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Introduction: What is Mahara eportfolio system?

Mahara eportfolio system is a web application that is designed to help students, professionals and everyone else demonstrate their achievements. When we apply for a new job or seek to collaborate with others, we often need to showcase our work. Whether you’re a web designer showing off your beautiful designs or a project manager with evidence of previous successes, a portfolio proves to others that you have what it takes to impress. This is where Mahara comes in.

What is the purpose of Mahara ePortfolio?

Mahara ePortfolio is a web-based platform that allows users to create and maintain an electronic portfolio of their work. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including personal development, career development, and academic assessment.

An electronic portfolio is a collection of electronic documents and media that demonstrate a person’s skills, knowledge, and achievements. It can include a variety of content, such as text documents, images, audio and video files, and web links.

The purpose of Mahara ePortfolio is to provide users with a tool for organizing, showcasing, and reflecting on their work. It can be used to document learning and development over time, to demonstrate competence in a particular field or area of study, or to provide evidence of achievement for assessment or accreditation purposes.

Mahara ePortfolio can be used by individuals, groups, or organisations to create and share electronic portfolios that reflect their learning, skills, and achievements. It is often used in education and training settings to support learning and assessment, but it can also be used in other contexts, such as for professional development or for personal growth and development.

It also allows you to organise your work in a timeline, create links between the different projects and share your portfolio with others. It is open source software that was created by the University of Auckland in New Zealand and has been used for many years by educators and students alike. The software can be downloaded for free from the website mahara.org

Mahara eportfolio is also an important tool used by students to demonstrate learning as they progress through a course. The portfolio can then be assessed as part of the course or even shared with people externally to showcase the student’s best work for evaluation. This particular benefit is helpful for students with little or no employment experience. 

The rise of the eportfolio

Many people these days use eportfolios, and one of the best on the market is Mahara. A web application created by the Mahara Project, the tool is more than a simple receptacle of student work. It turns the portfolio into a living, breathing entity that is constantly added to and developed. Eportfolio systems, such as Mahara, have some serious advantages over the traditional ‘hard-copy’ portfolios of the past.  Mahara eportfolio system is a type of digital portfolio that allows students to showcase their work and skills in a digital format.

The rise of the eportfolio system is due to the fact that it is an efficient way for students to showcase their skills and abilities. It also helps them stand out from other applicants as they can show what they are capable of doing. These days, companies are more likely to use the eportfolio software for talent acquisition and recruitment purposes. They want to see what kind of work someone has done before hiring them instead of relying on their resume alone.

From the student’s point of view, they can quickly demonstrate areas in which they excel, and discover which other areas need improvement, so they can adapt their learning strategy accordingly.

Community sharing

Educators can create Mahara student communities and forums, whereby students share work with other students and teachers, for feedback before submitting. The forums also act as a learning tool, as students share ideas to further each others’ understanding of a topic. It works as a great community building exercise, too!

Assessment is easy for teachers, with all of an individual student’s work in one place. They have easy access to assess work and can monitor progress against core competencies. It also makes it easier for teachers to assess project work over a long period of time.

What are the benefits of using Mahara eportfolio system?

Mahara is a free and open-source social networking software, designed for universities and other educational institutions. It allows users to create profiles, post multimedia content, share status updates, and follow the activities of their friends.

Additionally, the benefits of using Mahara are:

  • It is free and open-source
  • It is easy to use and intuitive
  • It requires little configuration
  • It has a large user base

Mahara and Moodle

When the Mahara eportfolio system was developed, one guiding principle with its design was that it should be learner-focused. A Personal Learning Environment for users. Whereas Moodle LMS (Learning Management System) is an institution-centered learning platform by contrast.

Moodle easily integrates with Mahara, using various plug-ins. This allows your students and educators to benefit from the whole Mahara experience. What’s more, it is easy for students to share their eportfolio with others across devices, so they can use it for job seeking, promotion requests or when applying to university. 

And just like an individual portfolio, Mahara is also developing. The open-source nature of the application invites contributions from techies all over the world, meaning it constantly evolves in a way that suits all users. 

If you need help setting up Mahara, or integrating Mahara with your LMS, please contact us.

Resources and further reading

Topic
Introduction to MaharaWhat is Mahara used for? Mahara is designed for students to create content and control who sees it through personal portfolios. Teaching Hub
What is Mahara? Mahara is a free and open-source web-based electronic portfolio management system written in PHP. Wikipedia
Is Mahara free? Yes, Mahara is free and distributed under the GNU Public License.
Features and ComponentsWhat are the features of Mahara? Mahara includes a file repository, folder and subfolder structures, and allows users to upload multiple files. Mahara.org
What is a Mahara page? A Mahara page contains a selection of artefacts, such as files or résumé details, that users arrange and present. Mahara User Manual
What is a Mahara Moodle? Mahara allows portfolios to be shared flexibly with specific people or the entire world for various assessment tasks.
Using MaharaHow to use Mahara for students? Students can use Mahara by creating content and controlling who sees it through personal portfolios. Teaching Hub
How do you use Mahara skin? Users can create, import, or export skins for their pages in Mahara. Mahara User Manual
How do I access Mahara? To access Mahara, create an account on a Mahara site or use an existing account from an institution that uses Mahara. Some Mahara sites have single sign-on with their Moodle LMS.
Pages, Collections, and JournalsWhat is a journal entry in Mahara? Journal entries in Mahara are online records of thoughts and experiences that can be shared with others. Mahara User Manual
How do I make a collection on Mahara? Create a collection in Mahara by grouping pages together to form a cohesive portfolio. YouTube
ePortfoliosWhat is an ePortfolio for students? An ePortfolio is a digital collection of work that showcases learning over time. Missouri Online: Teaching
Privacy and SharingHow to make Mahara private? To make a Mahara page or collection private, edit the access settings to control who can view it. Mahara User Manual

Vinny Stocker


Vinny is an experienced educator and technologist with over 25 years of leadership experience in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. He is the Managing Director of Pukunui Sdn Bhd, a leading Learning Management Systems provider in Malaysia, where he has successfully implemented e-learning systems for some of the largest universities in the country. He is also a recognised expert in the field of Moodle, having trained hundreds of teachers on various versions of the software and regularly presenting at educational conferences in South East Asia. Vinny is known for his progressive and driven approach, as well as his ability to provide practical and effective solutions that promote student progress and learning. He is an accomplished entrepreneur, published author, and a down-to-earth and approachable individual dedicated to improving education through innovative integration of ICT.

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