December 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Soropepeli Ramacake, MSW Applied, PGDip in Supervision, Dip in Counselling, BTheology works at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji as Assistant Lecturer. He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney.
Soro uses Mahara as portfolio platform with his social work students who are on placement in various South Pacific countries, supporting them mainly from the distance.
Resources
- Chief, I. Y., & Ramacake, S. (2025, November 11). Learners’ reflection on the use of e-Portfolio in Social Work at The University of the South Pacific. ICDE World Conference 2025, Wellington.
- Mock-ups for Mahara 26.04
- Using Mahara to demonstrate skills acquired in a hospitality workplace practicum. Presentation at Mahara Hui 2017 by Parijata Moeava and Mojito Jione (The University of the South Pacific) in Auckland, New Zealand, on 6 April 2017.
- Creating spaces for students to demonstrate competencies in their profession. Presentation at Mahara Hui 2017 by Irene Yee Chief, Mojito Jione and Rajneel Totaram (The University of the South Pacific) in Auckland, New Zealand, on 6 April 2017.
Related episodes
- Sue Schibeci: Portfolios in work-integrated learning experiences
- Jonathan Murphy: Demonstrate skills and competencies
- Zala Volcic: Develop community, relationships, and compassion
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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hoeppner (00:05):
Welcome to 'Create. Share. Engage.' This is
the podcast about portfolios forlearning and more for educators,
learning designers, and managerskeen on integrating portfolios
with their education andprofessional development
practices. 'Create. Share.
Engage.' is brought to you bythe Mahara team at Catalyst IT.
My name is Kristina Hoeppner.
(00:28):
My guest today is SoropepeliRamacake from the University of
the South Pacific, who now livesin Fiji. I met Soro at the ICDE
World Conference in November2025 when it was here in Te
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington,where he and his colleague, Dr
Irene Yee Chief, presented ontheir Mahara portfolio work in
(00:51):
their social work programme.
Bula, Soro. It's good to speakwith you today.
Soropepeli Ramacake (00:56):
Bula Vinaka, Kristina, wonderful to
be part of your podcast and tocontinue to lift the profile of
Mahara and the work that you doand accentuate the strengths
that are contained within Maharaand how we can support students
continue to develop and learn.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:12):
Thank you so much, Soro. I'm really excited
to talk with you today becauseat the University of the South
Pacific, where you teach, youhave been working with
portfolios for a long time, soit's high time that we also
share some of the practice thatyou do there. Can you please
tell us a bit about the rolethat you have at the university?
Soropepeli Ramacake (01:32):
Before I joined the University, I was in
New Zealand, and I was doingpretty much the same thing that
I'm doing now, lecturing andalso engage with internship or
what we call field workplacements. That naturally
transitioned me well into thiscurrent role that I'm in because
it's something that I'm familiarwith. I'm the Assistant Lecturer
(01:53):
and also organising internship,but in this case, it's across
the region, the Pacific region,working with 12 to 14 countries
where registered students havecome from. Part of my work
within the university isnetworking, sometimes consulting
in the area that I'm in, butalso increasing out into other
(02:16):
areas.
Kristina Hoeppner (02:17):
I think a number of our podcast listeners
might not know the University ofthe South Pacific much. You
mentioned that you work withstudents in 10 to 14 different
nations, so they are all stillpart of the University of the
South Pacific, though, becauseit serves different countries in
contrast to, say, a regularuniversity that most of us know,
(02:39):
that is within a city or withina country, you are actually
working multinationally?
Soropepeli Ramacake (02:44):
Yes, definitely. I mean, other
universities are talking aboutglobal curriculums and also
global focus and transnationalor transglobal kind of work, but
we're already doing that here inFiji, only because USP is a
regional university. What itmeans is that the main campus is
(03:05):
in Suva, Fiji, in a campuscalled Laucala, and then we have
other satellite campuses acrossthe region that we work with.
We partner with those nationsthat have students that are
interested in doing studies inour area to support them so that
they can get schooled up andalso learn how to transition the
(03:25):
learning they're doing in theclassroom out into the
workforce. We work with nationssuch as Samoa, Tonga, Cook
Islands, Tokelau, Nue, somestudents from Tahiti, although
Tahiti, New Caledonia, might goto France, but we do have some
students from there, from theSolomons, from Vanuatu, from
Kiribati, from Nauru, from Guamsometimes, although Guam has a
(03:50):
university themselves and asocial work programme. We can
get students from across thethree areas of the Pacific
triangle, which is Polynesia,Micronesia, and Melanesia.
Kristina Hoeppner (04:03):
That's quite a big reach that your university
has across the region,supporting people also,
oftentimes in very remote areas,which presents its own
challenges, doesn't it?
