Mahara and all that Jazz

Following a very successful meeting with ULCC and GuildHE we are now on track for the next step of the project and the adjustments we wish to make to Mahara to align it with the Art & Design community's priorities.  

We discussed our specification in terms of design, branding, format and development.  The discussion highlighted issues such as hosting, administration, collaborative working, integrating systems and standarisation of data. Training was also discussed and will be developed to ensure efficient use of Mahara by staff.  Suggestions included:

·         The system is being used for the purpose for which it has been planned

·         The purpose of the system is made clear - personal promotion or institutional?

·         The techniques to populate the system is discussed and best practice is developed

·         That users are made aware of the need to consider whether the information they are posting is appropriate for Mahara or whether it should located in another system

What was exciting was we briefly touched upon the subject of the creative assembly and the aggregator website development.  I am looking forward to this aspect of the project and am eager to see what is going to be produced....watch this space!!!

Next steps....well, ULCC will start work on our specification proposal and feed back to us on progress and any issues arising.  System needs to be rolled out to staff for testing in October. The system will need to be ready for Champions to initially trial before training and therefore we will require a working version by 11^th October.