolio API to allow import of artefacts from Moodle over MNET.
Configurable group home page (Group Homepage View)
Improved ways to add/invite users to invite only and "course membership" groups:
View submission from group page and from the view itself
Group categories for use in group searches
Admin group management page for group deletion/assignment of group admins
Groups can disable new view access notifications
View access to group only notified when the view owner also belongs to the group *
CAPTCHAs replaced with new anti-spam features to make form-filling difficult for bots &
check urls in content against known spam blacklists
Site statistics & graphs in admin area
Admin page shows link to latest Mahara release & status of cron
Admin site options grouped into sections
Record number of page hits on views & display these to the owner
Facility to disable email addresses after receiving multiple bounces.
Footer links can be disabled/enabled
Online users can be disabled
Indenting of threads can be disabled per-forum
Full security review of all db queries & templates; automatic template escaping enabled
New version of HTMLPurifier allows safe <embed> and <object> tags in user html content
Search options to make users always searchable by their real names & usernames
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 17

18. Tips and tricks
Upload zip files with folder structure to my file and then unzip these in myportfolio – the folder
structure and files will be replicated in myportfolio
Use the Paste from Word option to avoid extra html code being pasted
Use RSS feeds to keep updated content – eg Twitter feed
Use the Activity preferences to include unimportant messages in the Activity log.
Copy a view that you are going to submit so you can continue adding to this while it is being
assessed
If you have a good idea on how to enhance myportfolio – contact support and they will request this
feature
Register with mahara.org to find out more about future and current use of mahara and to discuss
mahara with others using this around the world.
Use an image editor to save an image for the web to decrease file size – use sound and video editors
to help create quality multimedia resources.
Myportfolio.ac.nz Exercises Page 18