Soropepeli Ramacake (04:14):
Oh, definitely. And you know, not
only the reach, but also theisolation for some of those
students, the technologicalproblems or connections that
they might encounter. Those areall things that we're facing,
and because of the isolation,some of our students have to
catch three busses to get tocertain places. And so here we
are in our comfort zones, andwe're having to support those
(04:36):
that have to navigate thosechallenges, and so it's never
easy, but that's where empathy,and I suppose our sense of
unconditional, positive regardcomes in to support our students
to succeed.
Kristina Hoeppner (04:50):
Is that then also why you introduced
portfolios into the field work,into the Social Work practicum
that you offer to your students?
Soropepeli Ramacake (04:59):
Yeah. I mean, for me, I was doing, I
suppose, manual portfolios wherestudents have to gather all
their material and do foldersand then submit the folder for
marking. Once, I came to realisethat there was an ePortfolio
that made certainly my workeasier because with a manual
portfolio, there was a lot ofto-ing and fro-ing. There was a
(05:23):
lot of documents that had thepotential to go missing, and in
some cases, they did, and so thestudents would have to do some
of the documents again, and thendiscovering that there were
ePortfolio, it certainly made mylife of double handling, triple
handling bit easier.
Also, this was a way that Icould track the students'
(05:44):
learning, not only for myself,but more importantly, for the
students, to track their ownlearning. And then here's
something that can be exported.
They exported themselves, sothat they can then hand to the
organisations that areinterested in employing them and
saying, 'Hey, look, this is allof the work that I've done in
the years of my study.' That'sthe beauty or the benefit that
I've seen in ePortfolios, andcertainly the student making
(06:08):
sense of their learning,critically reflecting and also
analysing, you know, the thingsthat they have been learning and
informing them why they do whatthey do, and for what purpose.
Kristina Hoeppner (06:21):
What does an actual portfolio task look like
for the students that they haveto complete? Because you also
mentioned that they are oftenworking in remote areas of the
world, and so I suspect thatwhile the electronic portfolio
is quite nice when you haveaccess to the internet, you
might also come across certainchallenges.
Soropepeli Ramacake (06:43):
Yes, that's so true, what you've picked up,
and it's very poignant becauseEnglish is a second language for
a lot of our students, if notall. It was really difficult to
try and socialise, althoughthere are guidance, you know,
there are video instructionsaround the creation of a
ePortfolio, one thing that I'mstarting to understand that's a
(07:07):
need for us here in the Pacificis having simple video
instructions or recording thatexplains the process really,
really simply.
We're giving our students thePDF instructions. We've got the
videos there. We have one of ouracademic instructors do a
recording to explain theprocess, but some of our
(07:28):
students are still lost. So Ithink communication at a simple
level is really, reallyimportant for me as I move
forward into next year and thefollowing years. If there's any
way that we can collaborate tocreate those for our students
here in the Pacific, that willbe really, really great. That's
one area.
And then another area that weintroduced the ePortfolio to
(07:51):
benefit our students is thatit's a repository where all of
their study can be captured, butnot only that, so that they can
also have a track record oftheir reflection and critical
analysis along the way, whichcaptured within that repository.
I'm happy with where we are atat the moment, but I know that
(08:11):
I'm not completely satisfiedthat that's the final picture
for me. I want to move to thenext level and make it really,
really robust, and if a toolallows for us to do that, then
let's keep talking and createsomething that will be
beneficial for our students, andthat'll capture all of their
(08:32):
learning and development andgrowth really, really well.
Kristina Hoeppner (08:37):
What you're just saying is, I'm wondering
also with your students workingin different contexts, working
with different families duringtheir practicum or in other
situations for their social workpracticum, that they can then
really have all of that in thatone place, easily accessible,
and they know all that I need tolook at is always in my
(08:58):
portfolio, is in Mahara, andthey can go back to it rather
than having something writtendown in one place, maybe not
having those notes availablewhen they need them, but they
always know I can go online andI can find things.
Soropepeli Ramacake (09:13):
That's exactly right. I think, you
know, with AI and advancement oftechnology that we're currently
under, I think there is anopportunity here for us to trial
some things of how we can takestuff to the next level. I'll
give you an example. At themoment, we've got reports that
students would have to get fromthe organisations, and then they
(09:34):
have to bring it back, scan it,and then upload it to Mahara. So
at the moment, there's a lot ofdouble, triple handling of
documents. If there was astreamlined way or automated way
that we just click a button andput up a few comments and the
stuff is held in the repositoryby an external organisation, and
so if we can find some way wherewe naturally have a smoother
(09:59):
process where we can have thosereporting not be doubled or
tripled handled that'll bereally helpful for me. And so
the student doesn't have tohandle the document again. The
organisation has a link thatthey can just tap into and
upload the reports or whateverother documents that are
required to be uploaded. Andlikewise, for the students, from
(10:21):
their end, instead of uploadingit through Moodle, it can just
go straight to Mahara. Or thereis a way that it can be exported
from Moodle to Mahara. Those aresome of the things that I'm
having to play around with andlook for ways, smoother ways, to
be able to do the work moreefficiently and effectively.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:42):
Mahara being open source, we can make changes
to it. We can integrate it withother systems if the other
system allows for anintegration, and therefore we do
have all of those possibilities,along also with you being able
to install different languagesthat have already been
translated by the community.
