Once your platform is running, it's tempting to sit back, but you will need to think about what you are going to do next to ensure its continual development and sustainability.
This is one of those things that is much easier said than done. It can be really hard to step back and take an honest, critical look at a platform that is in place.
Here are some questions you could be asking:
How are you going to make your Mahara ePortfolio site stick as one of the cornerstones of your learning delivery model? Or has it all been a flash in the pan?
A thriving site will often be in a constant state of flux, changing with the needs, and focuses of the organization and its people, embedding itself deeper and deeper as an element of the wider e-institution.
There are various ways in which you might have approached the change-management process required to implement Mahara usage in your organization.
Some organizations might take a very top-down, directive sort of approach. The wisest amongst those avoid horrific staff rebellion by putting their weight behind an expert who is brought in to make the change happen. This expert is often a consultant, sometimes a new staff member. The expert will follow a strict project plan and will have the authority to reward and rebuke as deemed appropriate by the implementation planners.
Other organizations might adopt a more bottom-up user-driven sort of approach. They implement the platform, publicize it, and then just wait to see what happens. The problem here is that it can result in pretty much nothing getting done. It is therefore best in this approach to encourage a knowledge-sharing culture. You could, for example, give the users dedicated time to show off their work and share their skills. This nudges progress along a bit without having to bring in an expert because the users are learning from each other.
In our view, an approach that sits in the middle of these two positions is a negotiated, circular approach, which clearly communicates the organizational drivers, but also gives ample space for the user community themselves to take the lead on what their learning content should cover. The Mahara platform itself, of course, allows nicely for this approach.
If you really want to change your learning and knowledge culture into a reflective, online ePortfolio supported learning and knowledge culture, you will probably have to continuously re-evaluate to what extent you wish to embed Mahara use into your organizational policies. Here are the key questions: