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What is Mahara

Mahara is an online digital portfolio used to to present and display your work, skills and experience on a webpage, or series of pages (called a collection) through the use of text, journal entries, images, and video. It also allows you to collaborate with others through the use of groups.

It can be used for:

Placements/Fieldwork or reflective journals using the Mahara Journal tool to create personal entries that are date/time marked and stored to help you develop your thoughts, recall events and reflect on your decision making process. Journals can remain private or be shared with others.

Projects and group work collaboration managing tasks through checklists, forums for group communication, journals for development of ideas as well as plans throughout the life cycle of your work

Resume Builder can help your develop an online resume or CV. You can easily link to other work you have already created in Mahara to demonstrate your skills and experience within a digital portfolio. Share them with prospective employers through the use of hidden links.

 

Intro Video

How to Navigate Mahara

The first page you see after logging in is called your Dashboard. You can configure some of the contents and layout of this page.

Just below the FedUni logo in the top-right corner, there are several tabs that you use to navigate Mahara. Rolling over a tab will usually reveal more links below it. The tabs are:

  • Dashboard: this will bring you back to this Dashboard page from anywhere in Mahara.
  • Content: this is where you can enter and edit profile and resume information, and add files and journals.
  • Portfolio: this is where you can create pages for sharing with others.
  • Groups: where you can form your own user groups and interact with other users of the system via discussion forums and shared pages. We won't be looking at groups in this introduction to Mahara, but you are welcome to experiment.

In the top-right corner are links to:

  • Settings: you can generally leave these as they are.
  • Inbox: where your notifications are held. By default, these are also sent to you via email.
  • Logout: always remember to logout when you've finished editing your ePortfolio if you are using a shared computer.

You can find other users in the system by using the Search users box at the top of the page. Enter a name or part of a name and press the Enter/Return key on your keyboard.

You should only place minimal information on your profile page, for privacy reasons.

Context-sensitive help

Mahara gives context-sensitive help, anywhere you find the information icon to see help information that is specific to your context.

 

Editing your Profile Page

Your Profile page can be viewed by all other users of Mahara. You can also make this page accessible to anyone on the Internet. You cannot delete your Profile page but you can control what information appears in it, including any profile information you have already entered into the system.

Do not disclose too much personal information in your Profile page.

1. Click on your own name in the top-right block on the Dashboard. This will take you to your Profile page, and show you what other users can see about you.

2. On your Profile page, click the 'Edit this page' button at the top-right.

3. The Edit content tab is highlighted. You will see a large pane that gives a preview of your page, and a column to the left with available 'blocks' to drag into your page. To put one of these blocks into your page, click on one and hold down the mouse button while dragging it into your preview pane. Make sure you can see the move icon before you click and drag. Try this with a text box.

To add a new block to your profile page click or drag onto the screen the + add button.

4. Once a block has been inserted into the preview pane, you will usually be asked to configure it. For the text block,enter a title and some content, format it as you like, then click the Save button.

5. The block will now appear in your Profile page's preview pane. To edit an existing block, click on the gear icon that appears in the top-right corner of each block in the Edit content view. To delete a block, click on its trash icon.

6. You can move blocks around the preview pane by dragging and dropping them by their headers (where the title is). When you see the move icon you can click and drag a block to a new position.

7. Click on the Personal info category to see a list of other block types you can drag into your page. This will include your resume and profile information that you have previously entered.
8. Click the Display page link at top-left or the button at the bottom to see how your page will look. Your page is automatically saved.

Need Help?

 If you are experiencing technical issue in Mahara we recommend posting your issues in the Mahara support forum by  Clicking Here

Please provide:

  • Your Student ID
  • A description of the issue, what is happening,
  • The Moodle shell it relates to if within Moodle
  • Name of any Pages or Collections it relates to
  • Any error messages
Updated on 09 December 2024, 10:52; 17448 page visits from 11 September 2014 to 30 March 2025