Fijian is not quite there yet,but others are already there. So
(11:06):
if somebody in Fiji wanted totranslate Mahara, then we would
certainly help them get startedwith that so that it can even be
more localized.
Soro, you mentioned that yourstudents upload files into their
portfolio and that they aredoing reflections. So what do
(11:28):
the portfolios of your studentslook like? Do they also
incorporate multimedia elements,or are they primarily text?
Soropepeli Ramacake (11:36):
They import directly into Mahara. We're
using the STARL-P reflectionprocess, and so they create a
profile, and then they have towrite a bit about themselves. So
even that, for me, I'm seeingthat it's really, really good
for the students to start totalk about themselves, but I
think to accentuate theirstrengths a bit more, which is
something that's lacking, I needto strengthen that so that we
(12:00):
give the opportunity to thestudents to be much more
confident in selling themselves.
Because this is an opportunitythat I see using ePortfolios,
it's an opportunity for thestudents to sell themselves to
the prospective employers.
Everything that we're doing withePortfolio is really for work
readiness.
Kristina Hoeppner (12:18):
Tell us what the STARL-P framework is.
Soropepeli Ramacake (12:21):
So STARL-P is a reflection framework that's
embedded within Mahara. It givesan opportunity for learners to
really reflect on theirlearning. They use the STARL-P
talking about the situation.
That's the S. So whateversituations that they faced
within their placement, theyreflect on that. And then the T
is talking about the tasks thatthey undertook within those
(12:46):
situations. The A is talkingabout some of the actions that
they might have done in relationto the situation and the tasks
that they've encountered. Andthen we move into R is really
reflecting on those things, youknow, for them to bring in the
reflection. 'Okay, in thissituation, I encountered these
(13:06):
clients, and within thatsituation, these were some
things that I discovered or thatresonated well with me, or that
challenged me, or that triggeredme.' So there the students are
starting to now reflect on thethings that they've encountered.
And then the L is around thelearning that they've gained
from that reflection. And thenthe P is really, I suppose, they
(13:30):
then move on to futurepossibilities or practices that
they come to understand that'look, these are the limitations
that I've gained from myreflection on those situations
and the actions and tasks thatI've done, and these are the
areas of practice that I want todevelop.'
Kristina Hoeppner (13:51):
You said that this framework is built into
Mahara, so just for everybodyelse using Mahara, who is
listening, USP built that intoMahara to have available for
their students. You've presentedon your work at the ICDE
conference and had mentionedthat you worked with 10 students
who created their portfolios aspart of the social work
(14:14):
practicum. Did you give them atemplate that they could start
out with or did you give themthe instructions on the PDF and
they then went off and createdtheir own portfolio all by
themselves?
Soropepeli Ramacake (14:29):
It was like the blind leading the blind for
me. Because I was new to it, Ihad to try and make sense of it
myself. Then I involved what wecall instructional designers
here in the University of theSouth Pacific, and the
organisation that we work withis Continuing Future Learning
(CFL). I utilised their team tohelp me create ePortfolios
(14:53):
because I was new to it.
The students were giveninstructions from me around the
creation of ePortfolio and whatI was looking for as an
instruction. There were reallytwo areas. The first was the
creation of two reflections fromweeks one to six and week seven
to 12 because there's 12 weeksin a placement. That was the
(15:16):
first part. The second part isthat they had to upload the key
documents from their placementsand some images that proved that
they were in, with the consentof the organisation that they
were doing placement in forthose images to be used. They
got those instructions, and thenwe then started to create the
(15:38):
Mahara to be able to house thestuff that we required the
students to do.
Kristina Hoeppner (15:44):
How did the students like the portfolio
activity?
Soropepeli Ramacake (15:47):
I think there was a lot of confusion
initially. I think for somethere was on top of the
confusion, there was a lot ofprobably, I wouldn't say
resistance, but I would say notbeing motivated to do it right
away, so a lot ofprocrastination, until we got
closer to the due dates, andthen people started moving. I've
(16:08):
just got to look for better wayswhere we can help the students
to build their confidence sothey're not procrastinating and
making the system more userfriendly and easier to navigate
and for the students to feel asense of, I suppose, confidence,
to be able to do it the firsttime they see it and not get
overwhelmed.
