Transcript
Page 1: Mahara Suites for Mahara UK 2013

“Mahara Suites”Exploring a Multiple

Institution ModelMahara UK 2013

July 3, 2013

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A journe

y inside

my head

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E-learning resources & servicesLearning community support

Consulting

Learning AgentsAccelerated learning systems

http://bit.ly/DonPresant_ePortfolio

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Career Portfolio ManitobaEmployability ePortfolios for Adults• Community-based

– Owned by non-profits• Portfolio building course

– Video tutorials, support• Extensive use of Web 2.0

– YouTube, Screenr, LinkedIn…• Templates and examples

– Pages/collections– Fictional exemplar– Growing gallery of real examples

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Beyond the current modelLimits to growth, diversity• Governance constraints

– Non-profit owners: mandate/focus, risk aversion

– ->Transfer ownership to Learning Agents, become “tenants” with other organizations

• Manitoba: small province• New markets

– Colleges and universities– “Career Colleges”– Immigrant service providers– K-12?

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Outside Environment

• ePortfolio traction– “Deep learning”, graduate outcomes,

employability– AAEEBL in North America

• Read/write web, social media, digital identity– WordPress, BuddyPress, etc.

• Employer awareness and demand– Linked In, eRecruitment, Video resumes

• Community– Learning communities, communities of practice– Connectivist PLEs, coworking

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Coworking as a metaphor

CC uuushh.comCC deskmag

CC deskmag CC deskmag

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Virtual coworking

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Multi Mahara ExamplesSo far, all educational…• MyPortfolio Schools (Kineo Pacific)

– 1,211 institutions (201301), 85,575 users, 9,976 groups• MyPortfolio Tertiary (Kineo Pacific)

– 14 institutions, 13,381 users,1160 groups – Massey University: 9,000 users

• kyvyt.fi (Discendum)– 49 institutions, 22,000 users, 1,711 groups

• CLEO (One Connect Limited)– 154 institutions, 23,000 users, 874 groups

• Bute/Argyle Education Authority (EdICT)– 160 institutions, 12,500 users, 100+ groups

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First Option: “Mahara Proper”The pure FOSS play• Core functionality

– e.g. MyPortfolio Tertiary– Trend: more settings at Institution level

• Third party plugins– E.g. MyPortfolio Schools– Risk management thru upgrades

• Customization– E.g. Isolated theme hack, TinyMCE mods, etc.– MyPortfolio Schools: “Moderation Online”– Risk management thru upgrades

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Totara Social Mahara distribution for business• Social media platform (complement

TotaraLMS)– Currently, Mahara with existing plug-ins

• Planned enhancements:– Social collaboration

• Activity streams, ‘following’ a User, ‘likes’/rating, tagging, searching, matching and filtering

• More complete mobile interface, based on Maharadroid

• Interface/integration layer with TotaraLMS• Pull in profile from Totara, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

– Institutional enhancements?• “Multi-tenancy out of the box”?http://www.kineo.com/totara-insights/totara-social-coming-soon.html

http://slidesha.re/114SdEP

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Kyvyt (“skill”) Mahara distro for education & employment• Usability

– “Copy this page”, QR sign-on, folders for pages– Coming: navigation improvements

• Enhancements– Text chat– Coming: revamp theme structure

• Workplace Gallery– Public website for portfolios and ads for jobs,

etc.• Search by categories (FOSS Sphinx DB)

• Open Badge displayer– Share to Mahara community

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Kyvyt (“skill”) Mahara distribution for learning communities• Institution enhancements

– Configurable Start Page, share pages to institution

– Coming: more detailed nstitution statistics• Group enhancements

– Return box– “Group only” login (portfolio UI stripped out)– In development: “Course group”

• Simple learning and collaboration tools, e.g.: video chat, enrolment, student management, archiving achievements

• Open Badge Factory (Q1 2014)– Community badge management

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MyPortfolio Newsflash Highlights planned for “early in Term 3”• Pages in more than one collection• Share single page in a collection• Users upload/merge LEAP2A portfolios• Embedding a viewable PDF• Flexible layouts: (horizontal alignment)• Drag-and-drop files• Tagging for all user created

content/artefacts.• Full text search• Remove "Copy of" from copied pages and

collections

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Why not just use Groups?• Delegation of user administration• Institution users: file quotas, etc.• Themes: display, pages• Institution pages, collections

– Templates for new users• Future enhancements?

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Isolated Institutions (Walled Gardens)• LUNS/CLEO proof of concept (1.2)

– 60+ schools (but few trust relationships)• Some issues identified by Richard

Mansfield https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=3960– e.g. Listing Users, Groups and Institutions,

Group member invitations, Institutional Admin Powers

• Estimated core integration– 2 weeks for full analysis, 4+ weeks of

development• My current reflection

– Negative “silo” impact on learning community– Most important for protection of minors

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Theming Avoiding the “brown cardigan” effect

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Isolated institution themes(via Andrew Nicols, LUNS, for CLEO)• Hack Mahara

– 3 commits• Edit themeconfig.php

– $theme->institutions = array('a', 'b')• Only institutions in array will see the

theme

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Benefits of Mahara Suites

• Institutions– Easier to pilot– Less cost, effort, risk to implement– Pan institutional learning community– Clustering/critical mass for employers– No worries after graduation

• Service Provider– Understandable offering

• Pre-defined, based on majority needs– Simpler servicing for basic Mahara– Relationship for other services

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Beyond your four wallsOpportunities for academic institutions• Community engagement

– Employers, sector associations– Professional bodies, unions– Regional development clusters

• Revenue for sustainability?– Hosting and technical development– Recursive, “emergent learning”

• Further formal, non-formal learning– Access to HE via RPL/PLAR

• Lifelong portfolio

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Mileage may vary…Recommended practices, lessons learned• Build it and they may not come

– Marketing and communications is huge– Explicit linkage to pedagogies and outcomes

• Boots on the ground– MyPortfolio Taster Sessions – 3 teachers/school– Follow-up

• Be responsive to clients– Visual design, navigation, continuous

improvement• Beware over-customization

– One size fits all vs. bespoke

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[email protected](204) 219-5933

Don Presant

PRESENTATION SUPPORT PAGEhttp://bit.ly/msuites