11 March 2024, 9:25

Hello,

Next week, we will be holding our first Mahara AMA (Ask Me Anything). This replaces the developer meetings from the past to be more inclusive of community members who are not programmers. Bring your questions and also ideas for Mahara along to discuss them with the Mahara project team and others in the session.

Our first Mahara AMA will be held on 19/20 March 2024. The time will work best for Oceania and the Americas. Our second Mahara AMA will be held on 24 April 2024 at a time that works for Oceania, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

You don't need to register but can join us directly in our BigBlueButton room. The advantage of the registration is that you will get a couple of reminders.

I look forward to seeing you soon

Kristina

25 March 2024, 8:04

Hello everyone,

Last week we had our first Mahara AMA session with very good questions. Please find a brief summary below.

Clarification of difference between SmartEvidence, outcomes portfolios, and portfolio completion:

• SmartEvidence: Competency framework is set up on the site level and is then added as sort of 'dashboard' at the start of a portfolio collection. The information on that page cannot be changed and is always the same for everybody using it. This can be used for very granular competency frameworks where the content on one page needs to be mapped to multiple competencies.
• Portfolio completion: This is often used when SmartEvidence is too complicated when there is a one to one relationship between the content on a page and a particular competency or group of competencies. You still have the dashboard page where you can track progress, but you don't get the granularity as with SmartEvidence. This feature also typically assumes that the pages of the portfolio have been set up as templates as they would then contain the competency information.
• Outcomes portfolio: This is currently only available in groups as it was designed as a collaborative portfolio that is created by a student and support staff who want to add portfolio content onto the portfolio pages and also track a student's progress over time. This is a very individualised functionality as outcomes are set up on a per portfolio level. With this functionality we are trialling a number of new concepts for Mahara, including easier page creation in a portfolio.

Kristina has a ToDo item to add information around the differences to the Mahara manual.

Some UX feedback: For organisations are are more assessment focused, some workflows are too difficult. For example, you can share and you can submit > simplify that.

Quick announcements:

• Reminder: UX interviews are still happening. If you'd like to participate, you can reach out to us at [email protected].
• The AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force is organising a roundtable conversation with select portfolio platform providers on AI and portfolios on 15/16 April 2024.
• The next Mahara AMA will take place on 24 April 2024 and timewise is geared towards Africa, Europe, and Asia (and Oceania after hours).

I look forward to seeing you at the next Mahara AMA or online before then.

Kristina