Kristina Hoeppner (16:29):
We are working on making Mahara easier
to use through the redesign workthat our team is currently
engaged with to improveworkflows and also how to find
things so from next May on -because the release will be at
the end of April - from next Mayon, then you will be able to see
(16:49):
that this will also improve howyour students interact with the
portfolios and in otherinstitutions, we have seen that
also the creation of templateshelps so that students can have
the instructions right in theportfolio and then know what the
minimum requirements are to fillin.
Soropepeli Ramacake (17:10):
Wonderful that's great.
Kristina Hoeppner (17:12):
Soro, in your paper, you talk about a number
of recommendations becauseyou're also working across so
many different nations and somany different cultures at USP
that your teaching always needsto be contextualised and also
reflecting the cultures in whichthe students operate. How has
the portfolio helped you achievethat? How has it contributed to
(17:36):
it?
Soropepeli Ramacake (17:38):
When we're talking culturally competent,
it's still done in the firstlanguage, in English. Students
still have to reflect inEnglish. So it defeats the
purpose if we were to be reallyculturally competent or
responsive. But in saying that,students are given an
opportunity to reflect onpractice that's happening in
(17:59):
their own nation, and they putforward different practices or
different services that areinvolved in the work that's
being done on the ground intheir own nation. So that's
lifting the profile of thoseservices and what's being done
on the ground to help in thathumanitarian level.
But I think to be trulyculturally responsive, we need
(18:20):
to allow students to be able toreflect in their own language,
and then that is able to betranslated into first language,
so that they can be marked, oreven if they can just reflect in
their own language, which isnatural for them, and much
freer, then we are truly meetingthe student at their level and
(18:42):
working to genuinely supportthem to thrive and succeed.
They just reflect at that leveland contextualise at that level,
and then we then can then marketfrom our end, in just that
natural environment that they beallowed to present in that's
still a progression. And for me,that's an area where, instead of
(19:05):
them meeting university standardin English, why can't we do it
in other ways, where theuniversity comes down to their
level, allows them to dopresentation in their own
language and culture and thenstill mark them from their area?
Kristina Hoeppner (19:20):
Yeah, especially also thinking about
the reflections that they can,as you say, express themselves
really of what they want to say.
They might not be as proficientin English, and therefore you
have that language barrier tonot being able to really say
what you do. Do you know if anystudents used a translation
service so that they did reflectin their language first, and
(19:41):
then had it translated intoEnglish before they submitted
their work.
Soropepeli Ramacake (19:47):
Yeah, we haven't got that provision here,
but what I've allowed studentsto do in the past is to do work
in their own language, and thenI've organised translation. Say
you got a student from Kiribati.
Coming in in the mode oflearning for them to pass is in
English, which is not what theyused to once they pass that
language, mode of English, thenthey go back to deliver to their
(20:09):
people in Kiribati, not inEnglish. If we can meet them in
their natural environment andmark the work in their natural
environment, we're helping eachother because they're meeting a
need academically, but alsowe're supporting them to do
really well in their naturalenvironment at the end of their
study.
Kristina Hoeppner (20:29):
Yeah, and that way you also have the
opportunity to personalise thelearning more to the students
and also make it more relevantfor them because they continue
to work in that context.
Soropepeli Ramacake (20:42):
Definitely.
Kristina Hoeppner (20:43):
Soro, where do you see the long term
benefits of creating a portfoliofor your students? At the
beginning, you had alreadymentioned a couple of benefits
in regards to them reflecting,talking about their learning.
Are there any other benefitsthat you have either already
(21:04):
seen as part of the work you'vedone with your social work
students or that you have bynow, maybe also already seen
through the other portfolio workthat is happening at USP?
Soropepeli Ramacake (21:16):
I think it's a really, really good tool,
the ePortfolio, that capturesstudents' learning and also
reflections. But I think Ireally want students because
we're not doing it from the 100level. I would rather that they
use it from the 100, 200, and300, so that we have a
comprehensive repositoryavailable for students to be
(21:38):
able to track their learning andevidence their learning and also
be able to export that to futureemployers.
If we can get to a level wherewe can start to utilise that
more smartly, I think we're onto a winner, so that students
can have an opportunity to tracktheir learning from when they
(21:59):
started at the 100 level. Theywere novices, or they were
struggling. Then get to thesecond year, they're starting to
grow and know, and then at thefinal end, they are able to
show. So know, grow, and show,if I can put it in transition
from not knowing to knowing, andthen being able to show that
knowing, yeah. So I would usethose words, no grow show. I
(22:23):
would like that because thenthat gives me the evidence that
what I'm teaching them and whatthey're learning is making
sense, and they can transitionright throughout, so that we are
creating work-ready students atthe end of the third year.
That's one thing.
