26 October 2010, 7:08

Hello colleagues

Sorry if this is answered elsewhere but I can't easily locate with search.

We are setting up Mahara as a coursework portfolio which is subject to continuous marking.

Is it possible to create a 'super user'  such as myself, a course tutor, who can log in to each individual portfolio? Or does the individual user need to provide me with access?

26 October 2010, 8:40

Hi David,

Although there is no functionality at present for a 'super user' as you put it to view all views, there are a few ways that this can be accomplished. The most obvious ways that I can think of are by

• using the user masquerading (Login As) available to Site Administrators; or
• using a group in course mode. This allows users to submit their views for assessment.

I'd argue that the more correct way is to use a course group. This way users can have multiple views, and you're only assessing the ones they want to actually submit as part of their coursework.

Hope that this gives you something to work with,

Andrew

30 October 2010, 20:07

Hello David and Andrew,

I would strongly advise not to use the masquerading as a user function in Mahara to "check upon" the status of a student's portfolio or take a look at their portfolio that way. That violates their privacy! The student decides when his portfolio or part of a portfolio is ready for a certain teacher to see. He can create several views of which to show a teacher only one or two but not all because the others are for other teachers or himself only.

The masquerading function should only be used to solve a problem that cannot be solved otherwise, e.g. if the student doesn't know if the access settings are correct etc., but never to view a student's portfolio for grading purposes. On top of that, if you masquerade as a student and give feedback on their portfolio, it looks as if the student gave feedback to himself as he is logged in by you masquerading as that student.

A better way is Andrew's second suggestion, the use of a course group. For that to work, a teacher needs to have "Institution Staff" rights. Once a course group exists, a student can submit a view or multiple views to that group without having to give specific access to the view. Only the teacher can see it if the view is only submitted.

Furthermore, the teacher gets a message once the view has been submitted.

Cheers

Kristina