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Mahara 25.04: Improved support for assessment portfolios
06 Jun 2025, 9:25 AMCheck out the latest enhancements in Mahara 25.04. The new release incorporates community feedback and was made possible through subscribers, additional organisational funding, and community members.
The Catalyst team released Mahara 25.04 at the end of April 2025. This new release has exciting new features to enhance the experience for portfolio creators, educators, and administrators.
Mahara 25.04 enhancements
Here are a few of the enhancements of the latest Mahara release.
Professional development overview at a glance: Portfolio authors can now track their activities with a visual overview of a formal programme of professional development. This enables them to quickly see completed goals and outstanding activities.
Structured self assessments: Portfolio authors can track their self assessments similarly to peer assessments. This helps assessors see when additions are made to the self assessment during a review process.
Streamlined image uploads: Portfolio authors have more flexibility in adding images using only one block instead of deciding between an 'Image' and an 'Image gallery' block.
Quick setup of outcomes portfolios: Outcomes portfolio templates can now be copied to help with their rollout across a larger group of learners.
Administrative improvements: Mahara 25.04 also helps administrators manage certain portfolios, onboarding options, and update account data more efficiently in bulk.
Thank you to the Mahara community
The enhancements and other work to improve Mahara have been made possible through the subscriptions from our community. These financial contributions assist in the development and maintenance of Mahara. Additionally, a number of organisations contributed beyond their subscription by commissioning specific new features or changes to existing functionality. We would like to thank everybody who has had an impact on this release.
What’s on the horizon for 2026?
We are committed to providing portfolio authors, educators, and administrators the flexibility to support portfolio activities from documenting learning to supporting assessment and certification purposes. Over the next year, we will implement the changes identified in our usability review to improve the accessibility and ease of use of Mahara.
Pictured: The Mahara team: Kristina, Rob, Phil, Doris, Yvonne, and Robert at Mahara Hui Tāmaki Makaurau 2024.
Mahara and portfolio support
Our Catalyst team has been leading the Mahara project since it started in 2006 and is the primary development company for it and the maintainer. With a network of Mahara Business Partners, we support organisations around the world in their mission to offer flexible learning environments to their communities. Mahara enables students and staff to document and reflect on their learning to be lifelong learners and reflective practitioners.
If you have any questions about the latest release or how we can best support you and your learning community, contact us.
Mahara resources
- Learn how portfolios are used in different contexts by listening to our podcast ‘Create. Share. Engage.’
- Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the latest Mahara and portfolio insights.
- Stay in the loop with Mahara events.
- Watch Mahara updates on our YouTube channel.
