Apply user default settings
If you create accounts manually or via CSV file, you can determine the default settings of your users during the time of the account creation. See "Add a user" and "Add and update users by CSV".
Display Gravatars
If users have Gravatars, they can be their profile pictures. It's just a quick settings change in Administration → Configure site → Site options → User settings.
Find email duplicates
As administrator you can find users who happen to have the same email address easily in Administration → Users → User search → Advanced options. Normally, a user's email address needs to be unique, but external authentication methods can override that.
Create groups via CSV
If you want to create a number of groups quickly, do so via a CSV file. You can then easily add members in bulk to these groups. If you don't create groups via CSV, you can't add group members via CSV or update groups via CSV.
Attached, please find a sample CSV file for the group creation and the group member allocation. Group members already need to have an account on Mahara.
Change login options
Mahara comes with a series of authentication methods that site administrators can choose from. One institution can have multiple authentication methods in use. Typical authentication methods are:
- internal Mahara authentication
- LDAP / Active Directory
- SSO via SAML
- MNet (XML-RPC)
There are others as well. Web services can also be used to log people in.
Use plugins
Mahara offers a range of plugins for artefacts, blocks or different authentication methods. Often used are CPD, Mahara Assignment Submission, Cloud, Open Badges, Europass, Twitter, LinkedIn.
Set default page layout
This is a new Mahara 15.10 feature in Administration → Configure site → Pages. It allows you to change the layout of the default page that users use to create any pages. Therefore, it is not advised to add content on that page unless every page is supposed to have that.
Inform users about masquerading sessions
Portfolios created on Mahara are often personal to the users and not always only created for assessment purposes. In order to honor privacy, site administrators can force administrators to provide a reason for logging into a user's account and having that action logged.
Allow more vido display formats
Per default, Mahara only displays videos for which no external media player is required to make the display platform-independent. Site administrators can allow more video formats under Administration → Extensions → Plugin administration → Plugin type: blocktype → file/internalmedia.
Creative Commons license
Tips for administrators by Kristina Hoeppner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from Kristina Hoeppner.
Change file quota in bulk
Go to Administration → Extensions → Plugin administration → Plugin type: artefact → file to change the file quota for new users and groups or update the existing file quota for all users and groups.
Export user accounts in bulk
You can export multiple user accounts in bulk on the "Bulk export" page. See the user manual for information on how to get there.
Find users who haven't logged in
As administrator you can find users who have never logged into the system in Administration → Users → User search → Advanced options.
Change primary email address
This is a new feature in Mahara 15.10. You can now change the primary email address from a user's account settings page and also via CSV.
Embed social media via iframes
There are a number iframes from social media sites already allowed in Mahara. However, they might not be the ones that you like to use. Site administrators can add more under Administration → Extensions → Allowed iframe sources.
The community started a list of iframes that they use on their sites.
Change institution settings
If you do not have site administrator permissions, but still manage an institution, you have a number of powerful permissions and can make a large number of changes. Check out the possibilities.
Allow the use of licenses for content
Every artefact in Mahara can have a license attached to it to indicate where the original came from. Site administrators can add or remove licenses that users see.
Using proper licenses is a more sophisticated approach than just confirming that a user has the permission to upload a piece of evidence.
Move users between institutions
If you are on a multi-tenannted site such as SWITCHportfolio, your users can be moved from one institution to another relatively easily. This also works when you have to change the authentication method and other parameters.
SWITCHportfolio is going to make the move from users to alumni easier in the future. Stay tuned. :-)
Set default notification settings
Site administrators can change the default notification settings for an entire site in Administration → Configure site → Site options → Notification settings. The changes only affect new users, and users can change them later on to something else.
Analyse statistics
Statistics are a powerful tool to explore the usage of your Mahara site. Site administrators can see statistics across the entire site whereas institution (and site) administrators can see statistics specific to the institution they administer. Site staff members can also be allowed to see statistics.
In addition, you can also have a web analytics software such as Piwik provide more information.