Bringing social networking features to Mahara

Social Networking Features in Mahara

Totara Learning Solutions, 2014

Totara Learning Solutions http://totaralms.com

TotaraLMS is an open source learning management system for corporate environment

Project OverviewWho we are

Part 1Mahara enhancements (to help us with the implementations in Part 2)

Part 2New features (to improve social participation and user engagement with the community)

Project OverviewWhat we are going to do

Project OverviewWhere we are now

● This project is work in progress● Finalising requirements● Finishing technical specification● Proof-of-concept implementations● Looking for community feedback

Mahara enhancements

● Artefact-level sharing● Improvements of existing notification system

Artefact-level sharing

● Currently sharing of artefacts is available only through pages

● While it is a great way of sharing a collection of artefacts, it is not the best way of sharing a single artefact

Artefact-level sharing

● Will allow users to share artefacts directly while they are being created

● Using JS autocomplete sharing will be as simple as artefact tagging

● Fine-grained control similar to page sharing (including options to allow/moderate comments on shared artefacts)

Improvements of notification system

● Separate direct messages between users from notifications generated by the system

● Add notification user preference settings for artefacts to support artefact-level sharing

● Prepare notification settings to support social activity streams

New featuresFeatures:● Activity stream● Real-time chat● Mahara as a badge backpack

Artefacts:● Status updates● Questions● Ideas

Activity streams

An activity stream is a reverse-chronological feed of user activities.Examples in social networking/media:such platforms as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.Current Mahara functionality that resembles Activity Stream is user notifications.

Activity streams in Mahara● Types of activity streams (Home, Individual, Group, and

Institutional)● Activity stream (AS) will provide one of the ways for

users to stay up-to-date with what is happening in community

● Users will be able to comment on and subscribe to artefacts related to activities in AS (like watching pages)

● Similarly to popular online social networking platforms activities can be liked/unliked

New artefact: Status updates

Status updates are a form of micro-blogging allowing individuals to share with their community important things such as what they are working on, as well as events and information worth sharing.Current Mahara functionality that is close to status updates is a wall block.

● Plain text status updates with support of attachments

● JS autocomplete for selecting sharing audience

● Sharing audience pre-filled with user defaults

● Support for tagging

Real-time chat

● Chat will be an integration of an existing third party library into Mahara

● Individuals will be able to chat with their connections via chat widget available on every page

New artefact: Questions

Questions are a key way for individuals to request advice from more experienced community members.They also allow individuals to learn from previous questions asked and from answers to previous questions.

New artefact: Ideas

An idea is an insight piece of information worth sharing with the community.Ideas in Mahara can be used to share innovative suggestions, quick tips, best practice; get other users’ feedback and opinion through comments and voting.

Mahara in OpenBadges infrastructure

● Display of all badges in Mahara ePortfolio system

● Support of direct pushing of Moodle badges to Mahara via Portfolio API

● Mahara ePortfolio system as a backpack provider

Overall project architecture

● A lot of work :)● Feedback● Contributing to Mahara core

Project OverviewWhat is next

Contacts

Yuliya BozhkoEmail: [email protected]: @YuliyaBozhko

Questions?