Mahara 1.4 Cookbook: Over 60 recipes for using Mahara for training, personal, or educational purposes

Unlike some technical books out there, which are just how to use an application, this book provides the user a rich suite of recipes for practical use of Mahara.The book is broken down into chapters about:- The Visual Arts- Literature and Writing- The Professional Portfolio- The Primary Education Portfolio- The Social Portfolio- The College application Portfolio- Certification and Accreditation Portfolio for Higher EducationHowever, most of the recipes provided could be used in many situations so you can read the book as a whole or just dive in to the particular examples that are of interest.So rather than go through the book chapter by chapter, I am going to cover a few of the example recipes provided in the book to give you a taste of the wealth of recipes.In Chapter 4, Ellen Marie takes the reader on tour of group usage. One of the recipes focuses on Creating Templates for students in a language class. The author firstly explains the different types of templates available; system, group and user, and the pros and cons of each. Then we are brought through the steps for creating a group template so that users can provide a range of evidence of their competency in the language. The template included:- Writing samples- Audio recordings- External video- Reflections- Translation of an audio piece- Translation of a video pieceThe author then explains how the student would be able to copy the template and fill it in with their content and submit it to the group admin for review and feedback. One thing I immediately like is that after the recipe, there is a "See Also" section pointing towards recipes which may be of interest if you like this one. Nice touch!In chapter two, the recipe on the Poetry Chapbook caught my interest. In this recipe the author introduces the method for digitally binding the portfolio pages on poetry together in a collection. The process is explained very clearly and it is very easy to follow. The interesting touch in this chapter is that we are provided with two techniques in one for navigation between the pages, either using the block or creating links between pages. The author also explains about adding a page to the chapbook after its already created for use as a Title page. Good Tip!Chapter 8 one of the recipes introduces us to building a portfolio access page for outside reviewers. This recipe caters to those who require external reviewers to have actual access to the students portfolios. I like the approach to the solution provided by the author and the clear well explained steps to achieve the outcome. The new combination of locking the pages and providing external access is a good approach to this problem. Very neat.Some of the recipes are great instructions on how to use the key parts of Mahara which some may not have come across yet - such as setting a theme and a layout for your profile page. I think that many people will find reading this book an essential part of their planning when considering Mahara for their institution.If you use Mahara or plan to use Mahara and haven't yet ordered your copy of this book, I recommend you give it a shot!

In this book, Ellen Marie Murphy does an outstanding job of guiding the reader through tasks that enhance your portfolio. She addresses the needs of various types of users and gives creative and specific ways that they can use Mahara to demonstrate various skills. The book can be used by staff guiding students through Mahara, or directly by students middle school and older who are using it.

What makes a delicious meal? It's not just the individual ingredients, but how they are blended together in a mouth-watering composition. Cookbooks help both amateur and professional cooks to get this blend right and to get inspired to create variations on the presented recipes. Ellen Marie Murphy authored the Mahara 1.4 Cookbook for cooks new to Mahara (...) but also for those experienced in its use to give them fresh ideas of how to use this web application.Mahara is an open source ePortfolio web application that has been in existence since 2006. It is used around the world in compulsory, higher, and further education, and other institutions by people to compile their evidence of learning, to reflect on their learning, and to collaborate in projects. Version 1.4 of Mahara was released in June 2011.Ellen Marie Murphy is well-positioned to write a cookbook on Mahara because she is an active user and community member. Before she became Director of Online Curriculum at SUNY Empire State College in September 2011, she was Director of Learning Technologies and Online Education at Plymouth State University where Mahara is in use. In October 2010, Plymouth State University organized the New Hampshire Focus on ePortfolio Day to bring educators from K-12 and higher education together to share ideas about their ePortfolio use with each other.The Mahara 1.4 Cookbook contains 52 varied recipes in eight different categories. Whether you want to use Mahara for the visual arts, literature and writing, create your professional portfolio with it, work in groups, create an education portfolio with primary school kids, a social portfolio, a college application portfolio or use it for certification and accreditation in higher education, you find ideas in this cookbook. There are simple and short recipes that help you create a portfolio page within just a few minutes. And there are more complex recipes that guide you through the creation of a multi-page portfolio in which artifacts collected over a long period of time are arranged.The recipes can be followed by new users of Mahara as well as "old hats". After a brief explanation of the purpose of the recipe and a screenshot that shows an example, Ellen Marie offers step-by-step instructions that lead beginners to the goal. Experienced users of Mahara can go through the recipes more quickly as they already know the processes for uploading files, creating journal entries and pages etc., and can focus on the innovative ideas Ellen Marie provides for portfolios. These ideas allow learners to create engaging, visually pleasing, and informative portfolios which they can expand over time for their own professional purposes, to showcase it to others, or to use it in an application process, for example.The recipes often include additional tips and tricks which give learners further insight and options to vary the recipes and to adapt them. References to other recipes in the book help especially new users to find related content and to continue exploring Mahara by following authentic activities.In my opinion, the Mahara 1.4 Cookbook is a valuable reference book for any Mahara user who wishes to get fresh ideas for working with his / her portfolio. It is also a great resource for educators who want to use ePortfolios with their students in finding ways to encourage their students to reflect on their learning regularly and to compile their portfolios. Although the step-by-step instructions correspond to version 1.4 of Mahara, those who work on an older version of Mahara can still benefit from the presented ideas, and most recipes can be followed on an older version with only slight navigational changes.The Mahara 1.4 Cookbook is the second book written for Mahara and it follows in the steps of Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolios: Beginner's Guide as fantastic resource for Mahara users. It can be purchased as eBook and as paper book.Two thumbs up!--You can engage in the Mahara community discussions at [...] and trial the application yourself at (...)Thank you to Packt Publishing for a copy of the eBook for review.[Review originally published at (...)]

Ellen Marie Murphy dishes out some very satisfying recipes for integrating Mahara's ePortfolio into educational, social networking and professional settings. Just like a good recipe, the contents in this book are spelled out in detail with clear numbered steps and use of bold, links and screen shots to help readers at all levels.For those unfamiliar with Mahara, there are enough of the basics covered including uploading files, images and creating secret URLs. For the advanced users, there are topics on creating image galleries, developing poetry chapbooks, and using the collections feature to create web pages, tenure and promotion materials and accreditation ePortfolios. Ellen Marie Murphy skillfully describes even the most complex tasks in simple, broken-down steps and through her 8 chapters, the reader gets to experience the many flavors of Mahara - seeing just how versatile this open source ePortfolio system really is.Each chapter is well organized with a concise list of subtopics, a brief narrative introduction followed by clear "how to do it" and "how it works" recipe instructions. What's really useful about this text is that it does not have to be read sequentially to make sense. I started this book in the middle and read chapters according to my interest. Each chapter can stand alone as an extremely helpful guide.This book will be a valuable resource to teachers, instructional designers, students and anyone else interesting in using ePortfolios. Although the book focuses on the technical, Ellen Marie Murphy's understanding of the real pedagogical issues shines through and helps the reader to more fully understand the process.Ellen's creativity, skill and technical expertise combine to make Mahara 1.4 Cookbook a terrific read for novices and experts at any stage of ePortfolio use. Each recipe makes the reader want to dig in and log in to Mahara.