Mahara e-portfolio

Kineo Pacific is the project leader on the Mahara open source e-portfolio project, and work closely with open source gurus,  Catalyst IT, to guide its ongoing development. Mahara is an open source e-portfolio system with the ability to display learning evidence in a number of different ways, depending on the needs of the learner or practitioner.

What is an e-portfolio?

An e-portfolio is a learner-driven collection of digital content demonstrating experiences, achievements and evidence of learning. E-portfolios provide learners with a structured way of recording their learning experiences and work history.
 
A first guiding principle with the development of the Mahara ePortfolio system is that it is learner centred – a form of Personal Learning Environment. This is in contrast to the more organisation-centric Learning Management System (LMS).
 
Mahara’s architecture is inspired by the modular, extensible architecture of Moodle. Mahara is a ‘pluggable’, modular ePortfolio system designed to leverage Web 2.0 web services and built with interoperability in mind. It is one of only a few e-portfolio systems that are fully compliant with the LEAP2A interoperability specification.

What does Mahara do? 

Mahara includes many features to support a range of e-portfolios and the creation of online learner communities;

• Free open source software
• Designed by educators alongside open source experts
• Manages, stores and displays media-rich content
• Users have the ability to select who will see their information and in what format.
• Learner-centred
• Showcases accomplishments
• Flexible Resume Builder
• Social networking for learner communities
• Group collaboration tools
• Template sharing
• Supports multiple languages and themes
• Supports multiple organisations on a single installation
• Flexible, “pluggable” architecture
• Interoperable with Moodle, Totara and other learning and training platforms
• Import and export using open standards

Why use an e-portfolio?

E-portfolios can be customised and personalised into a one-stop-shop to demonstrate skills and experiences to teachers, trainers, peers and employers. Learners who have used e-portfolios report having a greater awareness of their skills, greater confidence in their abilities, and feeling more independent as learners. E-portfolios are becoming popular globally as a tool to enhance learning, record achievements and assist with personal career development.

The process of creating an e-portfolio can assist learners and employees to:

• Develop a holistic overview of their learning, experiences and development beyond individual classes
• Understand their learning and experience in terms of work readiness
• Extract evidence to demonstrate their learning and achievements
• Identify skill gaps through review and reflection of their e-portfolio content
• Plan, set and review personal development targets

Skills development and e-portfolios

Our ability to build a competitive workforce depends on being able to apply a range of work-ready skills. The creation of an e-portfolio encourages learners and employees to consider their training and experiences in a broader career development context.

E-portfolios can assist with a range of activities, including:

Recruitment and appraisal processes

E-portfolios can enhance the quality of job or promotion applications, and streamline the recruitment and candidate appraisal processes.

Training needs and career planning

An e-portfolio can assist in the identification of skill gaps and training needs, enabling targeted employee development plans and more efficient use of training budgets.

Most career services and e-portfolio practice share the same goal; presenting evidence of skills, reflecting on experiences and planning for future career opportunities.

Continuing professional development

A growing number of professional associations are using e-portfolios to provide evidence of attaining professional standards. For example, it is becoming popular for teaching and nursing practitioners to provide evidence of their experiences and reflective self-assessment to gain registration using an e-portfolio.

RPL (recognition of prior learning)

The process of collecting evidence of learner and employee achievements for formal RPL documentation can be streamlined and made more efficient through the use of e-portfolios.

To find out more visit www.mahara.org or contact Kineo Pacific at info@kineo.co.nz or Contact Us.