An early presentation about the e-portfolio application Mahara by Meredith Henson given at several events in 2007.

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