Mahara vs Switch Portfolio
Mahara
mahara.orgSwitch Portfolio
switch.chSide by side
| Figure | Mahara | Switch Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Eportfolio Software | 7.6 (#10) | 6.8 (#21) |
| Founded | 2006 | 1987 |
| Intended users | The site describes Mahara as serving learning communities and names students and staff as portfolio creators. | The service is designed for university members and institutions, with adoption typically initiated by programme heads, lecturers or e-learning managers. |
| Purpose | Mahara is an ePortfolio system for students and staff to document learning with evidence, reflections, and context. | Switch Portfolio lets university members document and present their achievements and expertise online. |
| Support | The site links to community forums, a manual, a wiki, an issue and enhancement tracker, and extended security support. | Switch provides second-level support to subscribing institutions; participating universities provide local user help desks, and Switch does not provide first-level support. |
In their own words
Mahara
Mahara is a free ePortfolio system for learning communities. Students and staff can collect evidence, reflect on experiences, and relate work to competencies or registration requirements. Listed uses include study, professional development, work-integrated learning, assessment, presentation, and employability. Portfolios can be shared with an individual, group, or the public, with access limited by a time frame or assessment task. Users can comment, give feedback, build portfolios together in groups, and take part in group forums. Portfolios can be submitted to learning management systems through LTI for marking. Mahara is open source, under conditions that include providing source code with copies and using the same license for derivative works. It can be hosted on a Linux server; the manual also describes Docker setup for development and testing, and advises securing that environment before live use. The manual describes LTI 1.3 Advantage as experimental and tested only with Brightspace. The project links to community forums, a manual, a wiki, an issue tracker, and extended security support; Catalyst is named as maintainer.
Switch Portfolio
Switch Portfolio has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.