Mahara

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Mahara

Mahara logo.svg
Basic data

developer Catalyst IT Ltd.
Publishing year December 1, 2006
Current  version 19.10.1
(November 12, 2019)
operating system Any system that supports PHP
programming language PHP
category e-portfolio
License GPL ( Free Software )
German speaking Yes
mahara.org

Mahara is an e-portfolio - software with community features, as open source is developed project from New Zealand. The word Mahara means 'thinking' or 'thought' in the Te Reo Māori language. The system supports the documentation and reflection of the learning process and the learning outcomes. Installation requires PHP and a database management system, e.g. B. MySQL or PostgreSQL .

history

Mahara has been in development since mid-2006. It started as a joint effort by the e-Learning Collaborative Development Fund (eCDF) of the New Zealand Commission for Higher Education (Tertiary Education Commission), Massey University, Auckland University of Technology, Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, and Victoria University of Wellington.

Further development was made possible by support from the New Zealand Ministry of Education and funding from the Mellon Foundation. (The Open Polytechnic won the 'Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration' in 2007.) Today, thousands of open source developers worldwide support the work on the development of the core system and the supplementary plugins.

construction

Mahara has a modular structure and is based on artifacts, views and comprehensive access control. Views are a collection of artifacts stored in the user's e-portfolio. The user can create any number of views and allow access for users or groups.

Mahara overview

Modules

The basic modules of Mahara are

  • the portfolio, with views, a collection of files and learning diaries
  • the groups, with forums
  • the profile, with information about yourself, your biography and learning goals and plans.

Additional modules

Extension modules that are not part of the standard installation scope of Mahara are e.g. B. "Europass" (allows you to create a Europass), GoogleApps (for adding GoogleApps to your portfolio) and much more. Several available add-on modules can be downloaded from or posted on the Mahara website.

Pedagogical approach

Mahara is a learner-centered system, a kind of personal learning environment , and thereby differs from the more course-centered learning platforms (Learning Management Systems - LMS). However, ePortfolios and learning platforms are not mutually exclusive, but complement one another. So Mahara z. B. couple with the learning platform Moodle and thus supports the connection of learner- and teacher-oriented elements of the educational process. Mahara not only supports - as the term portfolio suggests - the storage of learning outcomes, but also promotes the learning process itself and the reflection on it. At the same time, the group function, the sharing of learning results and the possibility of mutual feedback support collaborative learning.

literature

  • Ellen Marie Murphy: Mahara 1.4 Cookbook . Packt Publishings, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84951-506-1 .
  • Melanie Reiter: “Managing” your own learning - using the Mahara e-portfolio platform at the Heidelberg University of Education . e-teaching.org, 2016. Website , last accessed: September 2, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Mahara  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on Mahara
  2. ^ Mahara Community
  3. ↑ Mahara tutorial by Franz Ehrnleitner ( memento of the original from March 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / edulearning.at
  4. ↑ Overview of Mahara additional modules