Another thing that I would loveis if Mahara had way, and you
(22:47):
can tell from what I'm sharingwith you, I'm all about
development, growth,progression. I would love if we
had functionality within thetool where we can just tap on a
or click on a checkbox andcreate reports or statistics or
analysis, analytics like that,where it spits out onto a
(23:07):
report, summarises a learningfor the student that's happened
in the last three years. Andthen you just print that out,
maybe a two pager that you handover to whomever is willing to
employ you.
That way, the tool is becoming asmarter tool that can populate
all that information that youwant more like a reporting
(23:29):
document. So I would love that.
I'm a development myself, and sowhen there's something lacking,
I try and develop something tomeet that. And hopefully, if
there's opportunities tointegrate some of those
developments into Mahara. That'dbe really good for us. Rather
than reinventing the wheel, wejust integrate something in the
tool to piggyback off.
Kristina Hoeppner (23:52):
We should talk about that in order to see
what your developments are, andhow we can support these along
also making them then availableto everybody, so everybody can
benefit from them. Now, Soro,what do you wish everybody knew
about portfolios?
Soropepeli Ramacake (24:08):
What I would like everyone to learn?
It's a really good and effectivetool to capture your students'
learning and voice around theirperspective, around their
learning, and that it's awonderful way of tracking what
they've been doing. I've foundthat the ePortfolio does that
(24:28):
for me, and it also shows mewhether the students are able to
reflect well.
You can tell by reading theirreflections whether the student
is going in depth in theirreflection and critically
analysing things. So from thatlens, I can tell whether a
student is able to think deeperor really just giving me what's
(24:50):
happening at a surface level. Iwant students to be going deeper
into why they're doing whatthey're doing, and so the tool
for me does that.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:00):
It makes that learning more visible because it
can be shared with you aslecturer and also with others,
and then you can feedback on it.
Soropepeli Ramacake (25:09):
That feedbacking loop is really,
really important. When I markthe students' work, that's
exactly what I'm doing. I'msaying, 'Thank you for your
reflection. I'm so glad to knowthat these things are resonating
well with you, and these thingshave challenged you, or these
things have triggered you, andthat you've got ways to work
through a strategies to workthrough those things.' And then
(25:32):
complementing them so they'rereflecting, and I'm reflecting
on their reflection and thengiving them feedback.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:37):
Fantastic. So that takes us already into our
quick answer round. So the lastthree questions for you are,
first one, which words or shortphrases do you use to describe
portfolio work? We kind ofprobably already have them with,
know, grow, and show or do youwant to add some others?
Soropepeli Ramacake (25:58):
I was thinking about what ePortfolio
and the work that we do withinMahara is all about, and match
it with what we're trying to dowith our students. And that's
what I came up with. You know,just to make things easier for
me and to be able to pass on tothe students is that first what
we're trying to get you to do isto know what you're doing and
(26:19):
learning. And then once we'redoing that, we're wanting to
monitor and track whether you'regrowing in that learning. And so
the practice, practiceknowledge. So you know the
theory, you then grow into yourpractice knowledge, and then you
show. The evidence is really youbeing able to do the knowing
when you're out in theorganisation, and that's through
(26:40):
the reflection that they aregiving within Mahara. And so for
me, yeah, those are the threekey terms, the know, the grow,
and the show.
Kristina Hoeppner (26:50):
Thank you.
Soro, what tips do you have forlearning designers or
instructors who create portfolioactivities?
Soropepeli Ramacake (26:58):
For me, it's just keeping it simple for
your students. Also utilisewhat's already there, rather
than reinventing the wheel, anddon't make it too difficult or
onerous for your students.
Simplicity is always good, asthey say, you know, the KISS
principle - keeping it simpleand understandable for our
students, easy to navigate, andthe platform has to be easily
(27:20):
navigatable for them as well tobe able to understand where I
need to put stuff that I need toevidence into.
Kristina Hoeppner (27:31):
Now on to the last question, Soro, what advice
do you have for your portfolioauthors, for your students?
Soropepeli Ramacake (27:38):
The advice that I would give them are
these, read the instructionscarefully [Kristina laughs]. Do
not rush things. Do not beoverwhelmed. Take your time and
utilise the ePortfolio becauseit's to your benefit. Those are
the five things that I want topass on to the students.
Kristina Hoeppner (27:59):
Those are really, really good concise tips
for the students that wouldn'tjust help them with their
portfolio work, but in general,for anything they do in their
educational journey.
Thank you so much for theconversation today, Soro. I
really appreciate you sharingwhat you have learned so far
having used portfolios at USPwith your social work students,
(28:22):
still being on the journey andnot yet being done, and
therefore also sharing some ofthe things that you would like
to see improved and being thespark for future conversations
between the two of us and alsoIrene and the rest of the
learning design team at USP.
Thank you so much.
