{"id":753,"date":"2020-10-27T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/digitaleducation\/?p=753"},"modified":"2020-10-27T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:21:00","slug":"using-mahara-e-portfolio-across-arts-and-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/digitaleducation\/using-mahara-e-portfolio-across-arts-and-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Mahara e-portfolio across Arts and Humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mahara<\/span><\/span> e-portfolios are used<\/span><\/span> across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities<\/span><\/span> (A&H)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to broaden the assessment diet, support practical<\/span><\/span> and situated learning and build digital literacies.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Increasingly, t<\/span><\/span>eaching in A&H lends itself to the use of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Mahara<\/span><\/span> as both a site for a product of student learning. This will be of interest to colleagues who are interested in exploring and developing the use of e-portfolios in their own areas.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mahara<\/p>\n

Mahara<\/span>\u00a0is a\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>recommended<\/span><\/a>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>technology at King<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0and is used in concert with KEATS<\/a><\/span>. As an e-portfolio platform, i<\/span>t allows students to <\/span>create and curate any number of pages, which are populated with digital artefacts that are either uploaded or embedded from the web. <\/span>E-portfolios, as the name suggests, particularly lend themselves to evidencing and assessing work <\/span>where an\u00a0<\/span>essay would not suffice. This may be because the submission is intended to be built up gradually over\u00a0<\/span>time<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0or<\/span> contains some element of self-reflexive learning; E-portfolios are useful for m<\/span>aking sense of learning and achievements across disparate parts of the curriculum and making coherent links between different stages of learning. Mahara<\/span>\u00a0also effectively supports\u00a0<\/span>group working\u00a0<\/span>and submission<\/span>, providing a shared online working and collaboration space that can be used asynchronously<\/span>..<\/span><\/p>\n

A&H was an early adopter of\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0and its use has continued to fan outwards in recent years. In the\u00a0<\/span>Modern Language Centre<\/span><\/a>\u00a0it is used to support and evidence language learning.\u00a0<\/span>The Liberal Arts departments<\/a> <\/span>have used <\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0across a number of very large modules\u00a0<\/span>to broaden the assessment diet. One example is\u00a0<\/span>\u2018Lives of London<\/a><\/span>\u2019<\/span> a module<\/span> which involves extensive fieldwork and practical and group study. In the past year, the \u2018<\/span>Roman London<\/span><\/a>\u2019 module in Classics has adopted\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>as an appropriate mechanism for recording and assessing the archaeological\u00a0<\/span>work which students undertake.<\/span> In 2019\/20, <\/span>Theology and Religious Studies<\/span><\/a> came on board with <\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 and I am keen to see its use continue to develop across the Faculty. A final\u00a0<\/span>benefit has come in the form of sharing of good practice among staff. Colleagues from the departments\u00a0<\/span>mentioned above presented jointly at the\u00a0<\/span>Excellence<\/span>\u00a0in Learning and Teaching Conference in 2019<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0an interactive discussion entitled\u00a0<\/span>Research, Arguments, and Creative Thinking: e-Portfolios in the Humanities<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mahara<\/p>\n

As with any TEL,\u00a0<\/span>adopting and using\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0is not without its challenges; most especially where the technology needs to be adapted or made to fit around existing workflows and policy. For example,\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0is not currently\u00a0<\/span>integrated with Turnitin<\/span>\u00a0(TII)<\/span>, so similarity checking is not available; and TII cannot be employed by students as a self-diagnostic on their portfolio submissions. This also means that marking must take place using the tools available in the standard KEATS assignment. This represents a departure of staff who are used to marking with Feedback Studio. We have also drawn on <\/span>the <\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0community to tweak our instance to support necessities such as anonymous marking.\u00a0<\/span>I have found that students especially require some degree of upfront training\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>\u00a0and offer short inductions to modules coming onboard; and refreshers to those returning. Whilst pointing towards the CTEL support resources for\u00a0<\/span>Mahara<\/span>, I have also created a suite of \u2018cheat sheets\u2019 to\u00a0<\/span>provide guidance on common workflows such as creating template pages for students to\u00a0<\/span>use, or<\/span>\u00a0submitting work on behalf of a group.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n