Can an ePortfolio catch fire: Implementing a Campus Wide use of

ePortfolios with Mahara

Ellen Marie Murphy, Plymouth State University

Plymouth State University is a comprehensive university with approx. 7,000 students. Our major programs are education, business, fine arts, and meteorology.

A bit of history

Institutional and Program Specific

Costly

Not intuitive

Low buy-in

Prior to Jan. 2010, Plymouth had an ePortfolio primarily for the education students. It was chosen specifically for the purpose of meeting accreditation. It was institutionally focused. Students needed to purchase a yearly license to use the program, and so the years they did not need it they did not pay for it. Plymouth piloted that system for 5 years and no one was happy with it.

What Plymouth wanted:

A workspace and support for teaching and learning

Authentic assessment

Integrated learning

To showcase the “whole person”

Career development

User-centered

In January of this year (2010) Plymouth rolled out Mahara. At the request of the Provost it was rolled out as a “from the ground up” approach—that is no official announcement was made. No officialannouncement has been made to this date, but the roll-out has been extremely successful!

Over 600 users

Over 30 groups

Lot and lots of templates

Grad schools

Public

Professor A

Advisor

Prospective Employer

Psychology Class

Hiking Club

Artifacts Views Access

Teaching and LearningCapstone Project

Teacher CertificationCourse Work

Career Preparation Service Learning

InternshipsTravel Abroad

Language Acquisition (

Students’ use of Mahara:

Authentic Assessment

Evidence-based Learning

Other uses of Mahara at Plymouth:

Teaching and Learning

Promotion and Tenure

Maintaining lifelong connections with alum

Performance Evaluations

Internal and external collaboration

These are just three examples of the groups that have been formed in Mahara. Groups allow for collaboration and social networking.

K -20 NH ePortfolio

On Oct 4th of this yearPSU is hosting our first annual focuson eportfolio day. K-12 representatives will be here to show us how they are using Mahara with their students, and we will answer questions about admissions. Mahara has an export feature that will allow students to take their eportfolios with them. In NH we will be able to offer K – life portfolios.

In NH all K-12 students are requiredto have an eportfolio. A number ofschool districts have chosen Maharaas their system, and have formed a statewide consortium which includesHigher Ed.

Features Open Source Multiple portfolio presentations (views)

including professional Comprehensive Blogging tools Allows for the creation of Templates Social networking component RSS File repository Import/Export Tagging Multiple access levels Student Centered (User Centered)

Would you want to own me?