Griffith College uses Mahara portfolios to support student success

Discover how Griffith College in Ireland used Mahara to create a more connected and reflective learning experience for students and mentors.

Background

Griffith College logo

Griffith College in Dublin, Ireland, offers a range of national degree apprenticeship programmes, including a two-year Advanced Healthcare Assistant Practitioner apprenticeship (NFQ level 6) and a three-year Bar Manager apprenticeship (NFQ level 7).

Jonathan Murphy, Head of the Apprenticeship Department, is responsible for overseeing these programmes. He encountered the challenge of integrating academic learning with practical workplace experiential learning. Griffith College required a system to enable students, mentors, and educators to track progress and ensure programme learning outcomes are met.

Opportunity

Degree apprenticeships weave together academic and workplace learning to take advantage of the best of both worlds, commonly known as work-integrated learning (WIL). Griffith College required a technical solution to integrate mentor feedback into the learning process, while the workplace mentors remained separate from the college system.

While working to identify a solution, Jonathan discovered that ePortfolios offered a paperless, structured way to track and showcase work, enabling students to demonstrate their skills and mentors to provide timely feedback. 

Smiling headshot of Jonathan Murphy dressed in a suit and tie.

“The pedagogy of portfolios is really good... it was giving me the functionality I needed."

- Jonathan Murphy, Head of the Apprenticeship Department

Tailored ePortfolio templates

Jonathan worked closely with his team to create tailored ePortfolio templates using Mahara to support each degree apprenticeship’s needs. With a focus on hands-on learning in fields as diverse as bar management and healthcare, Jonathan’s work has ensured that the degree apprentices gain academic knowledge and develop practical skills in their industries, reflecting on their experience.

Solution

Jonathan and his team created structured ePortfolios for each degree apprenticeship, enabling students to populate them with evidence from their workplace. These templates offer a range of benefits:

  • Tailored portfolio templates: Each apprenticeship programme has its own learning outcomes. Jonathan’s team developed portfolio templates that include a page for each outcome, complete with instructions and options for students to submit their evidence, for instance, written reflections, videos, and documents.
  • Workplace connection: Mentors are essential in the degree apprenticeship. They provide the day-to-day fostering of growth, guidance, and support, and assist with goal setting and sharing of knowledge. The mentors have access to the student portfolios so they can review the overall learning of the students and stay involved throughout their studies. 

Reflective practice helps students become independent learners

  • Timely feedback and continuous learning: Jonathan emphasises the importance of students completing portfolio tasks throughout the semester rather than leaving them to the last minute. This enables mentors and module leaders to provide effective and timely feedback on an ongoing basis, helping students improve and develop their skills as they progress through the programme.
  • Encouraging reflection: Reflective practice is a core part of the ePortfolio approach. Jonathan encourages students to reflect not only on their technical skills but also on their communication, and interpersonal abilities, and how their work aligns with their long-term career goals. The use of reflective practice helps students become independent learners.

Focused guides for workplace learning

The degree apprenticeships include competency-based assessments. Griffith College uses the SmartEvidence feature in Mahara to structure competencies within a portfolio, facilitating the mapping of portfolio content to selected competencies. To help track this progress against specific learning outcomes, Griffith College set up a competency framework in SmartEvidence for each programme to offer these specific frameworks to students to use as focused guides for their workplace learning. A SmartEvidence framework is then added to the portfolio template for easy access.

Results

Griffith College’s degree apprenticeship programmes have seen significant improvements since the introduction of ePortfolios:

  • Student progress: External examiners have noted the visible improvement in students’ skills and confidence over time. By the end of the programme, students demonstrate a strong command of both the practical and academic aspects of their fields.
  • Workplace integration: The ePortfolio has made it easier for students to apply their learning directly to their jobs, ensuring they're developing skills immediately relevant to their careers.
  • Mentor engagement: Engaged mentors have proven invaluable, offering detailed feedback and supporting degree apprentices through their learning journey. Students with more involved mentors reported higher satisfaction with their programmes.

Graphic of a lightbulb

“By the end of the programme, the difference in students’ skills and confidence is amazing. The portfolios really help them see their growth.”

- Jonathan Murphy, Head of the Apprenticeship Department

Expanding portfolio practices

Griffith College has made degree apprenticeship programmes more efficient, straightforward and engaging for students, mentors, and educators by integrating academic programmes with work-integrated learning using ePortfolios. The structured yet flexible approach empowers students to showcase their skills while mentors and educators can offer timely, regular and goal-focused feedback. Jonathan shares, "I would love to expand the use of Mahara in Griffith College" to bring portfolio practice to even more learning and professional development areas.

Listen to Jonathan

Learn more about how Griffith College used Mahara to grow its students' skills and confidence by listening to Jonathan's episode on our podcast 'Create. Share. Engage.'

Grow student skills and confidence with ePortfolios

You can also subscribe to our monthly Mahara newsletter for the latest insights on Mahara and portfolio practice.

Catalyst is the core maintainer of Mahara, and our team has many years of experience with digital portfolios. Whether you're new to portfolios or want to enhance your learning and professional development strategy with more reflective practices, we're happy to help. Contact us for Mahara and portfolio support.

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