Friday, May 8, 2009

Re: Portfolio Tools

On Thu, 7 May 2009 15:33:59 -0700, Richard Kassissieh=20
<kassissiehr@catlin.edu> wrote:

>I am having some difficulty understanding what Mahara offers that one=20
can=B9t
>provide with a multi-user blog system.=20

We have not committed to using Mahara yet, but I have set it up in a test=20
environment. Two of the main advantages I see over a multi-user blog=20
system:

1. Single instances of content, with multiple "views." With Mahara, there's =

a dedicated tool for uploading content (resume, documents, media, etc.),=20
and there's a separate tool for creating "views" of that content. Each view =

is highly customizable - there are multiple possible layouts (1, 2, or 3=20
column), and each view can have as many items of "content" as you wish.=20
It's also incredibly easy to rearrange the content items by dragging-and-
dropping blocks. When you're happy with a view that you want to share, you=20
mark it as viewable by the public, and send off the link. If you wanted to=20
share different portfolios with different audiences using a multi-user blog =

system, you'd have a lot of additional bits showing.

2. Single-sign on integration with Moodle. This means any mechanism that=20
Moodle offers for authentication can be used for Mahara, with users only=20
required to log in once. All user information is then carried over between=20
the two systems.

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