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Using Your E -Portfolio – Instructions For Mahara 15.4 Quick Reference Guide For Students Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 2 of 12 Introduction Mahara is an open source tool that can be used for the development and storage of an e -Portfolio. It is a valuable tool that can be used for assessment or in creating your CV and résumé and demonstrating examples of competence in some practical skills. This guide will help you navigate through the key menu area of Mahara and get started quickly. Logging in This version of Mahara is linked to the ACS Education Learning Management System. If you have a login to this, then you can link to your Mahara e-Portfolio from the ACS Ma hara link in your Moodle course. This will create your Mahara profile. You will now be taken to your Mahara e -Portfolio Home Page or Dashboard . Dashboard From the Dashboard screen you can:  Create and collect your e-portfolio information and items: o Create and update your Profile o Upload and organise any files o Create and edit your résumé information o Create and edit your journal or blog Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 3 of 12  Share your e -portfolio into various Pages for display . Each of your pages can then be released or shared with others at the owner’s discretion.  Engage – you can network with others and create your own groups for more personal networking. Create You can add your information and upload files to your e -portfolio from the Content section of the program Profile The Profile area stores your contact and personal details, and is where you build up your Résumé and professional and personal achievements and goals. Each of these items can be added to a Page as you develop these. The Prof ile Page is also where you display what information you wish to make available to others with whom you wish to share this information. You should upload your photo to your personal profile here. Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 4 of 12 Files You can upload and store files to your e -portfolio using the Files link. Résumé The Résumé area allows you to build an online Résumé and CV. You can enter a Cover Letter to accompany your Résumé here. There are separate sections for you to enter details of your Education and Employment, Achievements, Personal and P rofessional Goals, Skills and Interests. These are stored as separate items and can be edited and updated when required. Don’t forget to save your work as you progress it. Including your SFIA Self -Assessment For those wishing to assess and align their skill s to SFIA, I suggest that you can display your generic skills within the Work Skills artefact and your technical skill s within the Academic Skills artefact. Your customised Job Application will have specific spaces for you to include your SFIA Skills. Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 5 of 12 Journal The journal feature is similar to a blog, and can be used as a personal reflective diary. You can choose to add this to a page that may form part of an assessment or display for others to view and share with you. Plans This area can be used to planning and collating professional development information. For ACS members, they might store their yearly professional learning plans. Share The Portfolio link will take you to the section which allows yo u to prepare and create your Pages to display your information Pages The Pages section is where you can create and customise how you wish to display your e - portfolio information. Each page can display different items that you have available for your e-portfolio. These can include:  Selected items from your resume – eg skills, interests, educational and work experience items  Links to external items – eg an external blog, or website that you may wish to refer to  Files that you wish to include - eg your CV Different pages may consist of:  A shared view of your Journal or blog  A job application customised view of your CV and resume information. Each page can be specific to a particular job application or profile you wish to display for a prospective emplo yer  An assignment task that you create for your course work, which you can then submit for assessment purposes, or share with other class mates. Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 6 of 12 NOTE: Each Page is controlled by the e-Portfolio owner , and can only be accessed and seen by others to whom the owner has provided access. You can also make individual pages public so that they can be seen by an external person, eg a prospective employer or recruitment officer. Creating a Page Click on the ‘ Create Page’ button: This launches a process by which you can create a display of your work and information as a Page. Title and Description – give your page a name and a description. This will display in your Page entry point and to others with whom you share these pages Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 7 of 12 Layout – decide how you would like your page to display. Content You can select the different items from your e -portfolio from the list on the LHS, and drag these items around your page to display them effectively. These can include:  Your profile information  Items copied from your Résumé (you can include all or only some of these) Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 8 of 12  Files, images and videos that are stored in your Files, or that can be embedded from external sources eg YouTube or SlideShare  Blogs that you h ave created in your Journal, or links to external blogs or RSS feeds  You can use the General tab to create text boxes for you to write in or insert text from another source.  You can also select a Display Theme for your page. Sharing your Page Once you have created your Page, you can Share it with others by assign ing access rights to whom you would like to see your Page. Generally these will be members of your group who are part of this Mahara community – eg your PE group and/or your tutor. However, you can create and provide access to an external person. These rights can also include a time limit during which access may be made available to a particular group or individual. (Check this out in the Advanced Options Settings). Submitting a Page – Assessment Task If you are preparing a Page for an assessment task, or for presenting evidence of work based learning, you will have been added as a member of a Controlled Group – eg PE_?? You will be able to submit your Page for assessment and feedback t o your tutor.  Go to Pages Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 9 of 12  Choose the Page you wis h to submit  Click on the edit button  Click on ‘Display Page’  Select the relevant Group from the drop down box  Click on the Submit button This will lock the Page title, layout and uploaded items. You will only be able to edit this Page if it is released back to you by your tutor. Once your tutor has marked this work, the Page can be released back to you together with any feedback and comments. Professional or Reflective Journal The Jou rnal tool allows you to maintain a reflective journal. It works like a blog as each entry is stored as a separate entity. You can create a Page that allows you to display your Reflective Journal either as a separate Page or incorporated into another display page. You can include any other items that you Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 10 of 12 think relevant – eg profile information is useful, photos and other appropriate items. A simple Reflective Journal Page might look something like this. Example Résumé A sample section of a job application or a Page that can be used as part of your Résumé might look something like the following. Some tasks might also ask you to include your Cover Letter as part of your Job Application. Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 11 of 12 Engage My Groups Generally, your course administrat or would have created either a class or other group and added you to this. However, there is scope for you to create a group and add friends or colleagues already a part of your study group, for small group or collaborative work. Settings You can custo mise your Mahara account by clicking on the Settings option in the top RHS of your screen. From this screen you can control some of your privacy settings and access any Notifications - eg messages from others. This area is also where you can change your password. You will also see that you have new messages when you log into Mahara and access your Dashboard. You will receive notifications when you have been invited to share someone’s Mahara Student Reference Guide Version 15.4 – July 2015 Page 12 of 12 Profile Information or Page, or when someone has responded, or provided feedback to one of your Pages, Journal or other item. Notifications can also be linked to your email address. Logout You can logout from any of the screens by clicking on the ‘Logout’ button on the menu bar or from you Profile link on the R HS of the screen. A f ull updated manual on Mahara 15.4 is available at: http://manual.mahara.org/en/15.04/ A short video demonstrating the features of Mahara is also to be found at www.scivee.tv/node/6372 or for a longer description of Mahara with further examples can be found at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgk00WLZ7aw . Once of our former students has kindly created and shared a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj5FtqOlk0w which may also be useful.