Mahara is an ePortfolio software that allows you to quickly set up and easily manage your own rich educational or professional digital portfolio.
This book is your step-by-step guide to getting up and running with Mahara. As a new user to the Mahara platform, you will be introduced to all of the main features in detail and you can work through all of the examples at your own pace, making use of the companion Mahara site to have a go for yourself.
You will learn about all the key Mahara features that you will need to grasp in order to develop your own impressive portfolio.
Create your own content, develop a professional profile, gather your reflections in your journal, upload your work or personal files to your storage area, and make some plans.
See how you can display all of this in easy-to-create web pages — just drag-and-drop blocks of content and rearrange them, using Mahara's innovative page framework.
When you're happy with your creations, choose who you want to share them with and when. Share with users both internal and external to your Mahara site.
Finally, connect with other members in your Mahara community and collaborate in groups by participating in forums and discussions. Exchange ideas and news with your colleagues and friends.
Add to your portfolio throughout your professional career, including all of your new experiences, reflections, and progressions. When you look back, you will have a full and thorough record of your development, a great way to see how much you have grown.
Chapter 1, What can Mahara do for you? discusses what ePortfolios are and why Mahara is a very good choice of ePortfolio software. You will see some practical usecases for Mahara and join up to the official Mahara Community website.
Chapter 2, Getting Started with Mahara explains how to register to join the companion Mahara site for this book. You will get to grips with some of the basics of Mahara such as finding your way around and editing your profile information. You will also have your first look at the special Profile and Dashboard pages.
Chapter 3, Create and Collect Content discusses adding your own content to your portfolio. You will write in your journal, make some plans, add some notes, and upload your files. You will finish by learning how to display these on your Dashboard page.
Chapter 4, Organize and Showcase your Portfolio explains how to make a Mahara page from scratch. You will add content to your page and choose its layout and design. You will group your pages into collections. you will see how easy it is to share your pages with others.
Chapter 5, Share and Network in Groups covers connecting with other users in Mahara. You will create and participate in groups of interest. You will learn how to share files and pages in groups. You will exchange ideas in group forums.
Chapter 6, Course Groups and Other Roles in Mahara explains what a Mahara Institution is and how you can manage one. You will work as a Mahara staff member to set up course groups, which can have pages submitted to them. You will look at a possible workflow in Mahara for the assessment of work.
Chapter 7, Mahara Extensions explores some of the extensions that are available for Mahara. You will look at a plugin that allows you to track your continuing professional development and use the embedly block to embed content from web 2.0 sites in pages and more.
Appendix A, Mahara Implementation — Pre-Planner discusses some of the important questions your organization will need to address if you want to successfully get your ePortfolio system up live and running.
Appendix B, Installing Mahara covers the installation of Mahara, along with the requirements for installation.
Appendix C, Pop Quiz Answers contains the answers to the pop quiz questions.