27 March 2025, 15:26

Hello,

This is a question that had come up in our 'Mahara - Ask Me Anything' session on 26 March 2025.

When a file or journal entry is added to a portfolio and the portfolio is submitted, the file or journal entry cannot be changed any more so that they can't be updated after the submission deadline. Now the question has come up though if that rule could be relaxed so that students could update the alt text of an image, the description, or the license information. They would still not be able to delete a file or upload a new one to the portfolio, but do we need to keep file metadata locked?

Calling all portfolio assessors: Do you want students to be able to make these minor changes so that they don't need to resubmit their portfolio or should that not be possible, e.g. if you also want to assess them on those formal elements?

Thank you

Kristina

27 March 2025, 16:18

The file metadata is part of the file and has to be locked, along with everything else, at the submission deadline. I don't want students to be able to make any changes, however trivial.

27 March 2025, 21:25

Thank you for your input, Tom. That's been our stance so far for all the artefacts that are lockable. Let's see what others have to say.

Cheers

Kristina

28 March 2025, 8:17

Hi Kristina, 

it’s been a long time that I haven’t actively participated in the forum but you raised a topic that back in the old times was already à discussion topic. I do remember very well when my students had created their page about the practical training and had incorporated a journal with their daily entries. I considered this a very useful tool as they could continue writing their journal entries even after having handed in the page . Btw the students found out that this was not locked 😂. But I considered that for the sake of their ownership of the entries and the journals it was fine for all of us, especially as all journal entries get an automatic time stamp … I suppose this has not been changed … so for me the priority has always been learning and if I needed àn assessment on any given day , I just had them lock their page but let them still continue with their journal… which was being updated even with the page locked …

sending greetings to my favourite community 🌞

Sigi

09 April 2025, 11:24

Hi Sigi,

It's nice receiving a forum post from you. 🤩

I can't remember when it was changed that journal entries are locked from editing when the portfolio has been submitted, but that is the case, which does conform with other artefacts that are locked from editing.

What is your take on editing photo captions or photo alt text though or the title of a photo? Should that still be possible once the artefact has been locked?

Enjoy the Italian sun!

Kristina