Presentation by Orna Farrell at the MaharaIRL Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on 27 April 2017

1. Using a Mahara
eportfolio with
online distance
students
Orna Farrell
Programme Chair- BA Humanities, BA English & History, BA Single Module
orna.farrell@dcu.ie

2. Who?

3. How?
•Pilot in one module- Soc3a-
Power, order, crime and
deviance
•35 students
•5 entries over 24 weeks
•Assessment as learning
approach-focus to reflect
on their learning in Soc3a
•Followed a critical
questions template

4. How?

5. Loop reflect supports

6. Student portfolios

7. Student portfolios

8. Student voices: What's it like learning
with an eportfolio?
“The learning portfolio differs to other
modes of learning, I am not simply
learning and regurgitating information,
I am also learning about myself.”
Jessica entry 1
“Im not even going to lie, I don’t even plan them
out.(eportfolio entries) I kind of just…it’s a bit of a
stream of consciousness when I’m typing. So
sometime I get to the end of one I’m like ‘Haha that
doesn’t even make sense’. I have no points made.
Em but it’s kind of the one time when I let loose with
my writing and it doesn’t have to be super
structured. So I enjoy that.” Samantha interview 1
“I have still not found this portfolio as functional as I
probably should. It seems a bit droning and repetitive as I
don’t see how my learning patterns and processes could
change so much in a space of a month or two. I have
read over my past couple entries and I don’t find myself
amazed or inspired by what I’ve previously said and
thought, so I don’t feel that I’m being influenced at all by
the learning portfolio other than struggling to manage my
time to write it.” Alvin entry 3
“I like that you can go back in and review your entries, you
can pick back up where you left off and it is quite clear
when you get into the swing of it, you can go from post to
post and review what you are doing (in your eportfolio) and
that's quite good.” Alison interview 1

9. National Institute for Digital Learning