E-teaching Portfolio Implementation using Mahara Open Source Management System

摘要

Teaching portfolio has been widely used in higher education as a useful management tool for monitoring and improving teaching and learning process among academicians. The usage of portfolio methods to document professional development in teaching is well known by all. However, despite its proliferation, this issue is still dogged among academicians. Time pressure, data are not integrated and not easily accessible as well as paper-based portfolio seems to be the critical factors why teaching portfolio may become a burden for any academicians. E- teaching portfolio allows all academicians to be involved in the community over network technologies with the capability to store various types of media. E-Teaching Portfolio helps in preparing evidence in supporting teaching and learning processes, as a reflective tool in enhancing their capabilities and as a way in supporting their self- assessment review. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to create a basic understanding of e-teaching portfolio in higher education prior to replace the paper-based portfolio. An action research methodology was adapted consisting of four important phases diagnosing, planning action, taking action and evaluating action. A sample prototype was created using an open-source management tool, Mahara. Mahara is a fully featured open source electronic portfolio, which was developed in 2006 by the New Zealand e-Portfolio Project funded by the NZ Tertiary Education Commission. Mahara platform was chosen in compiling and integrating all files and academician's portfolios. Furthermore, this paper will deliberate discuss the implementation of an e-teaching portfolio using the Mahara platform to support teaching and learning.