Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone here is currently using an ePortfolio software that integrates within Moodle? If so, might you be able to share some pros and cons of what you are using? Thank you all in advance.
Kia ora Sara. We use Mahara (mahara.org). It's very easy to set up and gives you quite a lot of options. You can set up different institutions for example. We use this to decipher between departments. There is also an online resumé for students to keep and there is the ability to pull portfolios into Moodle for assignment. Feel free to pm me if you want to have a further chat.
Open LMS has Mahara available as an option, you can check in with support about getting it turned on if you are signed up for Open LMS. There are advantages to hosting your own, but it can be handy to have us host it for you.
Andy Braden Thank you Andy! I am currently in the works of trying to test Mahara in our Sandbox... running into a few issues but hopefully I will have them straightened out soon so I can get testing! Thank you for the recommendation!
Mahara is a good solution, however, it does need some careful planning and implementation. It can be a big hammer solution to a small nut, depending on your use-case.
Sometimes I have seen Mahara deployed as 'a solution waiting for a problem', which is a shame because it can be very powerful. It's success (or lack of) usu comes down to how well it has been integrated into the learning design.
A good way to start small is with OU Blog, with each participant having their own blog. This, in essence, creates a personal journal that is private between the student and teacher. The student can add rich media (images, video etc) so it can be quite functional, esp. if you use the RecordRTC ATTO features where they can record directly into Moodle.
If you then outgrow OUBlog, you can step up to Mahara (or pebblepad, or .....), but at least by then you will have your needs better defined.
Thank you Greg, I appreciate your feedback. I seem to be running into issues setting up Mahara in our sandbox site, so I will be reaching out to Open LMS for addition support so that I can test it out. Essentially what our institution is seeking is to be able to have students demonstrate experiential learning through an ePortfolio type layout. I am currently researching what options might be available and might work well within our Moodle Open LMS platform.
Sometimes I have seen Mahara deployed as 'a solution waiting for a problem', which is a shame because it can be very powerful. It's success (or lack of) usu comes down to how well it has been integrated into the learning design.
A good way to start small is with OU Blog, with each participant having their own blog. This, in essence, creates a personal journal that is private between the student and teacher. The student can add rich media (images, video etc) so it can be quite functional, esp. if you use the RecordRTC ATTO features where they can record directly into Moodle.
If you then outgrow OUBlog, you can step up to Mahara (or pebblepad, or .....), but at least by then you will have your needs better defined.