Open Source ePortfolio Systems

At the ePortfolio Conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands, one of the keynote speakers was from the Open University in the U.K. They have been developing an open source ePortfolio system for several years, and it should be fully deployed in February 2008. They call their system MyStuff and it is fully integrated with Moodle. This system does not use folders to store files, but uses tags instead, which offers a very different, more flexible and intriguing way to access artifacts in a portfolio.

The list of open source ePortfolio systems to date includes:

• Klahowya (U.S.) (last updated 2005)
• OSPI (UMN-rSmart, U.S.) (partnership with U.S. universities, part of SAKAI)
• Mahara (New Zealand) (under development, version 0.9 alpha1 just released)
  
• Elgg (CurveRider, Ltd., U.K.) (received development capital in August 2007)
  
• MyStuff (Open University, U.K.) (to be fully functional February 2008)
• Moofolio (SPDC, New Hampshire) (new version about to be released, to be fully implemented fall 2008)
• Open source content management systems that have been adapted to use as ePortfolio systems: Drupal and Plone
  

I heard from some New Zealanders at the conference that the Mahara team has received more funding to adapt the system to schools, and the adaptations should be completed by the end of this year. In a few weeks, I hope to do an evaluation of the capabilities of some of these tools. I have already developed a portfolio in Elgg. I will also see about getting access to MyStuff. I tried Klahowya a few years ago and couldn't make it work on my server space. I will be working with the University of Oregon's Center for Advanced Technology in Education to evaluate Mahara and Elgg for their Special Education ePortfolio project. I am working with SPDC and schools in New Hampshire to implement the Moofolio to demonstrate technology fluency. Since I just learned about MyStuff, I am anxious to try it out, as well.