12 March 2011, 16:04

Hi All

Really excited, just finished installing Mahara, and will shortly link to Moodle

But although I am familiar with Moodle, I don't really know where to start with Mahara

We have students on placements in various establishments (schools) and looking for a way to use this system. There will only be one cohort of students per year

We would like

• Trainees to upload their own documents when required and only see theirs -( that seems fairly strightforward)
• Mentors to view only the trainees work they are looking after, and upload documents associated with those students
• Tutors to upload documents and mark assignments for the full cohort
• Admin staff to do and see everything

Any help or advice as to how to set this up would be greatly appreciated

13 March 2011, 4:22

Hi Ron - just a few initial thoughts - is this a Mahara that will be shared by trainees and their tutors? (ie not connected to any of the placement schools they are in?) How about - trainees upload their documents to their "files" and they are just for their own purposes, but they can also display their  documents in a view and give access only to their mentors - who can also make a view of associated documents and/or give feedback to their trainees on their views. Tutors can likewise create  a view displaying their uploaded documents and give access to it to the whole cohort - but I am unsure about what sort of documents you mean and what their "use" would be?? Mahara isn't really for creating and marking assignments - though you can give feedback - so you could use Moodle. Either make an online text assignment in Moodle and get them to paste in the URL of their Mahara view  -or else there is a Mahara/Moodle assignment plugin you can get which is a better solution. Also if you set up  course groups the tutor can upload documents as group files which all in the group can access (rather than making a view) and also they can send their assignment (ie view) to the group and it becomes "locked down"until the tutor has checked it - not quite the assignment marking of Moodle , but a totally Mahara based alternative. as for admins, while they have the power to "log in as" other users -which they should only do as a last resort - they don't have the same range of logs/reports/statistics that you do in Moodle - and that has been a concern for those of us in secondary education.

13 March 2011, 6:38

Hi Mary (fancy meeting you here - lol)

I have been asked to look for an e-portfolio solution , and this is just the start of my research. I have not got full details yet. But the person who asked me used to work with me as an NVQ assessor, and I am guessing she is thinking along the same lines which was like a family tree / hierarchichal structure where at the top is the lead (external verifier) who underneath can see all the assessors and all the assessors students. The assessors can see only their students.And the students can only see their own work. I think when I have used the word admin, i was probably incorrect as this is really the 'lead' assessor role

So in essence each student has a portfolio. That portfolio can only be seen by them, their assessor and the lead assessor - but any of those three should be able to upload into that portfolio.

This is the essence of what an e-portfolio should be (as far as I am aware - I have worked with a three previosuly and they all worked in this fashion - but were all linked to national qualifications - and cost money), and Mahrara suggests it is an e-portfolio so that is why I started here.

They also have a Moodle (<2.0) so it can be integrated if needs be

As to what the work is, I am not sure. I am guessing it will be essays and reviews of their teaching practice.

I think what you are suggesting sounds OK, I just need to sit down with them and work out exactly what their needs are

Ron

13 March 2011, 10:34

 Small world! I guess you could use the group view feature and have groups of an assessor and a student - they can both collaborate on a view (=eportfolio) and those not in the group won't have access? Just another thought off the top of my head.

14 March 2011, 14:56

Hello Mary and Ron,

Great discussion that you have started around using Mahara as assessment portfolio (with Moodle integration). As Mary writes, Mahara hasn't been designed for that and therefore, you'd have to find a work around.

The groups are a possibility as anybody can create groups and decide who shall be in it. However, please be aware that there is no tracking of group pages and files. Thus, any member of the group can delete or add things without the other members seeing who made the change.

Assessors / teachers can always add their own documents and thoughts in the feedback on a student's individual view. Would that be a possibility? Thus, the portfolio is still in the student's space, but assessors can add things at the bottom of each view. They can also upload documents.

Cheers

Kristina