Soropepeli Ramacake (28:42):
Thank you for having me, Kristina, and
thank you for the work thatyou're doing and the team behind
you. I love utilising the toolsthat you have, and I'm willing
to collaborate and support youso that we can keep growing and
keep helping our students inwhatever they do through your
platform. And I'm reallyhonoured to be part of this
(29:02):
podcast and wish you well forthe upcoming Christmas and New
Year.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:07):
Thank you so much, Soro. Now over to our
listeners. What do you want totry in your own portfolio
practice? This was 'Create.
Share. Engage.' with SoropepeliRamacake. Head to our website,
podcast.mahara.org, where youcan find resources and the
transcript for this episode. Itwould be great if you shared our
(29:29):
podcast with a colleague ofyours so they can listen as
well. I'll be back with a newepisode in the new year. Have a
wonderful holiday break and seeyou in 2026. Until then, create,
share, and engage.
Welcome to 'Create. Share. Engage.' This is
the podcast about portfolios forlearning and more for educators,
learning designers, and managerskeen on integrating portfolios
with their education andprofessional development
practices. 'Create. Share.
Engage.' is brought to you bythe Mahara team at Catalyst IT.
My name is Kristina Hoeppner.
(00:28):
My guest today is SoropepeliRamacake from the University of
the South Pacific, who now livesin Fiji. I met Soro at the ICDE
World Conference in November2025 when it was here in Te
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington,where he and his colleague, Dr
Irene Yee Chief, presented ontheir Mahara portfolio work in
(00:51):
their social work programme.
Bula, Soro. It's good to speakwith you today.
Soropepeli Ramacake (00:56):
Bula Vinaka, Kristina, wonderful to
be part of your podcast and tocontinue to lift the profile of
Mahara and the work that you doand accentuate the strengths
that are contained within Maharaand how we can support students
continue to develop and learn.
Kristina Hoeppner (01:12):
Thank you so much, Soro. I'm really excited
to talk with you today becauseat the University of the South
Pacific, where you teach, youhave been working with
portfolios for a long time, soit's high time that we also
share some of the practice thatyou do there. Can you please
tell us a bit about the rolethat you have at the university?
Soropepeli Ramacake (01:32):
Before I joined the University, I was in
New Zealand, and I was doingpretty much the same thing that
I'm doing now, lecturing andalso engage with internship or
what we call field workplacements. That naturally
transitioned me well into thiscurrent role that I'm in because
it's something that I'm familiarwith. I'm the Assistant Lecturer
(01:53):
and also organising internship,but in this case, it's across
the region, the Pacific region,working with 12 to 14 countries
where registered students havecome from. Part of my work
within the university isnetworking, sometimes consulting
in the area that I'm in, butalso increasing out into other
(02:16):
areas.
Kristina Hoeppner (02:17):
I think a number of our podcast listeners
might not know the University ofthe South Pacific much. You
mentioned that you work withstudents in 10 to 14 different
nations, so they are all stillpart of the University of the
South Pacific, though, becauseit serves different countries in
contrast to, say, a regularuniversity that most of us know,
(02:39):
that is within a city or withina country, you are actually
working multinationally?
Soropepeli Ramacake (02:44):
Yes, definitely. I mean, other
universities are talking aboutglobal curriculums and also
global focus and transnationalor transglobal kind of work, but
we're already doing that here inFiji, only because USP is a
regional university. What itmeans is that the main campus is
(03:05):
in Suva, Fiji, in a campuscalled Laucala, and then we have
other satellite campuses acrossthe region that we work with.
We partner with those nationsthat have students that are
interested in doing studies inour area to support them so that
they can get schooled up andalso learn how to transition the
(03:25):
learning they're doing in theclassroom out into the
workforce. We work with nationssuch as Samoa, Tonga, Cook
Islands, Tokelau, Nue, somestudents from Tahiti, although
Tahiti, New Caledonia, might goto France, but we do have some
students from there, from theSolomons, from Vanuatu, from
Kiribati, from Nauru, from Guamsometimes, although Guam has a
(03:50):
university themselves and asocial work programme. We can
get students from across thethree areas of the Pacific
triangle, which is Polynesia,Micronesia, and Melanesia.
Kristina Hoeppner (04:03):
That's quite a big reach that your university
has across the region,supporting people also,
oftentimes in very remote areas,which presents its own
challenges, doesn't it?
Soropepeli Ramacake (04:14):
Oh, definitely. And you know, not
only the reach, but also theisolation for some of those
students, the technologicalproblems or connections that
they might encounter. Those areall things that we're facing,
and because of the isolation,some of our students have to
catch three busses to get tocertain places. And so here we
are in our comfort zones, andwe're having to support those
(04:36):
that have to navigate thosechallenges, and so it's never
easy, but that's where empathy,and I suppose our sense of
unconditional, positive regardcomes in to support our students
to succeed.
Kristina Hoeppner (04:50):
Is that then also why you introduced
portfolios into the field work,into the Social Work practicum
that you offer to your students?
