09 April 2013, 2:46

Hi,

I have a number of programs using Mahara for accreditaion purposes. In these cases, we'd like to prevent students from editiing or deleting their portfolio pages that programs will need to access for later use. We currently have students submitting secret URL's for this purpose, but don't think this provides any security from editing. 

Submitting through a group would allow security of pages, but doesn't allow the flexibilty of organization, like the secret URL. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for how we can prevent editing or deleting of pages submitted with a secret URL?

Thank you,

Marylena

09 April 2013, 15:41

Hello Marylena,

you should set up a controlled group that allows submissions and add your students to it. More info on how they can submit their portfolio is available at http://manual.mahara.org/en/1.6/portfolio/feedback.html#feedback-for-assessment

Cheers

Kristina

09 April 2013, 16:46

Hello Marylean,

With a secret URL, there is no way to avoid students editing their page. Also I see in your message that you would prevent students to edit their page even after assessment. You would like to keep their portfolios as submitted for accreditation and would like to access them for later use.

The only way to this with Mahara, at present time, is to request your students to export their pages or collections and send them to you as a group of HTML files or as Leap2A file you could re-open later on a specific Mahara server.

Maybe you should have a look at OpenBages (http://openbadges.org/). This new technology wil be available soon in Moodle (version 2.5) and then normally also in Mahara, regarding the discussions I heard at ePIC London last year.

OpenBadges let you create a virtual accreditation you students can store in a virtual "Backpack". And as you don't have to look back at the exam papers and results when a student shows you a BA, MA or any certificate, an OpenBadge will have the same purpose and you won't have to return to student's portfolio to prove they attained the targeted outcomes.

Regards,

-dajan

09 April 2013, 23:15

Hi Marylena:

You want to keep evidence of student learning to support the re-accreditation of your institution, right?

Why not just ask the students to make their pages copyable and have the teacher copy those pages as snapshots in time? You could create a gallery of links organized by subject and/or theme.

Even better, why not show snapshots from the beginning and the end of the year to show the change in learning?

10 April 2013, 0:45

Hi Don,

Why have I never thought about this before?

I am adding this in my teacheers' course right now. I will call this the Presant's following-up.

Sometimes simple things seems out of reach.

Thank you for this idea.

See you at ePIC

Amicalement,

-dajan

10 April 2013, 11:40

Hello Don and dajan,

The only problem I have with this great tip which teachers here in NZ are sometimes also doing, is that the ownership of the portfolio then moves from the student to the teacher. On journal posts you see the new owner's name and not the original student's name. Since we cannot yet move pages into groups because groups don't have journals, the portfolios would sit in the teacher's account and might make it more difficult for the teacher to find their own portfolios. Sure, you could set up a specific account just for storing portfolios...

If the portfolios is to be kept for a longer period of time, I'd favor the HTML / Leap2A export as that can be stored offsite.

Cheers

Kristina

11 April 2013, 2:38

These are all great suggestions. I was reluctant to set it up in a group because some people have trouble navigating in there, and I want to make it as easy as possible for everyone. But that might be the best way to do it after all. I'm going to investigate all of these options though. I'll let you know how it works out!

Thank you!

Marylena