mahara: building your enroute collection of pagesthe mahara eportfolio provides both students and...

ENroute Mahara guide April 2015 1

Mahara: Building your ENroute Collection of Pages

Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2

2. Finding Mahara in Moodle .............................................................................................................. 2

3. Overview of the Mahara homepage ............................................................................................... 3

4. Creating & editing a presentation page .......................................................................................... 4

5. Adding an image to your presentation page .................................................................................. 6

6. Importing the Record of Professional Activities & Application Information .................................. 7

6.1. Downloading the template as a zip file .................................................................................... 7

6.2. Import the Templates .............................................................................................................. 8

7. Uploading your reference ............................................................................................................. 10

8. Collating your ENroute collection of pages................................................................................... 12

9. Sharing your ENroute collection of pages ..................................................................................... 14

10. Transferring your ENroute collection of pages to the ENroute Moodle area ............................ 15


1. Introduction

The Mahara ePortfolio provides both students and staff with a private online space to record achievements and to collect and share artefacts as evidence. As part of the ENroute dialogue route you are require to produce a page in Mahara to support your professional dialogue (called a presentation page) and complete a Record of Professional Activities. Mahara is closely integrated with Moodle to provide an automatic login, and to allow the submission of Mahara pages to Moodle assignments.

This document is designed to guide you through creating your ENroute collection of pages in Mahara and submitting this into the ENroute Moodle.

2. Finding Mahara in Moodle

In Moodle the My Portfolio block provides access to Mahara, this block can be added to any Moodle course.

From your My Home area of Moodle first Turn the editing on:

The Add a Block area will appear, click on the drop down menu and choose My Portfolio.

Mahara will then be added to your Moodle site. Mahara is a private space and only accessed by you others you choose to share the content with (for example your referees).


3. Overview of the Mahara homepage

On the Mahara homepage you will find a range of areas.

The top menu provides navigation options.

Dashboard – Latest activity shared across the university.

Content – Holds different types of Mahara pages, documents and other files you add to your portfolio.

Portfolio – The area you assemble and display your content. You are able to share pages with others (such as your referees.)

Groups –Collaborate with other users through for example discussion forums and shared files.

The submenu (situated under the top menu) is linked to the top menu and will change depended on where you are. For example the submenu below is linked to the Portfolio area and has options for sharing your portfolio, changing its appearance in addition to exporting and importing (you will need to do this for your Record of Professional Activities and your Application Information). The other area you will be using for ENroute purpose is Collections, you will build a collection of pages to upload into Moodle for your professional dialogue.

ENroute Mahara guide April 2015

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4. Creating & editing a presentation page

To support your dialogue we suggest you create a presentation page. Your presentation page might contain a mix of images and text. This can act as a prompt for questions and wider conversation during your dialogue with your reviewers. To do this: From the Portfolio tab (as in the example screen shot above) click on Create page (as above).

Add a page title and description, and remember to Save.

A new page will open with a range of page editing options you can explore. To add a text block and content to the page you need to pick up the appropriate label and drag it into the area. The example below illustrates creating a text area.


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The block formatting tool bar is similar to Moodle. Add a title and your text content.

Add your content and Remember to Save

Note – We have discovered the image functionality is not intuitive and suggest you add a separate image block and avoid adding embedding images in your text block (see section 5 below)

Make life easier: enlarge the screen

Make life easier: copy from Word

See all the formatting options


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5. Adding an image to your presentation page Add an image block to your presentation page in a similar way to your text block, turn on the edit page (top right), then drag and drop the image block onto your presentation page:

Give your image block a title and click on the Upload file > Choose files and upload in the same way as adding an attachment to an email or similar. Then to add your image to your block click on Select and then SAVE (remember to save!)

Then to add your image to your block click on Select and then SAVE (remember to save!)

The image will now appear within your presentation page.


