Mahara is an e-portfolio technology. An e-portfolio is a system in which students can record “evidence of learning” – such as essays, reports, reflective commentary, task lists, video, ljud or artwork. Basically, anything that can be produced and stored digitally. These digital items are known as artefacts in Mahara. It is more than just a place to store files as Mahara also provides ways for people to interact with their tutors and peers and create online communities. Mahara also includes blogging (through journals) and a résumé (or CV) builder. Your e-portfolio can be used for personal reflection and development and to provide assessment evidence for your programme. You decide what you share with your tutors, peers and friends. You can also make your portfolio, or parts of it, public. You can then showcase your development and achievements with employers. The word ‘mahara’ is from Te Reo Māori. As Mahara was created in New Zealand, it was fitting to choose a Māori word to signify the concept of the ePortfolio system. At University of Gothenburg, the tool is named Mahara Eportfolio. |
Mahara Eportfolio at University of Gothenburg can be accessed in multiple ways:
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Your Profile area stores your contact and personal information. Each of the profile fields can be considered separate artefacts which you can add independently to your profile page or any portfolio page. Thus, you can reveal as little or as much information about yourself to others as you wish. Your profile page is public, in the sense that by default, it can be viewed by anyone who is logged into Mahara Eportfolio at the University of Gothenburg.
Complete the form fields with the information you want to add, making sure to click Save.
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The images you wish to use must be between 16×16 and 1024×1024 pixels in size. Ideally, your profile images are square. The profile images that you wish to upload to Mahara must be available on your computer or phone/tablet. Choose one image at a time to upload. You can also give it a title. User menu > Profile pictures |
The dashboard is the first page you see on logging into Mahara. You can arrange the items on the page to suit your preferred way of working. For example, you might want to see your inbox, or recent forum posts. The sidebar blocks are not editable. Click Edit Dashboard to arrange it the way you would like. Watch below to see the various way to edit the Dashboard. |
You are, by default, notified of relevant activity in the Mahara Inbox. However, you can change your notification preferences so that you receive an email instead.
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Your portfolio is built in pages and collections of pages.
See How do I create a Collection in Mahara? on how to build your Collections. |
Mahara is not like other learning technology you may have used (e.g. Canvas) so it’s important to understand the differences.
Mahara is designed for students to create content and control who sees it. This content is created in a personal portfolio of pages (or collection of pages). You can identify your personal content by viewing a link underneath the title of a page or collection.
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Your e-portfolio is created through the production of pages and collections (of pages), with content that is often created in a reflective style. Each page can be edited to contain the content you wish, including uploading or embedding of files of various types (e.g. text, image, media, web).
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Add content to a pageWhen you select a page, it is displayed to you as a web page. To edit the content, click the Edit (pencil) icon to the right. You can then add items by choosing the Add (plus) icon. A page consist of one or more blocks, and you are free to design your Page. You can either drag a block or select the block position to add it to the page. When you have positioned your block, you can choose the Content type. Choose Show more to see more content type options (e.g. text, image, journal entries). Video: edit pageredigera-sida.mp4
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A collection is like a folder that contains several pages. Then you can, for example, share the entire collection.
Video: Add and edit a Collectionadd-edit-collection.mp4 |
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Kopiera sida från dig själv eller som är delad med dig (t ex en mall)
Video: Copy Page or Collectioncopy-page-collection.mp4Copy a page shared via linkAlternatively, if you are provided with a link to a page or collection, and you have permission to copy, you will see a Copy option available from the More options (three dots icon) button on the right of the page.
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Give access to your portfolioIf you don't make any changes to the sharing, only you have access to your portfolio (page or collection). If you want to share the content with others, there are different settings to give individual people access or make it completely open to the public.
Explanation of the different sharing options
Validity period of the sharingIf you want to limit how long a specific share should be valid, you can set start and end dates in the date picker. |
Secret URL for sharing with people outside the universityYou can share your Pages or Collections with people outside the University, such as prospective employers, subject specialists or external examiners, using a secret URL. This provides users who do not have an account on Mahara access to your portfolio.
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Templates in Mahara EportfolioPages and collections can be used as templates that students can work on. It is suitable if you want the portfolios to have a certain design, or want to give examples. How do I set a page or collection as a template?
You must then specify who or who should have access to the template. You have two options: Choose students one by one, or give everyone at the University of Gothenburg the opportunity to find and use the template. If you want to give individual students access to the template, select "Person" under "Shared with" and search for the person who should have access to the template. Repeat this for each person you want to share the template with. If you want the template to be completely open to everyone at the university, select "Registered people". Press Save. |
Give the teacher access to the portfolio and share the linkYour teacher will explain how to submit your ePortfolio for assessment, usually via an Assignment in Canvas.
Time lineIn some cases, your teacher may ask you to save your Eportfolio page or collection to the timeline (so that there is a time-stamped version just before you submit). Then the teacher can see how the portfolio has developed and be sure that nothing has changed in the portfolio since you submitted it. To save on the timeline, go into the portfolio and click on the three horizontal dots. Select “Save to timeline” to make a time stamp. You can do this several times. |
Let students submit a link in an assignment in CanvasBy having the students submit a link to their portfolio, you can access the student's portfolio for assessment via Canvas. You can then either comment on the portfolio directly in Mahara Eportfolio (a comment field is by default at the bottom of each portfolio page), or you can use the comments function in SpeedGrader. You can also set a grade, if the task is set to be graded. Gör så här:
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This Guide, "Mahara Eportfolio for Teachers and Students", is an adaption of "How to use Mahara for students" av University of Bath, under the license Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 unported (CC BY-SA 3.0). "Mahara Eportfolio for Teachers and Students" is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 av Gustav Öberg.