Soropepeli Ramacake (04:59):
Yeah. I mean, for me, I was doing, I
suppose, manual portfolios wherestudents have to gather all
their material and do foldersand then submit the folder for
marking. Once, I came to realisethat there was an ePortfolio
that made certainly my workeasier because with a manual
portfolio, there was a lot ofto-ing and fro-ing. There was a
(05:23):
lot of documents that had thepotential to go missing, and in
some cases, they did, and so thestudents would have to do some
of the documents again, and thendiscovering that there were
ePortfolio, it certainly made mylife of double handling, triple
handling bit easier.
Also, this was a way that Icould track the students'
(05:44):
learning, not only for myself,but more importantly, for the
students, to track their ownlearning. And then here's
something that can be exported.
They exported themselves, sothat they can then hand to the
organisations that areinterested in employing them and
saying, 'Hey, look, this is allof the work that I've done in
the years of my study.' That'sthe beauty or the benefit that
I've seen in ePortfolios, andcertainly the student making
(06:08):
sense of their learning,critically reflecting and also
analysing, you know, the thingsthat they have been learning and
informing them why they do whatthey do, and for what purpose.
Kristina Hoeppner (06:21):
What does an actual portfolio task look like
for the students that they haveto complete? Because you also
mentioned that they are oftenworking in remote areas of the
world, and so I suspect thatwhile the electronic portfolio
is quite nice when you haveaccess to the internet, you
might also come across certainchallenges.
Soropepeli Ramacake (06:43):
Yes, that's so true, what you've picked up,
and it's very poignant becauseEnglish is a second language for
a lot of our students, if notall. It was really difficult to
try and socialise, althoughthere are guidance, you know,
there are video instructionsaround the creation of a
ePortfolio, one thing that I'mstarting to understand that's a
(07:07):
need for us here in the Pacificis having simple video
instructions or recording thatexplains the process really,
really simply.
We're giving our students thePDF instructions. We've got the
videos there. We have one of ouracademic instructors do a
recording to explain theprocess, but some of our
(07:28):
students are still lost. So Ithink communication at a simple
level is really, reallyimportant for me as I move
forward into next year and thefollowing years. If there's any
way that we can collaborate tocreate those for our students
here in the Pacific, that willbe really, really great. That's
one area.
And then another area that weintroduced the ePortfolio to
(07:51):
benefit our students is thatit's a repository where all of
their study can be captured, butnot only that, so that they can
also have a track record oftheir reflection and critical
analysis along the way, whichcaptured within that repository.
I'm happy with where we are atat the moment, but I know that
(08:11):
I'm not completely satisfiedthat that's the final picture
for me. I want to move to thenext level and make it really,
really robust, and if a toolallows for us to do that, then
let's keep talking and createsomething that will be
beneficial for our students, andthat'll capture all of their
(08:32):
learning and development andgrowth really, really well.
Kristina Hoeppner (08:37):
What you're just saying is, I'm wondering
also with your students workingin different contexts, working
with different families duringtheir practicum or in other
situations for their social workpracticum, that they can then
really have all of that in thatone place, easily accessible,
and they know all that I need tolook at is always in my
(08:58):
portfolio, is in Mahara, andthey can go back to it rather
than having something writtendown in one place, maybe not
having those notes availablewhen they need them, but they
always know I can go online andI can find things.
Soropepeli Ramacake (09:13):
That's exactly right. I think, you
know, with AI and advancement oftechnology that we're currently
under, I think there is anopportunity here for us to trial
some things of how we can takestuff to the next level. I'll
give you an example. At themoment, we've got reports that
students would have to get fromthe organisations, and then they
(09:34):
have to bring it back, scan it,and then upload it to Mahara. So
at the moment, there's a lot ofdouble, triple handling of
documents. If there was astreamlined way or automated way
that we just click a button andput up a few comments and the
stuff is held in the repositoryby an external organisation, and
so if we can find some way wherewe naturally have a smoother
(09:59):
process where we can have thosereporting not be doubled or
tripled handled that'll bereally helpful for me. And so
the student doesn't have tohandle the document again. The
organisation has a link thatthey can just tap into and
upload the reports or whateverother documents that are
required to be uploaded. Andlikewise, for the students, from
(10:21):
their end, instead of uploadingit through Moodle, it can just
go straight to Mahara. Or thereis a way that it can be exported
from Moodle to Mahara. Those aresome of the things that I'm
having to play around with andlook for ways, smoother ways, to
be able to do the work moreefficiently and effectively.
Kristina Hoeppner (10:42):
Mahara being open source, we can make changes
to it. We can integrate it withother systems if the other
system allows for anintegration, and therefore we do
have all of those possibilities,along also with you being able
to install different languagesthat have already been
translated by the community.