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6. Importing the Record of Professional Activities & Application Information

The Application Information form and Record of Professional Activities are predefined templates that need to be uploaded into your portfolio. You will find these templates within the Dialogue information of the ENroute Application Support Moodle site. You need to import these templates individually into Mahara.

6.1. Downloading the template as a zip file

NOTE for Mac users:

There is a known issue with downloading zip files from Safari. Therefore if you are a Mac user please use Chrome or Firefox to download the template.

Click on the Template and Save as

Download and save each Template in a Zip file onto your computer.

Save As a Zip file (Mahara can only import Zip files)


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6.2. Import the Templates

Now, from your Mahara Portfolio page go into Import

Click on Choose file and find the template you need, in this example it is the Record-of-professional-activities.zip file you have saved from Moodle:

Notice the file name will appear.

Click Import


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You will see the name of the folder under the Page heading. The system is asking where you want to import the folder. Stay with the default and click Import.

The Record of Professional Activities template has now been imported for you to edit and complete.

REMEMBER to save

A new window will appear:


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7. Uploading your reference You will need to upload your references to the Mahara file system before you add them to your reference page. From your portfolio page go into Content and Files:

You can create a folder or add the documents individually or just add individual files in a similar way to adding a document to an email etc. Click on Choose files. REMEMBER TO SAVE

To add your references to a page you need to create a page to upload your references as part of your collection. To do this create a new page in the same way as for your presentation page (see page 4). Name it References.

In this example I have created a folder called ENroute and another References and uploaded both into this area.


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Click on edit this page (top right side of the page) and click on Media and then drag a Folder into the page:

The files area will open first rename your block References

Then from your file area find your references and select, and REMEMBER TO SAVE

You will see your references in your page


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8. Collating your ENroute collection of pages

We recognise you might use Mahara for a range of activities related to teaching and not only ENroute. Therefore collecting your ENroute pages into a collection supports better management of sharing and final submission into Moodle. Your collection of pages comprises your presentation page (or pages), the Record of Professional Activities, the Application Information and References.

From your Portfolio tab you will see Collections (as below)

You need to add a new collection. Click on New Collection, name your page and add a description. Please add your name to the Collection of Pages as this will support a streamline administration process on submission.

Name your collection

ENroute Collection Pages – NAME (Please add your name, this supports a streamline administration for submission.

Click Next


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You will see all your pages appear in the Add pages to Collection. Select your Records of Professional Activities and the page(s) you wish to use for your dialogue. Add pages

REMEMBER to click Done

Within the Collections tab you will see you ENRoute Collection of pages as well as the name of the pages within the collection.


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9. Sharing your ENroute collection of pages

We encourage you to share you pages with your referee, allowing them to comment and support your application fully. You might also wish to share your pages with colleagues to gain feedback. From your Portfolio page (see example on page 2). Click on Shared by me, then on Collections and finally the Edit access key icon.

You will need to search for users you are sharing your page (for example your referees). You can allow open access or set date parameters.

REMEMBER to save

REMEMBER to save

You will see from your portfolio page the people and dates. In the example below I have shared my ENroute collection pages – Kathryn James with Julia Fotheringham until 29/05/2015

Set the dates you wish to share your page.

Search for the user and click on the plus icon. You will see the person listed on the right.

Make sure you use your Collections, not the pages.


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10. Transferring your ENroute collection of pages to the ENroute Moodle area

There will be a submission deadline for your ENroute collection of pages to be uploaded into the ENroute Moodle area. Your reviewers and the external assessor will have access to this area and the pages will be archive for moderation and audit. As Moodle and Mahara are linked you are able to access Mahara from the Moodle submission link.

Access the ENroute Moodle area and find the submission link:

You will get taken to an upload link

You will see there are both pages and collections


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As with all Moodle assignment uploads, you will see the date and time you uploaded.

The reviewers will access your collection of pages from the Moodle ENroute Submission site for your dialogue. You will receive an email informing you the pages have been submitted.

mahara: building your enroute collection of pagesthe mahara eportfolio provides both students and...

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