Folioz Orientation Introduction What is Folioz? If you’re wondering what Folioz or an ePortfolio is, why you might want one and what it can do for you, then read on. You’re about to find out. At the simplest level, Folioz is two things: an ePortfolio and a social networking system combined. An ePortfolio is a system in which students can record “evidence of lifelong learning” – such as essays, artwork or other such things they produce that can be stored digitally. Such things are known as artefacts in Folioz. Social networking systems need little introduction – think Bebo, Facebook or MySpace (back in the old days). Basically, they give a way for people to interact with their friends and create their own online communities. But Folioz is much more than just a place to store files. Folioz also includes blogging, a résumé builder, and web services to integrate with other platforms. Folioz framework Folioz is built with Mahara, an open source e-portfolio application. With Folioz, you control which items and what information within your portfolio other users see. Such items and information are termed artefacts. To facilitate this access control, all artefacts you wish to show to other users need to be arranged into one area. In Mahara this compilation of selected artefacts is called a ‘page’. You can have as many pages as you like, each with a different number of artefacts, intended purpose and audience. Your audience, or the people you wish to give access to your page, can be added as individuals or as a member of a group. It can even be made publicly available. For example you could create: a page for your friends and family that includes holiday photos and a personal journal a page for your tutor, which includes assessments and your reflective learning journal a page to showcase your best pieces of work and your résumé for potential employers … A single page or a collection of pages can make up your portfolio. Unless artefacts are placed in a page, they are not visible to anybody but you. You can use files that you uploaded or journal entries you wrote in as many pages as you wish. You only need one copy of your artefact. Imagine you collected all your artefacts in a shoe box. Whenever you have a new artefact, you add it to the shoe box. When you are ready to create your portfolio, you take a look at the artefacts in your shoe box and choose those that you want to make available on a portfolio page. You can arrange the artefacts on that page to your liking.Accessibility Folioz aims to be usable by as many individuals as possible, including those with disabilities or special needs. Creating accessible web content is a requirement in many countries. In order to provide international guidelines, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were created. There are three conformance levels under the WCAG 2.0, the latest edition of the guidelines: A, AA, and AAA. Each level requires conformance with previous levels and includes its own specific guidelines for how websites should be made accessible. With the latest version of Folioz has reached level AA for user-facing areas of the system. The administration of Folioz is predominantly on level AA as well. We endeavour to keep up level AA to continue to provide good navigation of the site to everybody. We can only control the accessibility of the navigation and overall platform. People uploading or creating content are responsible themselves to make their content accessible. If you are a screen reader user, you can use the following access keys to navigate the main menu items in Folioz: Regular user interface: d:Dashboard c: Content p: Portfolio g: Groups a: Administration Implementation: key principles for success The exemplars within this toolkit were judged to meet the five key principles for successful e-portfolio implementation that was an outcome of a prior study of effective practice (Joyes and Gray, 2010). The key to effective practice as shown in the e-portfolio implementation model in figure 1 is to: Recognise that e-portfolio implementation involves a developmental journey for all those involved Apply the e-portfolio implementation principles throughout this journey Figure 1: The e-portfolio implementation model  - the key implementation principles applied across one instance of adoption The table of e-portfolio implementation guidance for practitioners below sets out the key issues for practitioners together with statements of effective practice that are related to a consideration of the e-portfolio implementation principles. The statements of effective practice are supported by some links to the case studies and to resources and events that were noted to support the development of effective practice. This may be a helpful point of reference when thinking through your own implementation. However, you will know your own context best - the key for success is the application of the principles to your context. Further guidance may be found within Effective Practice with e-Portfolios (JISC, 2008) and the e-Portfolios infoKit (JISC, 2008). Table 1:  e-portfolio implementation guidance for practitioners e-Portfolio implementation principles The key issues from a practitioner perspective Statements of effective practice with links to examples from the e-portfolio implementation case studies 1. Purpose needs to be aligned to context to maximise benefits. The diversity of purposes for e-portfolios can lead to misunderstandings and ineffective implementation. There needs to be clarity over this at the start the implementation. The e-portfolio purpose is clearly linked to programme or course objectives; it meets a defined need and supports the learning outcomes. In most of the examples in this toolkit, there is both a formative feedback process involved and a summative assessment purpose - for examples of ways they can be integrated into courses see the exemplars taster of e-portfolio use . There is transparency of purpose for learners. This can be achieved through: A course specific purpose such as achievement of competences/standards (Teacher Education, Midwifery, Clinical Practice ,Dentistry, NVQ course), CV creation (Journalism) development of academic and employability skills(Psychology). A whole university focus on personal development planning (University of Wolverhampton) employability or graduate attributes (University of Edinburgh) the latter being a key focus for Australian Higher Education (see Australian Case Studies). Benefits are made transparent to learners and are demonstrated. They need to be outlined when the e-portfolio is first introduced. A video involving past students can be effective such as this one from the Business studies course at Birmingham City University and this Introductory video by Southampton Solent University describes the potential of e-portfolios to support undergraduate students for both assessment and CPD/employment purposes. 2. Learning activity needs to be designed to suit the purpose. Familiarity with the e-portfolio tool is needed in order to understand what learning activities it can support. This enables: conscious pedagogic decisions to be made about use ; an understanding of the scaffolding students need to carry out the e-portfolio based learning activity. Staff ideally should develop a pilot e-portfolio themselves to understand its potential for learning. Some institutions encourage staff to use an e-portfolio themselves to support their continuing professional development and this can develop an understanding of appropriate application  with students (Thanet College) others make its use compulsory on the new lecturers course (University of Bradford) . Learning occurs from effective practice within the institution or elsewhere by seeking advice provided by: Central support staff, for example the Institute for Learning Enhancement at the University of Wolverhampton . Champions/mentors - the use of early adopters to support staff was a common feature of most case studies, eg Birmingham City University and Southampton Solent University. Attending e-portfolio conferences such as epic , Mahara  and PebbleBash. Accessing events and resources such as those provided by JISC , and the Centre for Recording Achievement. Participation in  internal/external projects, eg JISC projects and the Inter/National Cohort for Electronic Portfolios Research network. 3. Processes need to be supported technologically and pedagogically. Support for the technology can be offered centrally and e-portfolio tools may offer some generic  pedagogic support, e.g. for action planning. However what is required for processes such as reflection and presentation may vary across courses and so there is a need for course specific support. It is important not to underestimate the level of support needed for both staff and students who may lack technical and/or the 'new' learning skills such as reflection. An effective central support team is in place. This was a common element in all the case studies where implementation was established across the institution - see  the governance sections within the case studies. The e-portfolio tool chosen has the necessary functionality to support the processes involved, such as information capture & retrieval and presentation - see How do we decide which e-portolio to use, and technical support is also provided centrally. This functionality and support is particularly important in work based learning contexts. Completed example e-portfolios are provided and there are many examples within the cases studies, eg Fine Arts, Business Studies. This could be a draft example or template with instructions . Pedagogic support is in place for reflection, peer review, information selection, presentation etc - see University of Bradford example and Southampton Solent University case study. e-safety aspects of what is shared in an e-portfolio are introduced, for example as part of an Internet Safety module . 4. Ownership needs to be student centred. Both learners and those they need to share their e-portfolios with, need to access the e-portfolios to support the learning activity and understand the expected learning outcomes; but the e-portfolio in process needs to be private to the individual learner. How can the learner understand the value of the learner centred part of this process until they have experienced it? How can access be provided in all contexts including work based learning ones? It is recognised that, even though the purpose within a taught course will have been defined by the lecturer rather than by the learner, the e-portfolio is a personal and private space whilst in construction, and elements of it are shared only when the learner decides to share them. It is also recognised that this aspect of e-portfolios has implications for some students with learning difficulties - see Thanet College case study . The e-portfolio is made available to all students and staff for use during their studies alongside the careful integration in courses - there is evidence that this results in rapid uptake by students, e.g.,  Birmingham City University and Southampton Solent University, that provides a learning environment that encourages peer support. The ability to use the e-portfolio and/or export this to other e-portfolios beyond the period of study is provided for. Student voice should be used to promote effective use - see the Business studies at Birmingham City University student video, also this video of students on a construction course at Dumfries and Galloway College and this  University of Wolverhampton student reflection. 5. Transformation (disruption) needs to be planned for. The benefits and implications of using the e-portfolio in a particular context are unlikely to be fully understood by others outside that context. This means that in spite of all the guidance and support that is available, a careful consideration of the ways the context may be unique and ongoing feedback from users is needed to ensure effective implementation. It is understood that each particular instance of e-portfolio use is likely to mean new practice will need to be developed  by learners and those who are supporting them. The implications of this ‘new’ practice are planned for. This has been covered in 1, 2 and 3 above and the case studies provide examples of carefully thought through implementations. Evaluation of practice needs to be ongoing. This was a key feature within the case studies  and wider evaluation of pilot use of e-portfolios was common, in some cases more formal evaluation occurred - see the University of Bradford and Southampton Solent University case studies. Source: https://epip.pbworks.com/w/page/40808690/Implementation%20guidance%20for%20practitioners References JISC (2008) Effective Practice with e-Portfolios JISC (2008) e-Portfolios infoKit http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios Joyes, G. and Gray, L. (2010) The trouble with e-portfolio implementation: A threshold concepts perspective In The PDP newsletter Issue 20 Navigation Your Dashboard Overview You can change certain aspects of your dashboard, namely the user-specific information, but a lot of what you see is static to allow you to quickly access other parts of Folioz. Your homepage is your dashboard from which you can access a number of areas in Mahara conveniently. Navigation: Use the Main menu navigation icon to navigate to other areas of your portfolio. Administrators and staff who have access to the administration area, see the Administration menu navigation icon in addition to the main menu navigation so they can navigate within the administration area. User navigation: Click the User menu navigation icon to reach your account settings, inbox, and logout link, or click your profile picture to be taken to your profile page. Search: Search for users who have an account to view their profile page and check which pages they have made accessible to you. If your site has fulltext search available, you can search for anything on the site using this search box. In the User search box you can most often search for users’ display name. Depending on the settings that the site administrator made, you may also be able to search for users’ real name and username. If the site administrator allowed users to hide their real name, you can do so in your general account options. To provide you with the most relevant search results, you automatically search only for users within your own institution, but can choose to search for everyone on your Mahara installation on the “Find people” search page you are taken to. If the site administrator turned on exact user search, you need to provide the correct display name or real name in order to find another user. Quick links: These quick links take you directly to certain areas of Mahara. User-specific information: You can customise this area on your dashboard to put blocks there that you want to see every time you log in. Edit dashboard: The Edit dashboard button allows you to jump directly into the edit screen for your dashboard without having to go to Portfolio → Pages first. You cannot add a skin to your dashboard page. Personal information: This sidebar block contains static and dynamic information: Your name is linked to your profile page. Your profile picture is linked to your profile pictures page for easy uploading of new profile pictures. If you are a member of any groups, they are displayed here. Pending friend requests and group invitations are displayed. If you tagged artefacts or pages with the tag “profile”, a link to them is placed here. Online users: If this sidebar block is enabled, you see users who have been logged in during the last 10 minutes. Depending on the settings for your institution that the administrator chose, you may see all users, only users from your institution(s) or no users at all. Profile completion: You see this sidebar block if your site or institution administrators turned on the profile completion functionality. Links and resources: List of links to websites or documents that are visible to all logged-in users or the public. Main menu navigation The main menu is visible to all users and allows everyone to navigate to their content, portfolios, and groups. The main menu is the same for everyone Click the Main menu navigation icon to see a drop-down menu with the available options. Click one of the options to reach them or Click the Arrow down icon to reach the second level navigation. You can then click the Arrow up icon to close the second level navigation. User menu navigation The user menu is visible to all users. It allows you to access your account settings, inbox, and profile easily. The user menu is available to all users Click your profile picture to be taken to your profile page. Click the Arrow down icon in the user menu to see additional options. Your name: Your name is displayed to indicate who is logged in esp. when viewing portfolio pages where the profile block is not visible. You can click on it to go to your profile page. If an administrator masquerades as another user, this name helps to check quickly, in which account actions are undertaken. Settings: Top level navigation item that gives you access to more options: Settings: This link gives you access to your account settings and notifications Notifications: Change your notification preferences. Apps: See which apps you have connected to your account. Inbox: Go to your Mahara inbox to check for new messages. When you have unread messages, the counter displays the number of unread messages. Logout: Link to log out of your current session. Click the Arrow down icon to reach the second level navigation. You can then click the Arrow up icon to close the second level navigation. User-specific information The default dashboard includes the following blocks: Latest changes I can view My portfolios Inbox Topics I’m following These blocks are filled with content once you start using Folioz and create pages, receive messages from other users, have access to others’ portfolio pages and use the forums for discussions. You can customize these blocks to your liking by editing your dashboard. Click the Edit dashboard button  Edit dashboard directly on your dashboard or go to Portfolio in the navigation menu, click the Edit button next to the dashboard page and change the blocks like you would change them on any page in Folioz. Refer to the page editor for more information on adding and removing blocks from a page.Your profile page Your profile page is not visible to other users on Folioz by default except for those in the same institutional space. You can also make it visible to anybody on the Internet. Per default only the following information is put onto your profile page: Your display name (or real name if you do not have a display name) Your pages that are visible to the person viewing your profile page Your groups Your wall Your friends We advise you not to use your profile page as your portfolio because you cannot control who can look at the information you make available on your profile. At minimum it is everybody in your institution or who has an account on Folioz. At maximum it can be everybody online. Always remember to think about your own personal security before releasing contact information on a publicly available page or even just for other Folioz users. Once you have made your profile page or any portfolio page public, Google and other search engines can index and cache it. Even if you take the public access away at some point, the cached version may still be available online. Pages that are made available via a secret URL are not found by search engines unless you link to them from another page. Use regular pages to create your portfolio and your profile page as a business card or brief introduction to you without disclosing lots of details. You can edit your profile page like any other page. You can find more information about editing a page in the page editor.Pages What are Pages? A page contains a selection of artefacts which you arrange and present to others. These may include: selected files résumé details text (your added commentary, instructions or orientation) journal posts video and audio files RSS feed to an external blog etc. You can re-use the artefacts that you collected under Content in as many pages as you wish. The same artefacts can appear in multiple pagesYour Overview Page On the landing page of Portfolio, you can do the following. The landing page of your portfolio Click the Add button to start a new page or collection from scratch. A modal opens in which you can choose whether to create a page or collection. Click the Copy button to choose an existing page or collection of yours or from another user as basis for a new portfolio. Search: Type your search term into the search field. Use the drop-down arrow to limit your search. The available options are: Title, description, tags: Search for your search term in the title, descirption, and tags of your portfolios. Title, description: This is the default option. It searches in the title and description of your portfolios. Tags: Search only within the tags of your portfolios. Sort by: Decide on the sort order in which you wish to display your portfolios. Alphabetical: Portfolios are displayed in alphabetical order. Date created: List the portfolios in chronologically reverse order with the newest portfolios first. Last modified: Display the portfolios in the order of their last modification with the most recent portfolios that have been changed first. This is the default display option. Last viewed: Show the portfolios in the order in which they were viewed by you and others starting with the most recently viewed portfolios. Most visited: Display the portfolios that have been visited most first in the list. Most feedback: List the portfolios in descending order based on the amount of feedback they have received. The search option and the sort order that you choose do not change when you navigate away from the overview page or log out. When you change either setting, that new one will be used until you change it again. Click the Search button to search your portfolios based on your search term and / or sorting criteria. Click the Locked icon or the Unlocked icon to manage the access to your portfolio. Collections display the number of pages that they contain. Click the More options icon to reach more options for the page or collection. If you are on a computer, you can hover over the title of a portfolio and see it in its full length if it needed to be shortened. Dashboard page: Click the More options icon to make changes to your dashboard page. You cannot delete your dashboard page though. Profile page: Click the More options icon to make changes to your profile page. You cannot delete your profile page, but you can decide on different sharing options. When you submitted a portfolio to a group, you cannot change a great number of the page’s content or delete it until the page is released again. It is displayed with a different colored background to differentiate it quickly from non-submitted portfolios. Click the Show more button to display more portfolios. Icons on the overview page The page and collection information boxes display a number of icons, which are described in more detail here. Share your portfolio with others If you have not yet shared your portfolio with somebody else, you see the Locked icon . Ready to share your portfolio with others Click the Locked icon to start sharing your portfolio. The icon turns into a downwards facing menu chevron . A drop-down menu opens. Click the Manage access option to share your portfolio with others on the site. You are taken to the Edit access screen where you can choose with whom to share your portfolio. Click the Manage secret URLs option to create a secret URL for your portfolio. You are taken to the Secret URLs screen where you can set up one or more secret URLs. Review existing sharing permissions If you already shared your portfolio with others, you see the Unlocked icon . Review with whom you already shared your portfolio Click the Unlocked icon to see with whom you have already shared your portfolio. The icon turns into a downwards facing menu chevron . A drop-down menu opens. Click the Manage access option to edit the existing sharing settings for your portfolio. You are taken to the Edit access screen where you can choose with whom to share your portfolio. Click the Manage secret URLs option to create or edit a secret URL for your portfolio. You are taken to the Secret URLs screen where you can set up one or more secret URLs. Friends: If you shared your portfolio with all your friends. Registered users: If you gave all people with an account on Folioz instance access to your portfolio. Public: If you made your portfolio available to everyone on the internet. Name of a person: If you shared your portfolio with a specific person. Group name (Submitted): If you submitted this portfolio to a group. Group name (Admin / Members / Tutors): If you shared your portfolio with only a certain type of group members in that group. Group name: If you shared your portfolio with an entire group. Institution name: If you shared your portfolio with all people in your institution. Secret URL: If you set up a secret URL for your portfolio. The drop-down menu has a scrollbar so you can view all people or groups of people with whom you shared your portfolio. Start or end dates or whether copying is allowed are not displayed in the drop-down menu. You need to go to the Share screen to see that additional information. Access pages within a collection You can view how many pages are part of a collection and what their titles are by clicking the Pages icon . View a list of pages within a collection Click the Pages icon . The icon depends on how many pages are in your collection: 0-2: One sheet of paper. 3-10: Two stacked sheets of paper. 11 or more: Three stacked sheets of paper. The icon turns into a downwards facing menu chevron . A drop-down menu opens. If you have a SmartEvidence collection, you see that listed first with the SmartEvidence page icon . All other pages are are listed with the Single page icon . Click the page you want to view. More options You can find additional options for pages or collections via the More options icon . More options for pages and collections Click the More options icon to see additional editing options. The icon turns into a downwards facing menu chevron . A drop-down menu opens. If you view the options for a collection, click Manage to add or remove pages from your collection. Click Edit to edit the general information of a page or collection such as title, description, and tags. Click Delete to delete the page or delete the collection. If you delete a collection, the pages and artefacts within it are not deleted. Created: The date and time when you set up the page or collection. Modified: The last time you made a change to the page or collection. If you submitted a portfolio, you cannot edit or delete the page or collection until it has been released. Therefore, you don’t see those options anymore. However, you see when you submitted the portfolio to which group. See submitted date and groupAdd a page You add a new page in your portfolio when you want to display artefacts together, e.g. for presenting them to others, for showing your progress in a project etc. Create a portfolio page On the Pages and collections page, click the Add button. In the modal that comes up, click the Page button. You are taken to the Settings. Page title: Provide a title for your page. This field cannot be left empty. If you do not enter a title, the default “Untitled” will appear. The page title, description, and tags appear in the Basics panel. If you cannot see them, click the icon to make them visible. Page description: Write a brief description summarizing your objective of this page. It will appear on the page itself. Tags: Enter tags to find your page more easily at a later stage. You can choose from your existing tags by starting to type a letter and then selecting the tag you want to use. You can also type a new tag, and it is added to your list of tags. You can find more information on how to use the tag selector in the “Tags” section. Name display format: Choose how you want your name to appear on the page to others. Anonymise: If the site administrator allowed anonymous pages, you can choose this option here. Instead of your (display) name, “Author’s name hidden” will be displayed to everyone. Administrators and staff can still see your real name. Layout: Click the icon to display all layout options. You can change the layout to decide the overall distribution of your blocks on the page. Skins: Click the icon to select a skin for your page. Click the Save button to save your changes and to continue to the Edit content part. Editing a Page Navigation bar You can add and remove content from a portfolio page on the Edit page screen. The page navigation bar stays fixed in place on the right-hand side of the screen. That way, the buttons can be accessed on short and long pages without scrolling. “Edit page”” navigation bar Click the Drag to add a new block button onto the page to place a block. Click the Settings button to add and modify page settings like title and description and skin. Click the Display page button to review your page to see how others, who have access to it, will see it. When you are in edit mode, this button is highlighted. Click the Share button to decide who shall have access to your page (or collection if the page is part of one). See “Edit access” for more details. Click the Return to pages and collections button to return to the pages and collections overview page. Add content to a page The static layout selector was replaced with a more flexible option. Now the layout can be created on the fly directly on the Edit screen of a page. The new layout is based on the Gridstack plugin for jQuery. It is well-suited for responsive pages, adapts to the page width, and blocks can be resized directly in edit mode. An extension to this plugin is the accessibility options needed to allow people working with a keyboard only or a screen reader to continue being able to create and modify pages as well. When a page is created with an accessible layout (this page option is available if you set the Accessible page creation option in your account settings to “Yes”), the following will happen: The page is set to one column. All blocks will be placed underneath each other. The Add block button can be clicked or navigated to via the keyboard and will add a block at the top or bottom of the page. Drag-and-drop is disabled. You can change the position of a block by navigating to it, holding the Enter key pressed, and using the Up and Down arrow on your keyboard to change its position. Be careful when choosing 4 or more columns. Your portfolio page may look very good on your big 21” screen, but a user looking at it on a laptop or tablet may not have the same experience. In most cases, up to 3 columns is the best choice. Drag a block onto a page and resize it Drag the Drag to add a new block button onto the page. If you use only a keyboard to navigate Folioz, you can place blocks using that when you enabled the accessible page creation in your account preferences and set you page to have an accessible layout in your page settings. When you see a dotted line around a rectangle, you know where you can drop the block. Once the block is on the page, the block configuration modal is displayed and you can select the block type that you want to use. You can also just change the block title and leave the placeholder block in place deciding on the type of artefact you want to add later. This is in particular interesting for the creation of templates as you can leave it up to your learners to decide what content they want to place under a heading. Refer to the section “Blocks” for more information on the different block types. A site administrator can change the order of the block types seen in the placeholder block configuration. Resize the width and / or height of a block by dragging the Resize icon in the bottom right corner of a block to change its dimensions. Content within the block will adjust automatically to the new size when no specific restricting dimensions are provided. Click the Display page button to view your page and its content without the edit controls. Remember: You can align your blocks into columns and rows. If a block in a second row is as wide as the block right above it and there is no other block in between, the block will snap up to the first block. You can still arrange blocks into rows by resizing your blocks to the correct width. Blocks that contain dynamic content, e.g. the journal blocks, they may get longer with time and push other blocks down. You can re-arrange a block by clicking its heading and dragging and dropping it elsewhere. You can change the settings of a block by clicking its Configure button . Changes to the layout and arrangement of blocks are saved automatically. As soon as you made changes inside blocks or on the page itself, they are also visible to any visitor of your page. Edit an existing page You can edit an existing page in two ways: Click the Edit button when you are on the Pages overview page. Click the Edit this page button when you are on the actual page. You find more information on how to edit artefacts on a portfolio page in the Edit content part. If the site administrator activated clean URLs, your portfolio pages have human-readable URLs which you can change to a certain extend. Change the URL for your portfolio page When you are in the page edit mode, click the Settings button. Page URL: Choose the name for your page if you do not like the default one. It must be 3-30 characters long. You can only use lowercase letters from a-z, numbers and - (hyphen). Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. Though you can change the URL to your page at any point, you shouldn’t do that because people who already know the URL to your page will not be able to access it anymore after you have changed it.View a page You can view a page to check what it looks like when somebody else sees it. Go to the Pages and collections overview page and click on the title of a page. An example portfolio page. Title of the portfolio page. Author of the portfolio page. Tags which you provided for your page. Description of the page. The Edit this page button Edit this page is only visible if you are the page owner or belong to a group of users who can make changes to the page if it is in a group, institution or site level. The Copy button Copy is visible when you can copy the page or collection that you are viewing. You see it on your own pages as well as pages of others. Click the More options button to reach lesser used functionality on a page. On your own pages you can: Click the Print link to open the print dialogue. Using this print functionality, your portfolio pages are printed in the current layout, with collapsed blocks or artefacts uncollapsed so you can see their content easily. Note: Links are not yet active and linked files or embedded media are not accessible. Click the Delete link to delete your page. As someone viewing another person’s portfolio, you can: Add or remove a page from your watchlist: Click the Add page to watchlist link if you want to be informed when changes are made to the page. When you make changes to the page or a block on the page, a notification is triggered and sent to anyone who is watching the page. This is also the case when you add a new journal entry to a journal that is displayed on your page even when you do not add the entry via the page. If you no longer wish to receive these notifications, remove the page from your watchlist by clicking the link Remove page from watchlist. Report objectionable content for this page: If a page contains offensive artefacts, you can report them to the administrator and provide an explanation why you think the content is offensive. These functionalities are only available on other people’s pages as they are not needed on your own. The artefacts that you placed in the page. Click the Add a comment link Add comment to be taken to the Details page for this artefact to leave a comment. Click the Details icon Details to be taken to the Details page for this artefact if there is one. If you belong to a group which allows the submission of pages for feedback / assessment, you see the group displayed here or can choose it from the drop-down menu and can submit your page directly from here. For more information see the section on feedback for assessment. Comments from users is displayed at the bottom of the page unless you display it with the comments block elsewhere on the page. Each comment includes: Profile picture and name of the commentator that are linked to the profile page. The comment itself. The creation date of the comment and potentially the last update date and time of the comment. Comment rating. Any attachments. A note if the comment is private only to the commentator and the portfolio page author. For more information on giving and receiving comments, please see section Feedback. The total number of comments is displayed. You and others can use the Add comment section to leave comments on the page. Please refer to the section on making comments to see how that can be done. Display the last update date and time of the page. View how many times your page was accessed. Deleting a page You can delete a portfolio at any time unless it has been submitted for feedback. When you delete a page, text blocks and external content blocks are completely deleted. You cannot recover them. There is no revision history. All other artefacts are not deleted because they reside in your Content area. If you are allowed to delete a page, you see the Delete this page option in the More options button when you view your page directly. Click the “More options” button to find the “Delete” option When you attempt to delete a page or collection, you get the chance to export the portfolio first so that you can make an archive. If your page is part of a collection, the warning message also contains the title and a link to the collection for you to check whether you really want to delete the page and thus make changes to your collection. Warning when you attempt to delete a page that is in a collection The title of the portfolio you are about to delete is displayed so you can double-check it is the correct one. An explicit warning about the deleting of the portfolio is displayed. Deletion cannot be undone. If you delete a page that is part of a collection, the collection is linked so you can view your collection and double-check deleting of the page is OK. If you want to continue deleting your portfolio, you may want to export it first so you have a copy in case you do need it later again. Click the export link to be taken to the options for the export. We recommend you export your portfolio in both HTML and Leap2A formats so that you can view them without the need of Folioz (HTML) or can import them back into the same or another Mahara instance or another portfolio software that supports the Leap2A format. Click the Yes button if you want to continue with the portfolio deletion or the No button if you want to keep it. Files Managing Files Main menu  → Create  → Files The Files area is a repository, i.e. a document storage for folders and files, that you can use within your portfolio. Both folders and files are considered artefacts and as such can be added to a page. You may create any number of folders or sub folders. To view which subfolders and files sit within a folder, click on the folder name. Use the Home link to return to the top level folder directory. You can arrange files and folders by dragging and dropping the icon in front of the file / folder name onto another folder icon. A suitably named and organised filing structure will help you with the long-term organisation and retrieval of your artefacts. If you want to move a file or folder out of a subfolder, move it onto the parent folder icon . You will find that some folders are automatically created by the system such as viewfiles or images. The viewfiles folder includes files from imported pages whereas the images folder includes your uploaded profile pictures. As with any other file, you can move them out of this folder and store them in a different folder. You can move files and folders to your heart’s content without having to re-link them in the pages where you use them. Also renaming them will not have a negative impact on links.File browser In the Files area you have a file browser in which you can organise your files so you can find them more easily. You can sort your files into folders and also create subfolders. Your file browser Click a file or folder icon and drag and drop it onto a folder to move the file or folder within that folder. Name: You see all your folders and files that are not in folders listed to access them easily. When you click on the name of an image, you see a preview of it. You are presented with a download option when you click on another file. Description / Tags: View the description and tags of your folders or files to know quickly what the content of them is. If you do not give an image a description, the file name is used as alt tag to identify the image when you place it into an image block or display it embedded in text. Size: The size of your files and folders is displayed. Date: The date you created a folder or uploaded a file is shown. Click the Edit button to edit folder or file properties. Continue with editing a file. Click the Delete button to delete a file or folder. A pop-up window requires you to confirm the deletion because you will not be able to recover the file once it is deleted. If you use a file in a journal entry and / or on a page, the warning message tells you that this file is in use elsewhere so that you don’t delete it by accident. If a folder or file is used in a portfolio that has been submitted, you are not able to edit or delete it. Click the Download folder content as a zip file link in order to get a zip file which contains all files and folders of the current folder. Site administrators decide in the Artefact type: File settings for how long the zip file is kept on the server. Upload a file Before you upload a file, make sure that you are allowed to do so. For any artefacts that you publish in your portfolio, you must have the sufficient rights. That means: the artefact is your own or you are allowed to reproduce and distribute it, i.e. it does not violate any copyright legislation and the artefact also adheres to the Terms and Conditions of the Folioz It can be that you have to agree to an upload agreement before you can upload any files to your Files area. The site administrator decides about that in Administration menu → Extensions → Plugin administration → Plugin type: artefact: file. Upload a file License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the artefact that you are about to upload. You can set your default license in your account settings. Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio. Upload file: Upload a file by clicking on the Browse button to search for the file on your computer. Make sure that it is not larger than the maximum upload size that is shown in the parentheses. Instead of clicking the Browse button to upload files, you can drag and drop files from your computer directly onto the “drop zone”. You must still observe the maximum file size upload for each file and the maximum total file size cannot be exceeded either. This functionality is not available in all browsers. Generally, users of Chrome 7+, Firefox 4+, Internet Explorer 10+, Opera 12+ (Windows only) and Safari 6+ can use drag and drop. You can drag and drop an entire folder without zipping it into the Files area using Chrome. The files are uploaded, but not the folder itself. So if all files should be in a separate folder, create a folder in Folioz first. This feature does not exist in Firefox and Safari. Type the folder name and click the Create folder button if you want to create a folder before uploading files. Click the folder to upload files directly into it. Upload multiple files You can upload multiple files at once in three different ways: You can upload multiple files when you are browsing for them after having clicked the Browse button. Hold down the Ctrl key (or Command key on a Mac) and click on all the files that you wish to upload at once. You can drag and drop multiple files into the drop zone. You can also place all files into a compressed file, a .zip file, and upload that to Folioz. This method allows you to upload multiple files from different folders on your computer at once. You can create a zip file from any number of files that you have selected in your document management program by making a right mouse click and selecting Compress… (or something similar). Zip files in the Finder under MacOSX Zip files in Ubuntu’s Nautilus Zip files in Windows Explorer Once you have uploaded your zip file to Folioz, you can unzip it there. Click on the Unzip button next to the Edit button . Please follow the on-screen instructions. Edit a file or folder You can edit the properties of a file or folder at any time. The file does not have to be re-linked in portfolio pages, but the properties you changed will be updated automatically. Edit a file Click the Edit button to edit folder or file properties. Name: Change the name of the file (or folder). It is not necessary to keep the file extension as Folioz stores it internally. However, it can be good to leave it in case somebody has problems opening the file if no default programme is associated with the file after downloading it. This field is mandatory and each file (or folder) must have a name. Description: Give the file (or folder) a description to find it again more easily. If you do not give an image a description, the file name is used as alt tag to identify the image when you place it into an image block or display it in text. Tags: Give the file (or folder) one or more tags. You can choose from your existing tags by starting to type a letter and then selecting the tag you want to use. You can also type a new tag, and it is added to your list of tags. You can find more information on how to use the tag selector in the “Tags” section. License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the artefact that you are editing. Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are editing a file that somebody else created, you can attribut the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are editing somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. Allow comments: Decide if users should be allowed to comment directly on the file artefact page when they view it. Click the Save changes button to keep your changes or click Cancel to abort the action. Rotate an image When you upload images directly from a mobile device, the orientation may not be correct, and a landscape image might be displayed in portrait mode. By rotating the image in Folioz on the fly, you can correct its orientation. Rotate an image Click the Edit button next to the image that you want to rotate. Orientation: Click the Rotate button until you reach the desired orientation. The new orientation is applied wherever that image is used in blocks on a page. Click the Save changes button to keep your changes or click Cancel to abort the action. File quota The default file storage quota size is 50 megabytes. If arrangements have been made with your institution it could be higher. File quotaBlocks Blocks for internal and external artefacts are used to compose portfolio pages and group pages. Content of blocks can be shown on a page immediately, or just the block’s heading can be displayed. The retractable blocks allow you to be more flexible in what you want to show immediately on a page. If you choose not to give a block a title, you cannot retract that block as there would be no place to unretract it. When you started editing information in a block and you navigate away from it accidentally without having saved your block, you are being asked whether you wish to stay on the page or leave the page. Content chooser All different types of content as well as blocks that pull in external content into a portfolio page are accessible via the content chooser. The content chooser is available on the left-hand side of a page when you are in the edit mode. It does not scroll. Thus, it makes it easy to add content items also further down on the page. All content items are accessible in the content chooser You can select the Text or the Image block directly as these are two of the more frequently used content items. You may see additional or different blocks in this list of frequently used content items as it is up to the administrator of the site that you use which blocks to display here. There is an API available to make adding different items easier. You can access all other content items via the individual panels: Media: holds blocks for files that can be displayed as links, in folders or in the case of images and videos directly in the page Journals: various content blocks which allow you to place journals / journal entries into a page General: content items that are of a general nature Personal info: choose profile information or your résumé to display in a block External: contains blocks to place RSS feeds, external media or GoogleApps documents etc. into a page The functionality of each block that you can use in your portfolio pages and in group pages is outlined in the section on the individual artefact blocks. Theme: You may be able to choose a theme for your portfolio page. If that is the case, you see the Theme drop-down menu. That allows you to select a theme in which that page is displayed to others who view your portfolio page. The site administrator must allow page themes in the site’s user settings for this option to be available. Click the Block help icon to be taken to the manual’s block section for the version of Mahara that you are using. Click the arrow pointing to the left to reduce the size of the content chooser. Only the icons will be displayed giving you more space on a page. Click the arrow pointing to the right to show the block descriptions in the content chooser. The content chooser is displayed per default only with its icons shown on small devices to maximize the screen size that is available to edit a page. Files, images and video These artefacts are internal Folioz ones to display: links to files that you have uploaded folders that contain files show images embed audio and video files If you are on a mobile device and select to upload a file, you can take a photo or make a video or audio recording (Android only for audio) directly. Embedded media Display an embedded video or audio file from your uploaded files. Mahara comes with the Video.js media player that allows for the display of a number of file formats without having another player installed on the device. The site administrator must allow media formats. Some of them can be displayed directly within Mahara while others need additional software installed on a device. See the list of allowed media formats. Videos placed onto a page in this block scale to the width of their column. They also scale automatically when your browser space gets smaller. Configure the Embedded media block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a media file: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. File: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Only the files that you are allowed to embed are displayed. If you uploaded a mp4 file but it does not show here, you may have to check if it has the correct codec. Only H.264 mp4 files can be embedded. iOS devices can even be trickier as these devices may only recognize the MPEG4 “Baseline” profile rather than the “High” profile. You can read the Apple specifications and convert a video if needed using Handbrake. Newer iOS devices (from the iPhone 5S on) should play “High” profile videos. File(s) to download Select files that viewers of your portfolio can download. Configure the File(s) to download block Block title: Choose a title for your files block. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio. File: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. You cannot re-order files once you have selected them. You would need to remove them and select them again in the correct order. When the block is placed on the portfolio page, you can view more information or download the files. file name file description size upload date a link to more details Details about files that can be downloaded. View information about the file: file name file description size upload date Click the file name to be taken to the details page for this file. Hover over a file and click anywhere into the row or on the download icon to download the file. When you click the file name, you are taken to the details page for that particular file and see some more metadata. More details about a file that can be downloaded. The name of the file is displayed. The title of the page in which the artefact appears is linked. The author of the page is displayed and a link to the profile page provided. Additional metadata is displayed for the file: file type description tags owner creation date last modified date size license (if license information is turned on by the site administrator) Click the Download button to download the file to your computer. If the owner of the file allowed comments, you can comment directly on the file. Click the More options button to reach lesser used functionality: Add the page that contains the file to your watchlist or remove it. Report the file as containing objectionable content. Folder Select a folder to display all files within it as links on your page. Configure the Folder block Block title: If you do not set a title, the name of the folder that you choose to display will be used. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a folder: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Expand icon if you want to reach a sub folder. You can edit any component of the folder, i.e. its name, description and tags by clicking the Edit button . Click into the row that contains the folder you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . You can also still select folders that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click Remove if you wish to revert your choice. Sort order of files: Decide on the sort order of files in the block when they are displayed on the page. You can choose between: Ascending Descending Site administrators decide on the default sort order of content within folder in the Blocktype: File / folder settings. Show download link: Switch this option to “Yes” if you wish to allow the viewers of your page to download the folder contents as zip file. Site administrators decide in the Blocktype: File / folder settings whether users are allowed to display the download link or not. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. When you place a folder with group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. You can see information about the folder as well as the files contained within it when the block is placed on a page. “Folder” block on a page Block title. Click the file name to be taken to the details page for this file. Hover over the file and click anywhere into the row or on the Download icon to download the file. Click the Download folder content as zip file to download all files in one go to your computer. Click the Details link Details to be taken to the details page for the block. On the details page for the Folder block you see the following. Details page of a “Folder” block Block title. The title of the page in which the block appears is linked. The author of the page is displayed and a link to the profile page provided. Click the file name to be taken to the details page for this file. Hover over the file and click anywhere into the row or on the Download icon to download the file. Click the Download folder content as zip file to download all files in one go to your computer. Click the button with the three dots to reach lesser used functionality: Add the page that contains the file to your watchlist or remove it. Report the file as containing objectionable content. When you clicked on a file, you are taken to that file’s details page. You always see which folder contains the file. Details page of a file within a “Folder” block Image Display a single image in a block. In a default Mahara instance, this block is available in the content chooser at the top together with the simple Text block. It does not appear in the section Media as well. Configure the Image block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an image: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio. File: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . You only see image files that you are allowed to use in the block. When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description, rotation, and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. If you rotate an image via this dialogue, it will be rotated in all other places where it is used as well. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Show description: Set the switch to “Yes” if you wish to display the description of your photo. It could contain the source of it for example. Width: Choose the width (in pixels) for your image. If you do not provide a number, the image will be scaled to the width of the block. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Image gallery Select a folder with images or individual images to show in a gallery or embed an external image gallery. Image gallery with uploaded images Configure the Image gallery block with internal images Block title: Choose a title for your image gallery block. Image selection: You can choose to display all images from a specific folder or you can select the images individually. See embedding images from an external gallery for that option. If you choose to display an image gallery based on a folder and you rename images within that folder, they will be reordered accordingly. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an image: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Expand icon if you want to reach a sub folder. Click the Edit button to change any component of the folder, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit the file. Click into the row that contains the folder or image you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . You only see image files that are allowed to be used in the block. You can also still select folders or files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. If you selected to display an entire folder in your image gallery, new images that you upload to that folder are added to your gallery automatically. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Style: Decide to show all selected images as thumbnails or as slideshow where you only see one image at a time. If you select the option “Thumbnails (square)”, all your images will be displayed in the same size as thumbnails. If you select to display your images in a slideshow, you can navigate all images with the help of the icons Next and Previous . Use the icons First and Last to start or end your slideshow. Show descriptions: Turn this option on if you want to display the image descriptions in the gallery. Use photo frame: Using this option will put a frame around each photo. Width: Specify the width (in pixels) for your images. The images are scaled to this width. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Image gallery from external images Configure the Image gallery block with external images Block title: Choose a title for your image gallery block. Image selection: Select the option “Display images from external gallery”. Gallery URL or RSS: Copy the link to the external gallery and past it into the text box. You can embed the following external galleries: Flickr, e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/12345678@N01/sets/98765432123456789/ Photobucket, e.g. http://s1234.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/username/ or http://s1234.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/username/AlbumName/ Picasa, e.g. http://picasaweb.google.com/user.name/AlbumName# Windows Live Photo Gallery, e.g. http://cid-123456ab7890cd12.photos.live.com/self.aspx/AlbumName/photo.jpg To use Flickr, the site administrator has to provide a valid API key. To use Photobucket, the site administrator has to provide a valid API key and a secret API key. For Windows Live Photo Gallery to work properly, the link to one of the photos inside the album must be copied and pasted into the text box in order to show the entire album. Style: Decide to show all selected images as thumbnails or as slideshow where you only see one image at a time. If you select the option “Thumbnails (square)”, all your images will be displayed in the same size as thumbnails. Show descriptions: Turn this option on if you want to display the image descriptions in the gallery. Use photo frame: Using this option will put a frame around each photo. Width: Specify the width (in pixels) for your images. The images are scaled to this width. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. PDF Embed PDFs into a page. Configure the PDF block Block title: Choose a title for your PDF block. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. File: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Expand icon if you want to reach a sub folder. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it. You only see PDF files. When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Once the PDF is embedded on a page, you can scroll through it and also download it for example. The PDF is displayed in its best possible fit to show one page completely. Embedded PDF on a page Title of the block. Toggle to the sidebar where you can jump from one page to another either in the thumbnail or document outline view. Click the Search icon to search within the document. You can move to the previous or next page using the Arrow icons. The number of the current page is displayed. You can put a different number in and hit the Enter or Tab key and jump to that directly. The total number of pages is shown. Decrease the page size by clicking the Minus, or increase the page size by clicking the Plus. The block size does not increase. Use the Automatic zoom drop-down menu to choose a different zoom size instead of using the Plus and Minus buttons. Click the Print icon to print the PDF. Click the Download icon to download the PDF to your computer. The suggested file name is the one the file has on the site. Click the Tools icon to see more options available for this PDF. Use the scrollbar to move through the document. Click the Details link Details to be taken to the details page for the block. If you have trouble embedding a PDF file, you might have come across an issue that others have also experienced. The mimetype of the PDF may not be recognized correctly. The correct “mimetype” is “pdf”, but programmes can circumvent using this mimetype for PDFs to ensure that their file is downloaded instead of viewed in the browser for example. There is not an easy fix to this issue, and the discussion of possible solutions has started. In the meantime, you can delete the incorrect mimetypes from your browser and ensure that only “PDF” is left. Follow these steps to delete the incorrect mimetypes: Close Firefox. Locate your profile folder. Open the mimeTypes.rdf file in a text editor. Search for pdf. Leave only the entry that is application/pdf. Delete all other PDF references by deleting everything for that entry from  to . Open Firefox and go to Preferences → Applications. Search for pdf. You should now only see one entry that reads “Portable Document Format (PDF)”. Some HTML Display the content of an HTML file in a page. Configure the HTML block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an HTML file: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it or click the Select button . You only see HTML files. When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. You can only display a self-contained HTML file in a page, but not an entire site because the links to the files are not retained correctly when you upload files.Journals You can embed content from your journals in various ways in a page: display an entire journal display only one journal entry show the latest journal entries display journal entries with a specific tag You must create at least one journal in order to see anything in this block. You can allow the copying of your journal (entries). Choose this option wisely because once a user copied your journal content into their portfolio, it looks as if they had written the journal entries. This could lead to plagiarism. However, it can be used very nicely to create templates and to scaffold learning. Journals exist in all areas of Mahara: Personal portfolio Groups Institution level Site level You can display journals or journal entries in these different contexts the following way: Personal journals: You can include personal journals and journal entries in your own portfolios and in group portfolios. If somebody else changes the block configuration in a group portfolio, they will not be able to choose your journals or journal entries though. Only you can place them there. Group journals: You can display group journals and entries only in the group in which they were created. Institution journals: An institution’s journals are only available for inclusion in pages for that institution. Site journals: You can add site journals only to site portfolios. Journal Display an entire journal on your portfolio page. Configure the Journal block Block title: The title for the block is chosen automatically from the title of the journal unless you provide a different one. Journal: Select the journal you wish to display. If you have many journals, you can also search for the one you want to use. The search is performed in the title, description, and tags. Entries per page: Decide how many entries you want to display. Entries beyond this number are accessible via a navigation bar. Block copy permissions: You decide what shall happen with this block when you allow other users to copy your page. The options are: Skip this block entirely when copying the page Others may display your journal in their page Others will get their own copy of your journal Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. If you share the page publicly in which you make an entire journal visible, your journal receives an RSS feed address to which your readers can subscribe in their favorite RSS readers. Once you have included the Journal block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in the Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically. Create a new journal entry directly from the Entire journal block Journal entry Display one journal entry on your portfolio page. Configure the Journal entry block Block title: The title of the journal entry is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one. Journal entry: Select the journal entry you wish to display. If you have many, you can also search for the one you want to use. You always also see the title of the journal in which the entry appears. The search is performed in the title, description, and tags. Block copy permissions: You decide what shall happen with this block when you allow other users to copy your page. Options are: Skip this block entirely when copying the page Others may display your journal entry in their page Others will get their own copy of your journal entry Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Recent journal entries Display recent journal entries across all your journals on your portfolio page. You can use this block also in group, institution and site pages. Configure the Recent journal entries block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Journals: Select the journal(s) from which you wish to display the latest entries. If you have many journals, you can also search for the one(s) you want to use. The search is performed in the title, description, and tags. Entries to show: Decide how many entries you want to display. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. If you have multiple journals, you can display recent entries from all of them. Once you included the Recent journal entries block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal, and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically. Create a new journal entry directly from the Recent journal entries block - one journal only If you enabled multiple journals and selected more than one for which to display recent journal entries, you will see a slightly different display. Create a new journal entry directly from the Recent journal entries block - multiple journals available Choose the journal to which to add your entry from the drop-down menu. Click the Add button to create your new entry. Tagged journal entries Display tagged journal entries across all your journals on your portfolio page. Configure the Tagged journal entries block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Display entries tagged with: Choose the tags that you want to use to filter all your journal entries for display. Only tags you used on journal entries are available. You can include or exclude tags. See below for more information. Block copy permissions: You decide what shall happen with this block when you allow other users to copy your page. Options are: Skip this block entirely when copying the page Others will get a copy of the block configuration: The block is copied, but not the journal entries. When the user creates journal entries with the tag(s) used in the block, they will be displayed. Items to show: Decide how many entries you want to display. Show journal entries in full: If you switch this option to “Yes”, your journal entries will be displayed. Otherwise, only their titles are shown and people need to click on them to read your entries. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Add new tagged journal entries directly from a page Once you have included the Tagged journal entries block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically with the tag(s) whose journal entries are displayed on the page. Create a new journal entry directly from the Tagged journal entries block - one journal only If you enabled multiple journals and have a minimum of two journals, you will see a slightly different display. Create a new journal entry directly from the Tagged journal entries block - multiple journals available Choose the journal to which to add your entry from the drop-down menu. Click the Go button to create your new entry. Select tags to include or exclude When you want to choose which tags to use in your block, you can select multiple tags to include or exclude. That way you can be very flexible in which entries to display in your block and which ones to leave out. You must have tagged your journal entries beforehand. If you haven’t done that, please go to your journal entries and tag them. You can find them under Main menu → Create → Journals. Display all the tags that you used on journal entries Click in the text field for the tag entries. You can start typing the tag that you are looking for if you know it. The result list that you see underneath gets shorter based on what you type. If you want to exclude a tag, type the minus sign and then the tag. In the tag result list, click the tag that you want to include. If you want to exclude a tag, type the minus sign and then select the tag. Once the tags are in the field, you can see directly which ones are included and which ones are excluded. A selection of tags for the tagged journal entries Tags that are excluded from your journal entries are displayed in red. Tags that your journal entries must have are displayed in light grey. You can remove any tag by clicking the x to the left of it. When you display your page that has a tagged journal entries block, you see which tags are used to filter your journal entries. For example: Journal entries with tag “learning” but not tag “conference”. Know which tags to include and exclude You can add multiple tags to limit the results as well as indicate which tags you want to ignore. If you select multiple tags, a journal entry must match all selected tags in order to be listed. Let’s assume, you tagged your journal entries with the following tags: learning, formal, education learning, formal, education, music learning, formal, education, language learning, nonformal, education learning, nonformal, education, music learning, nonformal, education, language teaching, nonformal, education teaching, nonformal, education, music teaching, nonformal, education, language When you select: the tag “education”, all journal entries would be displayed in the block. the tags “learning” and “language”, journal entries 3 and 6 would be displayed, i.e. the entries that are tagged “learning” and “language”. the tags “education” and “language”, journal entries 3, 6, and 9 would be shown, i.e. the entries that are tagged “education” and “language”. You can also exclude tags from the results by putting a minus sign before the tag you want to select. If you select: the tag “learning” and exclude “formal” (exclude the tag by typing “-formal” without the quotation marks), journal entries 4, 5, and 6 would be displayed. You search for journal entries tagged “learning” and not “formal”. the tag “nonformal” and “education” and exclude “music” and “language” (exclude the tags by typing “-music -language” without the quotation marks), journal entries 4 and 7 would be shown. You search for journal entries tagged “nonformal” and “education” and not “music” and not “language”. The operators and and not are two of the so-called “Boolean operators”.General The artefacts in this tab are of a general nature or do not fit into any other category and can be used around the site. When you create a page in a group, you do not have the plans block available as you cannot create plans in groups. Additionally, you can choose the following blocks when you edit the group homepage: Group info Group members Group pages Annotation Add a block to your page which lets you add an annotation for your page. This feature is used in conjunction with SmartEvidence. Write an annotation Configure the Annotation block Block title: The block title is set automatically based on the standard selected. It takes the form of “Annotation: Shortname of the standard” and cannot be changed. Annotation: Write your annotation for your portfolio page. The annotation helps connect the evidence on the page to the standard or competency you selected to associate it with in the competency framework. You can change the text as long as no feedback has been placed on the block. In order to change the text, you go into Edit mode of the page and then choose the Configure icon of the Annotation block that you want to change. You cannot change the annotation from the SmartEvidence map. Allow feedback: When you allow feedback on your annotation, others can leave feedback as usual. However, as soon as the first feedback has been added, you will not be able to make changes to your annotation text anymore. That is to ensure that the feedback still relates back to the annotation. Tags: Enter tags to find your annotation more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this collection as well. They will be entered into the text field for you. Standard: When you place the Annotation block on the page, you can select the standard with which the page shall be associated based on the SmartEvidence framework selected for the collection. You can change the standard until somebody leaves feedback or makes an assessment. If you select the page from the SmartEvidence overview page, the standard is pre-selected and cannot be changed. You can use the Annotation block without SmartEvidence, but then you can’t choose a competency standard. The description of the selected standard is displayed so you can easily reference it. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Respond to an annotation on the SmartEvidence map When you have access to a collection that contains a SmartEvidence map, you can leave feedback on an annotation. You may be able to assess it if you have staff or institution administrator permissions in the same institution as the portfolio author unless it is a self-assessment framework. Respond to an annotation Click the annotation on the SmartEvidence map that you wish to take a closer look at. A modal window opens with the annotation. Read the annotation. Place feedback: You can leave feedback on the annotation. Make public: Decide whether everybody who has access to the page can view your feedback or just the portfolio author. Click the Place feedback button to add your feedback to the annotation. You can view the feedback of others. If an assessment was already made, you can see it here. This also serves as log of the assessment changes throughout the lifetime of the annotation. Assessment: If you have the permission to assess the standard, you see a drop-down menu here with the possible statuses that you can use. Select one of them. The assessment statuses are defined in the SmartEvidence framework file. Click the Save button to keep your selection or click Cancel to abort the assessment. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Respond to an annotation on a page You can provide feedback to an annotation, and assess it if you have the appropriate permission, also from the portfolio page on which the annotation is placed. Respond to an annotation on a page Click the Place feedback link at the bottom of the Annotation block. Write your feedback. Assessment: If you have the permission to assess the standard, you see a drop-down menu with the possible statuses that you can use. Select one of them. The assessment statuses are defined in the SmartEvidence framework file. Make public: Decide whether everybody who has access to the page can view your feedback or just the portfolio author. Click the Place feedback button to add your feedback to the annotation or click Cancel to abort the assessment. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Delete an annotation When you delete an annotation, all its feedback is deleted as well. You cannot retrieve it again easily. Comments You can move the comments section from the bottom of a page elsewhere onto your page to integrate it better with your page content. Please note the following: There is no configuration possible for this block. You only see comments when you display a page, but not in edit mode. You can only place 1 comment block onto a page. Comments for individual artefacts is still placed at the bottom of the artefact details pages because you cannot put a block onto these pages. You can move the block like any other block on your page. If you delete the block, the comments are displayed at the bottom of the page again. What the feedback block looks like on a page The block has the heading “Comments” unless your Mahara installation uses a different word. When you click the Add comment link, a modal window is displayed in which you can enter your comments with all the usual functionality. Creative Commons license Add a block to your page which lets users know under which Creative Commons license your page is published. Configure the Creative Commons license block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Allow commercial uses of your work? Decide whether users can re-use your work for commercial purposes. Allow modifications of your work? Decide whether others can remix your work and create something new and if so under which conditions. License version: Select under which Creative Commons license you wish to publish your work. You can choose between Creative Commons 3.0 Creative Commons 4.0 Check out what is new in Creative Commons 4.0, and why you may want to choose that license. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Group info This block is a default block on the group homepage. There is no configuration possible. This block can only be used on a group homepage. Items in the group info block The block contains information about: Description of the group Group creation date Type of group Group category if any was chosen Dates between which regular group members can participate in group activities. This information is only visible if any dates were entered in the group settings. Group statistics number of group members number of pages created in the group number of files uploaded to the group number of folders created in the group number of forums created in the group number of forum topics created in the group number of posts in forum topics in the group Group administrators Group members This block is a default block on the group homepage. You can display member profile pictures and their names. This block can only be used on a group homepage. Configure the Group members block Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Members”. You can set another one if you wish. Shown members: Choose how many members (between 1 and 100) are shown on the group homepage. All others are accessible via the Members tab in the group. The default number of members displayed is 12. Order: Choose the order in which members are displayed. Options are Latest: Display members according to their group joining date in reverse chronological order. Random: Let Mahara decide which members to display. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Group portfolios This block is a default block on the group homepage. You can display pages and collections created in and / or shared with the group in this block. This block can only be used on a group homepage. Configure the Group portfolios block Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Group portfolios”. You can set another one if you wish. Display group pages and collections: Decide whether to display pages and collections that were created in the group. “Yes” is the default option. Sort group pages and collections by: Choose in which order to display portfolios created in the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last updated. Display shared pages: Decide whether to display pages that users shared with the group. Pages that are in collections are not displayed. The options are: None: No shared pages are displayed. By members of this group: Display only pages that have been shared by members of the group. This option is particularly well-suited for groups that are used for class purposes. That way, students can share their pages or collections with the group for a long time, but the administrator can choose to display only pages of group members but not those that are not members anymore. The pages of non-group members are still accessible via the Shared with me functionality. By anybody: Display all pages that have been shared with the group. Display shared collections: Decide whether to display collections that users shared with the group. The options are: None: No shared collections are displayed. By members of this group: Display only collections that have been shared by members of the group. By anybody: Display all collections that have been shared with the group. Submitted pages are not displayed in the section of “Shared pages” and “Shared collections” to avoid confusion whether they have been shared with the group or not. Sort shared pages and collections by: Choose in which order to display pages and collections shared with the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last updated. Display submitted pages and collections: Decide whether to display pages and collections that group members submitted to the group. There is no distinction made between pages and collections. “Yes” is the default option. When you choose this option, you also see which members have not yet submitted a portfolio to the group. This is helpful in particular in large groups with lots of portfolio submissions. Sort submitted pages and collections by: Choose in which order to display pages and collections submitted to the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last updated. Entries per page: Choose the maximum number of pages or collections you wish to see on the group homepage for the above before a paginator is displayed. You can display a maximum of 100 items per category. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. A page is considered as modified when the content of at least one block is updated, including the adding of a new Mahara journal entry into the journal block. Inbox The Inbox block displays the latest messages that you have received. This block can only be used on your dashboard. Configure the Inbox block Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Inbox”. You can set another one if you wish. Message types to display: Change the switch to “Yes” for each message type that you want to display in this block. Administration messages: If you are an institution or site administrator, you see this option. All administration messages such as for objectionable content, virus upload, contact, etc. are grouped in “Administration messages”. Maximum number of items to display: Decide how many messages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. When you display messages from other users on your dashboard through the Inbox block, you can see quickly which messages you have not read. They are marked in bold. Unread messages are displayed in bold Latest changes I can view The Latest changes I can view block displays the latest portfolios to which you have access across Mahara by other people. This includes pages and collections. Prior to Mahara 15.10 this block was called Latest pages. This block can only be used on your dashboard. Configure the Latest changes I can view block Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Latest changes I can view”. You can set another one if you wish. Maximum number of results to show: Decide how many pages and collections shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading without the block content automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking on the heading of a block where the Retractable icon is shown. Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click on the heading of a block where the Retracted icon is shown to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close icon in the top left-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. The block on your dashboard page looks like the following. Example of the Latest changes I can view block Title of the block. If you chose a retractable option, you can click on the title or anywhere in the title space to change the block’s behaviour. Title of the page or collection to which you have access. If it is a collection, you see the number of pages contained within. Name of the portfolio author, and when the portfolio was last updated. Page or collection description. Navigation Add a navigation block to display links to pages in a collection. You must create at least one collection in order to use this block. Configure the Navigation block Block title: The title of the collection is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one. Collection: Choose the collection from the drop-down menu for which you wish to display links in the block. Add to all pages: Automatically add the block to all pages in the current collection with links to the selected collection. If you add another page to the collection, it does not automatically receive the navigation block. You need to add it manually. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Note Add a note to your page. This feature is used when you do not want to keep the text in a journal, but still want to be able to re-use the text on other pages. Add a new note Configure the Note block Block title: Provide a title for your note. Block content: Write your text. You can include formatting, external images etc. Alternatively, you can also use text from another note that you have already written. Click the Use content from another note button to do so. License: You see this drop-down menu if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Advanced licensing: If you can / must enter license information, you can also provide information about the original licensor and a URL where the original can be found. Allow comments: Switch this setting to “No” if you do not want others to comment on your note. This option is set to “Yes” by default. Tags: Enter tags to find your note more easily at a later stage. You can choose from your existing tags by starting to type a letter and then selecting the tag you want to use. You can also type a new tag, and it is added to your list of tags. You can find more information on how to use the tag selector in the “Tags” section. Attachments: Attach a file to a note as additional evidence for the text you are writing. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Add an image into a note Please refer to the section “Insert an image into text” for more information. Attach a file to a note Attach a file to a Note block Click the Attachments panel if you wish to add one or more files to a note. Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file: My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created. Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish. Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files. Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files. License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact. Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example. Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file. If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio. File: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Create in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen. Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently. Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them. You can also still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page. Click into the row that contains the file you wish to display in the block to select it. When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them. Click Remove if you want to revert your selection. Continue editing your note and save it. Re-use text from an existing note You can re-use text from other note from one page in another without having to copy the page first. If you do not make a copy of the note content in the block configuration and change it, the text is changed in all other instances where this note is used. Configure the Note block by copying text Click the button Use content from another note to view all notes to which you have access. These can be: your own notes notes from group pages that you can copy notes from institution or site pages to which you have access Click Browse or Search to find the note that you want to re-use. The search is performed in the title, description, and tags. Click the Manage all note content link to be taken to your personal Notes if you can’t find what you are looking for. All notes are listed with their title and the first line. If a note does not belong to you but for example to a group, you see the author next to the note’s title. Use the paginator to move between your notes if more than 5 are displayed. You see the number of notes that you have access to. Click the radio button in front of a note that you want to use in this page. The content of the note that you have selected is displayed in the Block content box. Now you can make changes. The text will be changed in all other instances where this note appears. If you wish to make changes to the note, but do not want to change it everywhere else, click the Make a copy link above the Block content. The text is then retained, but it is treated like a new note and the original note is not changed. Block title: Review the block title and make changes if necessary. Once you copied a note, the original block title is entered here. You can change the block title no matter whether you change the content of the note or not. All other functionality that you see on the screen is the same as for adding a new note. Open a note that is submitted for assessment in another portfolio Block content: When you open a note that is used on a page that is currently submitted, you cannot make changes to the note. Click the Make a copy link in order to make changes to this note on this page only. It is not changed on the other page that is submitted or on any other page where the text appears. Peer assessment Allow peer reviewers to give blind feedback. Add the peer assessment block to a page This block allows somebody else to provide blind feedback on the portfolio author, e.g. in a formal assessment context where skills and competencies need to be assessed by the peer independently of what the portfolio author has stated. The peer reviewer can see block headings, but not the content in the blocks themselves. If the portfolio consists of multiple pages, and one of them does not contain a peer block, the peer reviewer does not see the page content at all. You must give a person the “Peer” role when sharing the portfolio page for them to be able to add their assessment. Configure the Peer assessment block Block title: The title that you want to give this particular block. Instructions: Provide instructions for the peer reviewer to help them with their assessment. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Set up a peer assessor You can give someone the peer assessment permissions on the Edit access screen of your portfolio page. Give someone peer assessment permissions In the Share with drop-down menu, select “Users” under “Search for…”. In the second drop-down menu that becomes available, type the name of the person who shall be the peer assessor and select them. In the third drop-down menu, select the “Peer” option. You can also select the “Peer and manager” option if the peer is also the manager and can verify the page in the end. Click the Save button to keep your selection or click the Cancel link to abort your changes. If the page is in a collection that contains pages that don’t have the peer assessment block, the peer assessor doesn’t see any content on those pages but the notice “You cannot see the content on this page because it does not require a peer assessment.” Add a peer assessment Peer assessments are blind assessments at the moment allowing the peer assessor to give their feedback independently of the portfolio author. Add a peer assessment When you are the peer assessor on someone’s portfolio, and a page contains a peer assessment block, you can add your assessment by clicking the Add peer assessment link. Write a peer assessment Click the Instructions link to view the instructions for the peer assessment. Write your peer assessment. Click the Save draft button if you are not yet ready for the portfolio author to view your assessment, and you want to save a draft status. Click the Publish button when you finished your assessment, and the portfolio author can view it. A notification is also sent to the portfolio author. If the peer assessment block is used in conjunction with the sign-off block, the portfolio author must sign off the page before anybody other than themselves and the peer assessor can see published peer assessments. View a peer assessment If a peer assessment is in draft mode, only the peer assessor can see it. Once it’s published, others can view it as well. View a peer assessment Click the Add peer assessment link if you want to add (another) peer assessment when you cannot edit an earlier one in the same block anymore. The profile picture and name of the peer assessor are displayed along with the date and time when the peer assessment was made. The peer assessment is displayed. The Edit button is only displayed to the peer assessor for 10 minutes after publishing the assessment in case there are last minute changes they want to make. The Delete button is only shown to the peer assessor, and they can delete their assessment at any point. If they do, the portfolio author receives an email about that with the text of the assessment included. Plans Display your plans in a block. You must create at least one plan in order to use this block. Configure the Plans block Block title: The title of the plan is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one. Plans to show: Choose the plan or plans which you want to display in your page. Tasks to display: Decide how many tasks you want to display for each plan before a paginator is displayed. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Result of an embedded plan in a portfolio page. By clicking on the linked titles, you can show the descriptions of the individual tasks. Recent forum posts Display a specified number of recent forum posts from one group on a page. You must be a member of at least one group in order to use this block. Configure the Recent forum posts block Block title: The title of the block is generated automatically unless you provide a different one. The default title is “Recent forum posts”. Group: Choose the group whose forum posts you wish to display. Maximum number of posts to show: Decide how many of the latest forum posts you wish to show. The default value is 5. You can show up to 100 posts. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Sign-off Portfolio authors can sign off a page, and a manager can verify it. The sign-off and verification process allows for a visual indicator on a portfolio page showing whether the page has been finished and whether a manager has verified it before it can go for the final assessment. The verification by a manager is optional. Set up a page for sign-off and verification Configure the Sign-off block Block title: Give the block a title. This is not required as the options will sit right below the page heading rather than in a block on the page itself when in view mode. Sign off: A sign-off by the portfolo author is always required. Verify: Give a person with the “Manager” permission the opportunity to verify a page and state that fact to carry it one step further in the assessment. Page content will not be locked when the verification has been made. The manager cannot revoke the verification. This can only be done by the portfolio author in form of revoking the sign-off for the page. Set up a manager for verification You can give someone the manager permissions on the Edit access screen of your portfolio page to allow them to verify your portfolio. Give someone manager permissions In the Share with drop-down menu, select “Users” under “Search for…”. In the second drop-down menu that becomes available, type the name of the person who shall be the manager and select them. In the third drop-down menu, select the “Manager” option. You can also select the “Peer and manager” option if the manager is also the peer and can write a peer assessment. Click the Save button to keep your selection or click the Cancel link to abort your changes. Sign off a page When you have a sign-off block on your page and you view it, you can see the sign-off and verification options below the page heading to the right. View the sign-off as portfolio autor When you are ready to sign off your page, you can click the red dot icon , and it will turn into a green tick icon to indicate that the page has been signed off. If the page also needs a verification, your manager can now perform it. Verify a page As manager, you can see the sign-off and verification options below the page heading to the right. You can only tick the verification option. Verify a page as manager When you are ready to verify a page that allows for verification, you can click the red dot icon , and it will turn into a green tick icon to indicate that the page has been verified. You cannot revoke the verification. Only the portfolio author can do so by revoking the sign-off. Text Add text to your page. This feature is used when you want to put a snippet of text onto a page that does not have to be re-used. In a default Mahara instance, this block is available in the content chooser at the top together with the Image block. It does not appear in the section General as well. Configure the Text block Block title: Provide a title for your text. Block content: Write your text. You can include formatting, external images etc. Tags: Enter tags for this block to find this content more easily. The tags are displayed as part of the page tags. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Please refer to the section “Insert an image into text” for more information on adding an image to the text block. Watched pages The Watched pages block displays the pages that are either on your watchlist or belong to your friends and you have access to them. You can only use this block on your dashboard. Pages on my watchlist If you want pages to be displayed, you need to add them to it first by clicking the More options button on a page and then add the page to your watchlist. Configure the Watched pages block for your watchlist Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Watched pages”. You can set another one if you wish. Select to display Pages on my watchlist. Items to show: Decide how many pages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading without the block content automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. View your watchlist on your dashboard. View the Watched pages block Title of the block. If you chose a retractable option, you can click on the title or anywhere in the title space to change the block’s behaviour. Title of the watched page. You can click the link to be taken to her. View the page owner and the date when the page was last updated. This is in particular important information when all your watched pages have the same or a similar title. Activities of my friends If you have friends on Mahara, then you can use this block to display their portfolios when they have shared them with you: personally as a member of a group as an institution member as a registered user publicly Configure the Watched pages block for your friend activity Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Watched pages”. You can set another one if you wish. Select to display Activities of my friends. Click Additional filters and settings to make additional changes. Filter by time: You can select the time period over which you want to see changes. Your options are: Last week Last month Last 2 months Last 3 months Last 6 months Last year Since last login Order by: Decide how the portfolios are to be ordered. Your choices are: Reverse chronological order: Display the latest changes first Page owner: Display all pages by their owner with the one having made changes last first. Items to show: Decide how many pages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading without the block content automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Personal info The artefact blocks in this tab allow you to include information that you provided in the profile into your portfolio. If you want to make changes to the text or the images, go to User menu → Profile. Furthermore, you can also put certain blocks on your profile page that only exist for that particular page: My friends My groups My pages Wall My friends Add a block that displays your friends’ profile pictures and their names to your profile page. This is a default block on your profile page. You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible. My groups Add a block that displays your groups on your profile page. It is a standard profile page block. You can decide on the sort order of the groups and also limit the number of groups to be shown before a paginator is displayed. Configure the My groups block Sort groups: Decide in which sort order your groups should be displayed: Most recently joined: Groups are displayed in chronologically reverse order to show the groups that you joined recently first. Earliest joined: This option displays your groups in the order in which you joined them. A to Z: Alphabetically from A to Z. This is the default option. Maximum number of groups to display: Decide how many groups you wish to display in the block before the paginator is shown and the remaining pages can be seen on the next page within the block. Leave this field empty if you wish to display all your groups. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. My portfolios Add a block that displays your pages and collections on your profile or dashboard page. It is a standard profile page block. This block should stay on your profile page because other users can see all your pages and collections to which they have acceess. You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible. When other users view your profile page, they only see the pages and collections to which they have access. That also means that you see all your pages and collections while others may see none or just a few. You see the following when you use the block. The My portfolios block displayed in a page Block title Title of the page or collection to which you have access. If it is a collection, you see the number of pages contained within. Page or collection description. Paginator to view more portfolios. Number of portfolios that you can view. If you would like to see fewer or more portfolios, you can change that here. Per default, 10 portfolios are displayed. Profile information Add a block with profile fields to your page. Only display as much information as you wish anybody to see. Especially when you make your pages available to the public, i.e. everybody on the Internet, or all logged-in users, decide carefully whether you want to display your street address and / or phone number. Configure the Profile information block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Fields to show: Decide which fields shall appear on the page. Put a check mark in front of each one that you want to show. Displayed are only the ones for which you provided content. Profile picture: Choose to display one of your profile pictures or “Don’t show a profile picture”. Email address Decide whether to display one of your email addresses that you have entered in your profile under User menu → Profile. Introduction text: If you do not want to display the introduction text from your profile, you can write another one just for this page here. However, it will be lost when you delete this block. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. Social media Add a block with links to your social networks to your page. Configure the Social media block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Social media accounts to show: Decide which accounts shall appear on the page. Put a check mark in front of each one that you want to show. Displayed are only the ones for which you provided content. Display settings: Click this panel heading to show the possible display settings. Display social media accounts as: Decide which way you want to display the links to your social media accounts: Buttons with icons only: Show only the logos of the social media accounts. This option is a good one if you have lots of accounts and want to save space on your page. However, it might be trickier for people to know instantly which accounts are displayed if they are not familiar with the logos. If you added a lot of social media accounts through the option “Other”, this option here would not be a good one as the logo for all the services is just a generic icon. Buttons with icons and text: This is the default option. The logo of the social network is displayed along with its name. Buttons with text only: This option only displays the name of the social network. Display default email link as button? Switch this option to “Yes” if you want to provide a button for your primary email address. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. This is how the individual options are displayed on your page. The 3 options for displaying your social media accounts Buttons with icons only. Buttons with icons and text. Buttons with text only. Wall Add a block that displays your wall on your profile page. It is a standard profile page block. Other users can leave messages for you, i.e. write on your wall, and they can decide whether everyone looking at your profile page can see them or only they and you. You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible. When you view your wall (or someone else’s wall) on your profile page, you see the following. A wall on a profile page Enter your message in the text box. You can use the visual editor to format your message. Make your post private: Decide who shall see your wall post. If you make it private, only you and the person to whose wall you are posting will see the post. Click the Post button to add your message to the wall. A wall post always contains the name of the person who made the post, the date and the actual message. A public wall post can be viewed by anyone who has access to the profile page. Wall posts that are private are highlighted. Click the Delete icon if you do not want to have a specific post on your wall. The post authors and you as owner of your wall can delete posts. Click the View whole wall link to see all wall posts. When somebody else leaves a message on your wall, you receive a notification and have that sent to your inbox. Other people are not notified about new messages on your wall. Résumé You can display either your entire résumé or parts of it in any portfolio page. If you choose to display only parts of your résumé, you have more control over the arrangement of the information. My entire résumé Add a block with your entire résumé to your page. Configure the My entire résumé block Block title: Choose a title for your block. Tags: Enter tags for this block to find this content more easily. The tags are displayed as part of the page tags. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. When you use this block, you do not have control over the order in which the information is displayed, but Mahara decides that. In order to be more flexible, you can choose to display one résumé field at a time with the One résumé field block. One résumé field Add a block with one résumé field to your page. Configure the One résumé field block Block title: The title of the résumé field you want to display is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one. Field to show: Choose the résumé information that you want to display. You can select one area at a time. You can jump to the résumé section directly from this modal window in order to fill in more content. Tags: Enter tags for this block to find this content more easily. The tags are displayed as part of the page tags. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. External content With the help of the external content blocks, you can include RSS feeds, external media or GoogleApps documents etc. into a page. External feed Embed an external RSS or ATOM feed, e.g. to display an external blog. Configure the external feed block Block title: If you leave the title blank, the title of the feed will be used. Feed location: Put the entire feed URL from a valid RSS or ATOM feed in here. If the feed is not displayed, try to view it in a regular feed reader to make sure that the URL is correct. You must provide a feed URL here. Unfortunately, Firefox and Chrome do not display the RSS feed icon for a page immediately near the address bar anymore. In Firefox you will have to go to View → Toolbars → Customize and then drag the RSS icon to your toolbar. It lights up orange / white when a feed is available. If you use Chrome, you will have to install the RSS Subscription Extension. Insecure SSL mode: Switch this option to “Yes” if you wish to enable the insecure SSL mode. This mode allows you to override certificate errors generated by a feed. HTTP username: Provide a username if you wish to access a feed that requires authentication. This is the username to access the feed and not your portfolio system. HTTP password: Provide a password to access a feed that requires authentication. This is the password to access the feed and not your portfolio system. Items to show: Decide how many of the latest items in the feed you wish to display. You can choose up to 20. Show feed items in full: Switch this option to “Yes” if you want to see the entire feed content and not only the heading of a blog post. Tags: Enter tags for this block to find this content more easily. The tags are displayed as part of the page tags. Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are: No: The block and its content is displayed at all times. Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon . Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon to view its content. Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click Cancel to leave the block’s content as it is. Remove is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time. You can also click the Close button in the top left-hand corner of the modal window to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is. If your feed is not updated automatically, please ask your site administrator to check the cron settings. If you click an entry in the RSS feed, it will open in a new window. External media With this block you can embed content from a wide variety of third-party sites. The sites that are allowed are listed below the text area in the configuration screen. You see only their favicons, but when you hover over an icon with your mouse, you see the site’s name as well. Mahara comes with a number of sites that are allowed per default. These are listed on the page. Your site administrator can add additional iframe sources. Configure the external media block Block title: Choose a title for your embedded content. URL or embed code: Paste the URL or the embed code of a page where the content is located. Embed code: Content from the sites listed in this section can be embedded using the