I struggled with this prompt. Mainly because I had a rough day yesterday after receiving a job rejection nine days before the closing date. I’m finding it hard to feel like an expert…

Then I remembered that I had offered to show a friend around Mahara‘s demo site because they were applying for a job that involves using eportfolios. I couldn’t find the specific eportfolio their institution use, so I thought I’d use Mahara as an example. Also, I love Mahara and it feels good being able to tell other people about my interests.

To log in, go to demo.mahara.org and follow the log in instructions. The demo site is helpfully set up so you can see what the eportfolio would look like with different levels of access. I recommend starting as a student.

The dashboard looks like this:

In the top right corner, there is a menu bar. This is where you can do the fun stuff! I’ll break down everything you can do in sections:

Content

• • update your profile
  • upload an avatar
  • upload files
  • write a journal entry and/or create a new journal
  • create a résumé
  • create a plan, add tasks and mark them when completed
  • notes from your eportfolio page (these only appear if you’ve added a noteblock feature)

Portfolio

• • view and create pages and collections (collections are folders)
  • share your collections and/or pages
  • see things that have been shared with you
  • import an eportfolio from another site (you’ll need the Leap2A file)
  • export your eportfolio to another site

Groups

• • view groups
  • search groups
  • view friends
  • search for people
  • institution memberships (often there’s just one and it’s your school)
  • read topics you’re subscribed to (these are forum posts in groups)

There’s also a settings page if you click the drop-down menu just to the left of the main menu.

OK so I know I’ve basically just listed everything, but the interactions between these things are pretty neat. The Content can be added to the Portfolio pages you create. You can submit that Portfolio to Groups. In Groups you can post in forums, add journal entries and upload files. Once you’ve submitted your Portfolio pages to Groups, members can (if allowed) rate, follow and comment on your work.

When you make a new Portfolio page you have options to change layout, skin and use the Content you populated earlier.

The Text section is for writing free text. There are also options further down to embed external media/feeds. You can also do things like add group forum discussions to your page. After you’ve finished your page you can choose to share it – you can share it with everyone, logged in users, friends or groups.

Finally, you have a default user page that you can edit. Friends can leave comments on here (if enabled).

I love eportfolios and I hope that, if you haven’t heard of them, you may be interested in investigating some more. The Mahara demo site is available to explore.