Create. Share. Engage.

Christine Dülfer (OStR'in; Dipl.-Hdl'in) is a Business Administration and English teacher at Berufliche Schulen des Landkreises Waldeck-Frankenberg in Korbach und Bad Arolsen, which are vocational schools in Germany, and a team leader at the Hessische Lehrkräfteakademie in the media department (Dezernat Medien II.3, SG II.3-3 Fortbildung), responsible for Moodle trainers. Christine has been supporting students for over 10 years in creating portfolios as part of their internships that are an integral part of their vocational studies in the German 'duale System'. 

In this interview, Christine talks about her approach to portfolio work and the benefit that individual students as well as their peers have from their use.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Resources

• Berufliche Schulen des Landkreises Waldeck-Frankenberg in Korbach und Bad Arolsen
• Hessische Lehrkräfteakademie
• Lpaso – Institut für Lernkultur e.V., Organisers of Mahara Hui DE

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Sam Taylor (PGCert, FHEA, CMALT) has been supporting portfolio practice as learning designer since 2008 at higher education institutions in the UK and since 2018 as eLearning consultant at Catalyst IT Europe. She's worked with a diverse range of students, lecturers, and staff giving her insight into many different portfolio practices.

In this episode, Sam shares a number of her stories that illustrate how flexibly portfolios built in Mahara can be used.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Sam

• LinkedIn
• Fediverse
• Twitter

Resources

• Griffith College, enhancing functionality in Mahara
• 'Enhancing group assessment with Moodle, Mahara and Turnitin' presentation on the use of group portfolios
• 'Designing effective ePortfolio activities' workshop outline
• Presentation 'Scaffolding portfolio use' by Kristina Hoeppner
• DigiCompEdu framework
• Universal Design for Learning

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Teresa MacKinnon, MA, has been a language educator for many years, incorporating portfolios into language learning at University of Warwick, and is a scholar working in the field of open educational resources, open access, and open recognition, amongst many other interests of her that she continues to follow in retirement.

In her interview Teresa talks about her work with portfolios, her own professional portfolio journey, and how staying true to her values of openness has brought her to using and valuing Mahara.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Teresa

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Resources

• Teresa's blog 'next steps'
• Teresa's research activities
• Virtual Exchange: connecting university cohorts for language education  
• UNICollaboration
• First CMALT portfolio
• CMALT review portfolio
• Future Teacher 3.0 UK, the European funding has finished but the UK group continues to run regular webinars and publish openly as Xerte objects
• Association of Learning Technologists (ALT) 
• ALT Open Education Special Interest Group
• Article 'A meta-analysis of open educational communities of practice and sustainability in higher educational policy' by Teresa MacKinnon, Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou, Howard Manns, and Scott Grant (2016)
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force

Audio editing support: Sofia Kokoreva

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Misty Kirby is an academic and practitioner with university and school experience, creating portfolios herself and with her students. Misty shares her thoughts on how portfolios can support eProfessionalism in both academics and students. She explains what was behind the idea of SmartEvidence for her and why it's an important feature in Mahara.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Misty

• Misty on Twitter
• Misty on LinkedIn
• Misty's website

Resources

• Presentation 'ECARx: Early career academic researchers’ experience using ePortfolios'
• Presentation 'SmartEvidence: Improving ePortfolio quality through intervention'
• Brown Wilson, C., Slade, C., Kirby, M. M., Downer, T., Fisher, M., & Nuessler, S. (2018). Digital ethics and the use of the ePortfolio: A scoping review of the literature. International Journal of ePortfolio, 8(2), 115-126.
• Kirby, M. M., Slade, C.S., Brown Wilson, C., Downer, T., Fisher, M.B., Siddiqui, Z., Isbel, S., McAllister, L., & Miller, A. (in press). A call to action for eProfessionalism: Supporting emerging health and education practitioners build their online presence through ePortfolio use, for the Journal of Computing in Higher Education.
• Kathryn Coleman's work
• ePortfolios Australia's 'Plan, act, reflect, and eportfolio' (PARE) sessions
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios
• AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force ePortfolio mapping survey

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Dr Orna Farrell is a researcher at Dublin City University whose portfolio history goes back to 2008. Since then she's taught courses using portfolios and conducted numerous studies involving portfolios. Her interests lie in supporting learners and lecturers alike, also using open education strategies.

See the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Orna

• Orna on Twitter
• Orna on LinkedIn
• Eportfolio Ireland

Resources

• Borton's reflective framework 'What? So what? Now what?'
• Ebook 'Eportfolio based assessment: Inspiring exploration and supporting evaluation for practitioners'
• Ebook 'Exploring the diversity of ePortfolio practice: An international sharing of practice, activities, and assessment'
• femedtech open letter
• Holy Grail of Rubrics
• Photos from the 2018 unconference
• Special issue on ePortfolios in IJTEL
• The learning portfolio in higher education: A game of snakes and ladders
• Universal Design for Learning

Portfolios at DCU

• Loop Reflect
• Annual Student Showcase and Awards for 2022

PhD thesis and selected articles

• PhD thesis 'Developing critical thinking through eportfolio based learning: an exploration of the experiences of non-traditional online distance learners'
• Farrell, O. (2018). Failure to Launch: The unfulfilled promise of eportfolios in Irish Higher Education
• Farrell, O., & Seery, A., (2019). “I am not simply learning and regurgitating information, I am also learning about myself”: Learning portfolio practice and online distance students
• Farrell, O., (2020). From Portafoglio to Eportfolio: The Evolution of Portfolio in Higher Education
• Farrell, O., Buckley, K., Donaldson, L., & Farrelly, T. (2021). Eportfolio in Ireland: A landscape snapshot of current practice

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Until recently, Lisa Donaldson, MSc, worked at Dublin City University in Ireland in the Teaching Enhancement Unit. There she was responsible for Loop Reflect, DCU's ePortfolio platform based on Mahara. In our conversation, Lisa shares how everything started at DCU, and what some of the important steps were that the University took to grow its portfolio initiative.

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Connect with Lisa and ePortfolio organisations she's active in

• Lisa on Twitter
• Lisa on LinkedIn
• Eportfolio Ireland
• AAEEBL

Publications of interest

• Ebook 'Eportfolio based assessment: Inspiring exploration and supporting evaluation for practitioners'
• Ebook 'Exploring the diversity of ePortfolio practice: An international sharing of practice, activities, and assessment'
• Special issue on ePortfolios in the Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning
• The learning portfolio in higher education: A game of snakes and ladders

Portfolios at Dublin City University

• Loop Reflect, DCU's ePortfolio site
• Annual Student Showcase and Awards for 2022
• AAEEBL student interviews, in particular Emaan, Ruby, and Samantha

Audio editing support: Sofia Kokoreva

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

'Create. Share. Engage.' is a podcast about portfolios for learning and more for educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices.

This new podcast is all about sharing portfolio stories from around the world. The first episode will air on Wednesday, 28 September 2022. You'll hear from Lisa Donaldson about her portfolio journey and quickly to 6,000 students using portfolios at Dublin City University within  six weeks. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app so you don't miss it.

'Create. Share. Engage.' is produced by Catalyst IT, the main development company for Mahara. We offer the full range of services to support you implement portfolios at your organisation using Mahara and also offer support packages for shorter engagements. 

Click through to the episode page for the transcript.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter about Mahara and portfolios.

Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward