What's involved with a Mahara implementation?

Derrin Kent @tdmderrinMD of TDM.co

Thomas Bell @thomaswbell88Implementation Manager at OssServices.com

packtpub.com

What problem does this technology solve?

Portfolio-Based Learning

+Evidence-Based

Learning

+

A classic failing software implementation runs like this:

● One educational manager opts to adopt …while others look sceptically on.

● The educational manager brings in technicians to install, configure and launch the software and appoints a champion who does not fully understand how to use the software.

● Explicit staff and user time is not allocated, neither is any further training, guidance and development time planned or purchased.

● The implementation quickly starts to lose direction and the project ultimately fails.

1. Analysis and Specification.

2. Planning, Design and Implementation.

3. Evaluation and Continuation.

Three broadly distinct implementation stages (each with phases within them)...

Phase 1: Decide if Mahara is right for you.

Phase 2: Understand your own specific needs and

working conditions.

Phase 3: Choose between running a Mahara-

partner support or running your own installation.

Phase 4: Scope out your implementation plan.

Analysis & Specification

Phase 5: Create a Buzz!

Phase 6: Get some quick wins in first

Phase 7: Continuously involve the users in your

planning and design process.

Phase 8: Keep going despite adversity.

Planning, Design and Implementation

Phase 9: Review & Re-evaluate.

Phase 10: Change & Embed.

Evaluation and Continuation

Phase 1: Decide if Mahara is right for you.

Mahara ISN’T…• Technically supported (although Mahara Partners

are available).

• A Learner Management System which tracks progress against Competencies (although it does integrate with TotaraLMS + where the TDM Evidence tab and progress tracker tools do exist).

Mahara IS / CAN…

Klaus Himpsl-Gutermann (& Peter Baumgartner) from Danube University

https://mahara.org/user/view.php?id=238

Mahara IS Open Source:

No Vendor Lock-In (Buying Services v’s Renting Property)

• Cannot be expired

• Tailorable (theme, codeline, language, architecture)

• Extensible (Plugins, integrations)

• International Community (security, roadmap,

knowledge transfer)

Phase 2: Understand your own specific needs and working conditions.

Understand fully where you are and know exactly why you want to go exactly where...

● What educational objectives do you want to achieve?

● What business objectives do you want to achieve?● What organizational objectives do you want to achieve?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Do all those involved: your leaders, teachers/tutors, day-to-day administrators, IT support staff, and your future end users all have a common vision for your ePortfolio? (Even if you are working as a go-it-alone teacher, are you sure enough  that your students will buy in to this?) 

Is there a supportive external context for your ePortfolio implementation? Is there explicit support for this coming to you, for example, from central office, from government-funded agencies, or from accrediting bodies, trades guilds or workers’ unions?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Is there, and will there be, a consistent and reliable inflow of funding for your site’s ongoing development and support?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Will there be a dedicated steering group of visionaries and power-brokers who will work to make your implementation a success?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Will you continuously invest to employ or upskill the competent staff you will need in order to disseminate knowledge to newer users?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Do you have:• sufficiently skilled (specific competence)

and • available (time/focus) technical and pedagogical support infrastructures in place?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Do your target end users have appropriate access to your Mahara system in terms not only of a reasonable internet supply, but also in terms of physical access to machines in both working and home-life contexts?

If this is a “NO”…..….could you turn it into a “YES”?

Complex change and emotional impactSource: Thousand, J and Villa, R. (2000).  Managing Complex Change

Threshold Concepts

Gordon Joyes at Mahara10

Prof. Gordon Joyes - University of Nottingham(following Jan Meyer and Ray Land)

Threshold Concepts

Concept 1. PurposeConcept 2. Learning Activity DesignConcept 3. ProcessesConcept 4. OwnershipConcept 5. Disruptive Nature

Phase 3: Decide whether to choose a Mahara Partner

or to go it alone?

https://mahara.org/partners

Phase 4: Scope out your implementation plan.

1. Decide on your implementation timeframe.2. Ensure you have  staff commitment and allocate staff

roles.3. Draft out your initial Mahara  site plan, structure + visual

design.4. Draft out your Mahara-specific policies.5. Start to embed Mahara use into wider institutional and

program priorities. (NB. See book for lots of detailed guidance on these processes) 

Phase 5: Create a Buzz!• Draw up and implement a communications plan that targets all

different types of stakeholders• Publicize some real-life case studies and examples of Mahara

in action.  (https://mahara.org/newsletter/• Make sure everyone gets a copy of your new user guide. http

://manual.mahara.org. • Set the Expectations. E.g. explicit incentives and penalties

connected to user adoption• Practically help people to overcome barriers.• Offer support via telephone, face-to-face, live website support or

you could set up a Mahara group as a helpdesk • Set up a “User Suggestions” facility• Set the Standards. One idea is to award  “medals” for

implementing standards in pages and groups.

Phase 6: Get some quick wins in first.

• Can you identify some instant fixes where using

Mahara would solve a real problem you are facing?

• Can you identify which of your user groups would

respond best to an  ePortfolio as a media for

learning delivery?

• Can you quickly prove that Mahara adoption will be

worth the effort?

Phase 7: Continuously involve the users in your planning and

design process.• Conduct regular response analyses. • Get together for strategy reviews.• Do something in response to what you find out.

Remember: a proper Mahara site isn’t a miracle of people; it is  a miracle of community  

Phase 8: Keep going despite adversity.

“Implementation Resisters” require two types of “Situational Response Tactics” to deal with them:• Tactic 1: Big Bombs• Tactic 2: Sniper Fire

The Pessimist might say: “We can’t change! We’re doomed!”The Pragmatist might say: “We’ve done enough, let’s not change too far!”The Technophobe might say: “This is too difficult for me, it’s not fair!”The Traditionalist might say: “I'm just too busy for this, this is a nice to do, not a have-to-do!” The Cynic may say: “This is just a passing fad, ignore it, it will go away!”

...and, the implementation team's worst enemy,…The Critic might say: “Rise up and rebel! We cannot allow this to happen!”

People you love can become Implementation Resisters…

Situational Response Tactic 1:BIG BOMBS

• Powerbroker support• Identify and provide missing information• Visiting expert• Generic questionnaires• User guide promotions• Poster campaign• Competitions and celebrations:• Mass emails, newsletters, SMS, news forums• Formal training event

Situational Response Tactic 2:SNIPER FIRE

• Corridor Conversations

• Mentor Matching

• Targeted emails / SMS messages / phone calls

• Targeted feedback questionnaires and response

strategy

Phase 9: Review and Re-evaluate.Easier said than done!!• Are the people really recording and linking to their knowledge in Mahara? • If not, why not?  How can you make it happen?• Is Mahara helping learners to achieve their qualifications? • Is Mahara helping people to do their work?• Can you offer targeted support for groups who have been slow to

engage?• Does everything really have to be digital?• Are people actually identifying and meeting their learning, career and

personal goals?• Is learning over Mahara ever being delivered more effectively through

other online or offline approaches?• Are there variations in success between different types of learners? • Are there any good reasons for the variations? • How should you respond to these variations?• Do the groups, forums, or learning program briefs always match the

aspirations and needs of the learners?

Do we measure what we value?• Could you yourself set performance improvement targets based on metrics

gathered from the sorts of questions you have just asked?• Are achievement targets set for all courses at all levels?• Is Mahara participation a requirement? • Should it be a requirement? • Should you set participation targets or might that have a negative effect?• If any targets are set, is everyone made aware of those targets? • How? • How effectively?• Are staff or users themselves involved in the target setting?• How do you communicate progress against targets? • Simple graphical displays?• How do you celebrate and reward individual successes and collective progress

against targets?• Are targets revised frequently enough? By whom? How ambitiously?• Do you care about all these targets? • Wouldn’t it be best to leave the whole Mahara  to grow ad hoc?

Phase 10: Change and Embed.A thriving Mahara site will often be in a constant state of flux, changing with the needs and focuses of the organization and its people, embedding itself deeper and deeper as an element of the wider e-institution.• Is Mahara usage going to be integral to your business

development plan? (This is the information age after all, and your country may even be a knowledge-based economy like the UK and USA?).

• Will Mahara usage be integral to your organizational policies and procedures?

• Will staff responsibilities for Mahara usage and management be a defined and re-numerated element of their job description? Or would you prefer to leave Mahara to be a self-managing phenomenon? 

 

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