Mahara
From RSCWMWiki
Mahara is an Open Source e-Portfolio
Mahara has a raft of compelling advantages which should cause any training or educational provider to consider it:
- It is a sister product to Moodle, sharing common members across both core development teams, and it can be easily configured to have Single-Sign On access with Moodle - actually porting across profile data.
- An API with Moodle is to be released in the upcoming version 2.0 (later this year) which will allow files (e.g. submitted assignments) to transfer easily between the two platforms.
- Mahara is concerned with PORTABILITY - avoiding ¨vendor-lock-in¨ a USER can migrate their data as they move from institution to institution. Mahara are going to comply with the JISC CETIS LEAP2.0 standard.
- Mahara is MODULAR in design and is FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE - meaning the e-Portfolio community can collaborate to collectively develop the product (in the same way as we did with Moodle).
- Mahara is MORE than an e-Portfolio!! As well as having a really zippy files upload facility and an easy-to-use folder structure, Mahara offers: - a resume building facility (useful for helping learners to face out to employers), - a blogging facility ( a learner can write AS MANY blogs AS they like!!) - the ability to easily create ¨Views¨ (i.e. your own webpages where you talk about your interest areas and can incorporate social media (e.g. video clips from YouTube or TeacherTube)) - A Social Networking Facility (much like this site we are currently using) which allows people to add friends and form interest groups with discussion forums.
AND..... You can easily theme Mahara (as you can Moodle) with your own corporate colours, logos and other branding...
....AND.... All Mahara activity gets logged on your own database... meaning you can investigate any reports of Cyber-Bullying, Sexual Harassment, etc.
And for Work-Based Learning???
Mahara is not a competency-based e-Portfolio per se, but it can be used very effectively to track NVQ progress. TDM ( [1] ) - a Mahara partner in the West Midlands - are offering workshops for WBL providers who are interested in seeing how this can be done.
A Mahara e-Portfolio for WBL needs to be supplemented, of course, with accrediting body documentation in the same way that USB-Stick or DVD-based evidence would need to be supported.
Many providers, however, actually like to have a paper-based record to supplement their online e-Portfolio.
