What is Mahara? What can you experience as a user in Mahara? What is ePortfolio? What functions does Mahara have? All answers can be found in this short video. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

1. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
MAHARA IN A NUTSHELL
1. Overview
1.1. What is Mahara?
An open-source and free web application for managing electronic portfolio.
Students can use it like Facebook but for educational purposes.
Fig. 1. Three core functions on Mahara
Note: Mahara allows interface display in multiple languages including English and Japanese
1.2. What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is a compilation of materials that exemplifies your beliefs, skills, qualifications,
education, training and experiences. It provides insight into your personality and work ethic
(Clarke University, 2020).
1.3. What is ePortfolio?
ePortfolio is short for electronic portfolio. An electronic portfolio is a collection of
electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web. Such electronic
evidence may include input text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and

2. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
hyperlinks. Such electronic evidence may include input text, electronic files, images,
multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. E-portfolios are both demonstrations of the user's
abilities and platforms for self-expression. If they are online, users can maintain them
dynamically over time. (Wikipedia, 2020)
1.4. Mahara and Moodle
Table 1. Mahara and Moodle side comparison (adapted from Jakob-Kuehn, 2010)
Mahara Moodle
Belong to the student Belong to the whole class
Student decides on layout Teacher decides on layout
Student decides on target Teacher decides on target
Student decides on content Teacher decides on content
Feedback students + teachers Feedback from teacher
Student decides when to publish content Teacher fixes deadline for assignment
Usually public Usually private
Informal learning Formal learning
(Best) practice showcasing Lecturing
Personal knowledge management Course content management
1.5. User cases
It is possible to integrate Mahara with Moodle and enhance the learning experience of
learners inside and outside TUT campus. In fact, users can be grouped, and contents can
bear different visibility in order to control what content is visible to whom.

3. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Table 2. Possible user cases and expectation on Mahara
ePortfolio
cases
Students Teachers Industry users
Individual
ePortfolio
To publish
To share
To demonstrate capabilities/learning outputs
Align portfolio to a competency framework and visualize which
competencies have already been achieved. (see Fig. 2)
Project
ePortfolio
To collaborate with
classmates in
groups
To provide tutoring
based on project
To audit/participate and
collaborate as external
learners
Class
ePortfolio
To engage within a
class
To demonstrate
class’s progress and
outputs
To audit as external
learners
To review previous
class’s outputs
To accumulate
artifacts of a class
over iterations
To review previous class’s
outputs
To share the class
to the public
To share the class to the
public
Fig 2. SmartEvidence framework selector

4. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
According to The University of Nottingham (2020), academic schools are currently using
Mahara eportfolios with students for a wide variety of purposes such as:
Table 3. Various purposes of using Mahara eportfolio
2. Mahara demo
You can use the following accounts to experience Mahara freely. Visit URL:
https://demo.mahara.org/
Table 4. Accounts for demo purpose
Role in the system Username Password
institution admin admin MaharaDemo
regular user; has most data student MaharaDemo
regular user learner MaharaDemo
institution staff staff MaharaDemo
site staff and institution admin sitestaff MaharaDemo
3. Major functions
3.1. Complete profile

5. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Fig 3. Profile detail in Mahara
3.2. To create
3.2.1. Types of content
You can create many different types of contents on mahara, including pages & collections,
files & folders, journals, plans and tasks, cover letter and resume, skins of portfolio page,
and tags.
• Pages and collections: it is like a gallery of pages and links. Pages are web pages that
you create. You can add pages to collections.
• Files: you can create files and organize files in folders.
• Journals: it is like personal diary that can be public or private.
• Plans (and tasks): you can create plans and within plans you can create tasks.
• Resume: you can create a full resume and also a cover letter in front of it.
• Skins: it is to customize person portfolio page with personalized styles.
• Tags: it is created and organized fully out of users’ will and habits to label their
contents.

6. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Fig. 4. “Create” menu
3.2.2. Content copyright statement
Mahara allows users to publish contents under different license types (Fig. 5). Every time
the user needs to choose to clarify.

7. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Fig. 5. Licensing types on Mahara
3.2.3. Visibility of contents
In the example of setting visibility of a collection of pages, you can have choices of
making the collection visible to different user groups as predefined. You can also
indicate a period that the collection will be visible to the selected groups of audience.
Fig. 6. Visibility selector

8. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
3.2.4. Engagement with published content
For each published content, it allows users to comment and rate.
The author can choose to make the comments from others go public or private.
3.3. To share
Users can share contents with each other. Thus you will share resources outwards and
receive resources inwards. You can check them under Share in your personal account.
Fig. 7. “Share” menu
Fig. 8. Share with me screenshot

9. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
For content that is shared with you, you can search and sort them for results.
3.4. To engage
Fig 9. “Engage” menu
People: You can view other users’ portfolio if theirs are made public or visible to you. You
can also friend other users, send private message, add them to a group or invite them to a
group.
Groups: You can create a new group, or join an existing group. You can post different types
of content to the group. You can check who is in the group, and existing published content
in the group.
Fig. 10. Group header screenshot

10. Re-use: This resource is produced by Jingjing Lin, at Center of IT-
based Education, Toyohashi University of Technology. It is licensed
under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Discussion topics: It aggregates all discussion threads from different groups that you are
member of.
References
Clarke University. (2020, November 19) What is a Portfolio?. Available on
https://www.clarke.edu/academics/careers-internships/student-checklist/resume-
writing-and-portfolios/what-is-a-portfolio/
Wikipedia 2020. Electronic portfolio. Available on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio
The University of Nottingham.(2020, November 19). Mahara Help: Staff guide Using
Mahara eportfolios. Available on https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/educational-
excellence/documents/mahara-eportfolios-staff-guide.pdf
Jakob-Kuehn, S. (2010). Learning together with Moodle and Mahara. Available on
https://www.slideshare.net/sigi/learning-together-with-moodle-and-mahara