Let's see how you can make a plan and set some tasks for yourself:
- Click into Content in the main menu and then into Plans in the submenu.
- To begin with, you don't have any plans at all, so let's make one! Click on the Add one! link to get started.
- On the screen that follows, you will see a really simple form where you can enter a Title and Description for your plan. When you have finished, click on Save plan. Neil has decided to make a plan related to a block of assessments that are due for his level 2 learners. Here is what he entered:
- On the resulting page, you will see that the plan you just created is open, with its title displayed across the top. This is where you can now begin to add individual tasks that need to be completed. Start by clicking on the New task button on the top right.
- On the task creation screen, you will see a form that allows you to create your task. Give it a Title, choose a Completion date, and put in a description for the task in the Description field. To finish, click on Save task. Neil has added a task to his plan:
- You will see your new task appearing in the listing for the plan:
- When you've decided that you have completed your task, click on the pencil icon to see the task once more in the editing view. Check the box labeled as Completed and save the task.
- Now, when you revisit the task listing for the plan, you will see a little tick showing you that the task has been finished.
- Finally, if you forget to do a task before its completion date, Mahara lets you know by turning the text for that task to red:
- Try adding a few more tasks for things that you need to achieve, by setting deadlines for each one.
- And that's all there is to it, you have created a plan and some tasks in Mahara!
You have just created your first plan and set some tasks for yourself.
You can create plans in Mahara to remind you of your goals/objectives or to show others how you are planning and managing your time. If you are using Mahara for work, you could use Mahara plans to set out a list of Continual Professional Development (CPD) activities for your forthcoming year (there is also a CPD plugin for Mahara that you will learn more about in Chapter 7, Mahara Extensions). By doing this you can put the CPD plan on a portfolio page to share and agree activities with your boss. Planning and self development have never been so professional looking and so easy to do.
Planning is a core and crucial element of any reflective learning journey. Perhaps the best thinking in this area has been done by David A. Kolb who has deeply explored the idea of a cyclical learning process.
For more information visit the following sites:
For now though, let's look briefly at the simpler model, from which Kolb took inspiration to underpin his own thinking. This simple idea was a four-stage model of experiential learning coined by Kurt Lewin:
In this idea from Lewin, a learner using the Mahara system should follow these steps:
- Plan: Think about and systematically write up what you are going to do by using the Mahara planning tool.
- Act: Do whatever it is that you do (whilst capturing evidence of your work using digital media such as image, audio, video, and so on).
- Observe: Organize and showcase the media you have gathered in your Mahara pages and collections. You should also use the other tools that Mahara puts at your disposal (general text boxes, RSS feeds, and so on).
- Reflect: Use Mahara pages, their feedback sections, Mahara journals, and Mahara groups as tools for reflecting on how well you are learning. You can then start thinking about your next learning steps, which you can go on to plan.
Don't get us wrong, we are not suggesting that Mahara needs to be used with a strong formulaic approach to the learning process such as this (we actually think that it would be a mistake to insist on too formulaic an approach with Mahara), but we are showing you this experiential learning principle as a means of helping you to understand how you can utilize planning as an important part of the learning process.