Presentation by Linda Anstendig, Martina Blackwood, Garrett Dell, Samantha Egan, Beth Gordon Klingner, Kristina D.C. Hoeppner, Keith Landa and Ellen Marie Murphy at the AAEEBL 2012 Annual ePortfolio Conference about the Mahara User Group on July 17, 2012.

1. Meet the Mahara
User Group
A Panel Discussion
July 17, 2012
AAEEBL Annual Conference:
ePortfolios as a Catalyst for
Connections

2. Overview
I. Why Mahara User Group (MUG)?
II. Local benefits
III. About Mahara
IV. Going international
V. Applying MUG to our institutions
VI. MUG activities
VII. Future plans
Join us!

3. Creating MUG
• Initiator: Pace University, August 2011
• Purpose: connect with other Mahara-using
institutions
• Reach: Initial regional focus
• Goal: create a community for sharing
discussions about campus ePortfolio
projects using Mahara

4. Inaugural meeting
August 9, 2011, Pace University

5. About Mahara
• ePortfolio system
• Open source
• User-centric
• Community-oriented
• Collaboration in groups
• Dashboard feature
• Flexible permissions for sharing
• Integration with Moodle
• Embedding of external resources

6. Going local
Benefits of a local MUG:
• Familiarity with each other's institutions
• Working with similar bodies of accreditation
• Connecting with the larger Mahara community
• Connecting with institutions closer to home
• Meeting up at regional conferences

7. Going international

8. Link to mahara.org
• Complementary to
developer meetings
• Feature proposals
• User support forums
• Institutional implementation
case studies
• Pedagogy discussions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29486004@N07/3352055289/

9. Mahara @ Pace
• Started with pilot
program in Spring
2010
• Currently have over
1,700 significant users
• Multiple uses:
Classroom, Career
Development, Tenure
and Promotion, Student
Life
• In the process of
upgrading from version
1.2 to 1.5
• Pace and MUG

10. Mahara @ Purchase
• Moodle & Mahara
• Initial Mahara issues
• MUG interest
• Mahoodle setup
• Current projects
• Faculty review portfolios
• ePortfolio Institutes
• SUNY collaborations
• DQP initiative and SUNY transfers
• SUNY hosting
• SUNY Downstate proposal
• SUNY Learning Commons

11. Mahara @ AMC
Albertus' ePortfolio Information
• Decided on Mahara at AAEEBL
2010
• Davis Foundation Grant – Fall
2011
• Currently have 300 users
• Running version 1.4
• Recent tie with Moodle LMS
Relationship with MUG
• Work in larger ePortfolio Project
• Avoiding small school worldview
• Community involvement "raises
our bar"

12. Mahara @ Empire State
What makes us different:
• Non-traditional college part of the State
University of New York
• Individualized degree programs
• Recognition of prior learning
Mahara decision:
• Piloted Mahara this Spring for ePortfolios and
Educational Planning
• Decision was made to use Mahara and
discontinue Digication
• Will begin implementing a fully integrated
Moodle/Mahara system in January 2013
• Roll-out expected to be complete by Sept 2013

13. Virtual activities
• Webinar meetings in
October 2011 and
January 2012
• April 2012 Student
Showcase
• MUG Facebook Group
established for
connecting between
meetings
• Over 90 members from http://on.fb.me/MUG-FB
across the globe

14. Recordings
April Student Showcase
http://bit.ly/MUGstudentshowcase
All virtual MUG sessions
http://bit.ly/MUGmeetings

15. Current issues
• MUG Facebook Group issues
o Rationale for initial adoption
o Facebook Group and growth of MUG
o Concerns about non-openness of Facebook
o Open governance initiatives and the open-
everything movement
• Governance status for MUG
o Ad-hoc organization to date
o Members? Participants?
o Common principles?
o Focus on how the group can be useful to
participants

16. Questions?
• Albertus Magnus College: Garrett Dell
gdell@albertus.edu
• Catalyst IT: Kristina Hoeppner
kristina@catalyst.net.nz
• Empire State: Ellen Marie Murphy
Ellen.Murphy@esc.edu
• Pace University:
• Linda Anstendig: lanstendig@pace.edu
• Martina Blackwood: mblackwood@pace.edu
• Samantha Egan: segan@pace.edu
• Beth Gordon Klingner: bklingner@pace.edu
• Purchase: Keith Landa
keith.landa@purchase.edu