#283 Pre-Conference Workshop - Half-Day

Sunday 15 April 2012 13:30 - 16:30 Rushmore Room, St Catharine's

Using an Open Source ePortfolio (Mahara) to build a Personal Learning Environment

Ellen Murphy, State University of New York Empire State College, US

Brief Biography: Ellen Murphy is currently the Director of Online Curriculum at the State University of New York at Empire State College, the first US anchor partner of OER University. She recently returned from a trip to New Zealand, where she represented the College at the first meeting of the anchor partners. Prior to her employment at Empire State College, she held Director positions at Plymouth State University and The Sage Colleges in the area of Learning Technologies and Online Education. She is an active member of numerous educational organizations including AAEEBL, Educause (where she is the co-chair of the Blended and Online Constituent Group), and the Sloan Consortium.
A strong proponent of open source applications in Education, she has taken the lead in implementing open source ePortfolios and Learning Management Systems in the various institutions at which she was employed. She is the author of a recently published book on the open source ePortfolio: Mahara.
In addition, she hosts numerous workshops and presentations on such topics as ePortfolios, Assessment Strategies, the future of education, and specific applications like Moodle, Mahara and other instructional technologies.

Conference Theme: Impact

Summary: As participants build their own PLE and ePortfolio in Mahara, they will gain a thorough understanding of its potential.

Audience: individuals interested in using an ePortfolio for demonstrating learning acquired through use of OCW/OER; mentors working with individuals who would like to develop an ePortfolio for the purpose of acquiring credentials through Credit by Evaluation or Prior Learning Assessment.

Outcomes: Participants will:

• develop their understanding of how an e-portfolio can be used as a Personal Learning Environment
• develop their understanding of the features and potential of Mahara as a PLE and  e-portfolio system.
• develop their skills and confidence in the use of Mahara through the process of building their own ePortfolio in the Mahara system.

Abstract:
Personal Learning Environments and ePortfolios provide students with an easy and organized way of building, saving and sharing artifacts of learning.  In this session we will explore the Open Source ePortfolio Mahara for its use as a PLE.  We will also look at the various ways presentation and assessment ePortfolios can be constructed and shared in Mahara.  Each participant will be provided with a personal account in Mahara in which they will add and build artifacts of learning as well as various types of presentation portfolios.  The workshop will include experiences with the following features: Journals, Files, Plans, the Dashboard and Profile pages, templates, groups, communication options, resume builders, sharing and publishing options, integrating/embedding outside applications including Google Apps, YouTube, and RSS Feeds.  We will also use the export functionality of Mahara, to learn about the various formats for exporting and importing ePortfolios from Mahara.  Participants will be able to keep their Mahara account for at least 6 months after the workshop, so that they can continue building and sharing their artifacts of learning.