Published on: 12/08/2024 · Last updated on: 02/09/2024
Introduction
Mahara allows users to set up Groups. Staff and students can access and share resources, hold discussions in asynchronous forums and give and receive feedback.
When to use Mahara Groups
Setting up groups in Mahara can be useful if
- students are working collaboratively on a Group Portfolio
- you want students to hold discussions in a Mahara forum, working in a Group
- you want students to share their work with peers for feedback, in a Group
We recommend using Groups when you want to support group collaboration or discussion in Mahara. In other scenarios, setting up groups is not necessary.
When planning your activity and assessment, contact the TEL team for advice on whether Mahara Groups are useful in your learning context. Some actions for setting up Groups require Mahara Administrator permissions (e.g. if you have many students to add to a group, or multiple groups). Please contact the TEL team at the early planning stages for advice and support, at tel@bath.ac.uk
Types of group
‘Standard’ Groups are created by Members (staff or student) and others can be invited to join. This could be for personal projects or group collaboration.
‘Course’ Groups can be used to facilitate formative submission and review by a designated ‘Tutor’ inside Mahara. A Mahara Administrator can create a ‘Course’ Group, and add staff as Tutors or Administrators. Members can submit pages to the group for review/comment by the Tutor, who selects a pre-defined review status (Fail, Needs work, Pass).
As well as using Groups, there are other methods for assessing and providing feedback on portfolios. These methods allow you to provide feedback, without the need to manage a group.
- tutors, peers or other people can add a feedback comment in Mahara
- staff can give feedback using a customised Smart Evidence Framework
- to formally assess the portfolio (with a grade and feedback), students can submit their portfolio to Moodle