Fijian is not quite there yet,but others are already there. So
(11:06):
if somebody in Fiji wanted totranslate Mahara, then we would
certainly help them get startedwith that so that it can even be
more localized.
Soro, you mentioned that yourstudents upload files into their
portfolio and that they aredoing reflections. So what do
(11:28):
the portfolios of your studentslook like? Do they also
incorporate multimedia elements,or are they primarily text?
Soropepeli Ramacake (11:36):
They import directly into Mahara. We're
using the STARL-P reflectionprocess, and so they create a
profile, and then they have towrite a bit about themselves. So
even that, for me, I'm seeingthat it's really, really good
for the students to start totalk about themselves, but I
think to accentuate theirstrengths a bit more, which is
something that's lacking, I needto strengthen that so that we
(12:00):
give the opportunity to thestudents to be much more
confident in selling themselves.
Because this is an opportunitythat I see using ePortfolios,
it's an opportunity for thestudents to sell themselves to
the prospective employers.
Everything that we're doing withePortfolio is really for work
readiness.
Kristina Hoeppner (12:18):
Tell us what the STARL-P framework is.
Soropepeli Ramacake (12:21):
So STARL-P is a reflection framework that's
embedded within Mahara. It givesan opportunity for learners to
really reflect on theirlearning. They use the STARL-P
talking about the situation.
That's the S. So whateversituations that they faced
within their placement, theyreflect on that. And then the T
is talking about the tasks thatthey undertook within those
(12:46):
situations. The A is talkingabout some of the actions that
they might have done in relationto the situation and the tasks
that they've encountered. Andthen we move into R is really
reflecting on those things, youknow, for them to bring in the
reflection. 'Okay, in thissituation, I encountered these
(13:06):
clients, and within thatsituation, these were some
things that I discovered or thatresonated well with me, or that
challenged me, or that triggeredme.' So there the students are
starting to now reflect on thethings that they've encountered.
And then the L is around thelearning that they've gained
from that reflection. And thenthe P is really, I suppose, they
(13:30):
then move on to futurepossibilities or practices that
they come to understand that'look, these are the limitations
that I've gained from myreflection on those situations
and the actions and tasks thatI've done, and these are the
areas of practice that I want todevelop.'
Kristina Hoeppner (13:51):
You said that this framework is built into
Mahara, so just for everybodyelse using Mahara, who is
listening, USP built that intoMahara to have available for
their students. You've presentedon your work at the ICDE
conference and had mentionedthat you worked with 10 students
who created their portfolios aspart of the social work
(14:14):
practicum. Did you give them atemplate that they could start
out with or did you give themthe instructions on the PDF and
they then went off and createdtheir own portfolio all by
themselves?
Soropepeli Ramacake (14:29):
It was like the blind leading the blind for
me. Because I was new to it, Ihad to try and make sense of it
myself. Then I involved what wecall instructional designers
here in the University of theSouth Pacific, and the
organisation that we work withis Continuing Future Learning
(CFL). I utilised their team tohelp me create ePortfolios
(14:53):
because I was new to it.
The students were giveninstructions from me around the
creation of ePortfolio and whatI was looking for as an
instruction. There were reallytwo areas. The first was the
creation of two reflections fromweeks one to six and week seven
to 12 because there's 12 weeksin a placement. That was the
(15:16):
first part. The second part isthat they had to upload the key
documents from their placementsand some images that proved that
they were in, with the consentof the organisation that they
were doing placement in forthose images to be used. They
got those instructions, and thenwe then started to create the
(15:38):
Mahara to be able to house thestuff that we required the
students to do.
Kristina Hoeppner (15:44):
How did the students like the portfolio
activity?
Soropepeli Ramacake (15:47):
I think there was a lot of confusion
initially. I think for somethere was on top of the
confusion, there was a lot ofprobably, I wouldn't say
resistance, but I would say notbeing motivated to do it right
away, so a lot ofprocrastination, until we got
closer to the due dates, andthen people started moving. I've
(16:08):
just got to look for better wayswhere we can help the students
to build their confidence sothey're not procrastinating and
making the system more userfriendly and easier to navigate
and for the students to feel asense of, I suppose, confidence,
to be able to do it the firsttime they see it and not get
overwhelmed.
Kristina Hoeppner (16:29):
We are working on making Mahara easier
to use through the redesign workthat our team is currently
engaged with to improveworkflows and also how to find
things so from next May on -because the release will be at
the end of April - from next Mayon, then you will be able to see
(16:49):
that this will also improve howyour students interact with the
portfolios and in otherinstitutions, we have seen that
also the creation of templateshelps so that students can have
the instructions right in theportfolio and then know what the
minimum requirements are to fillin.
Soropepeli Ramacake (17:10):
Wonderful that's great.
Kristina Hoeppner (17:12):
Soro, in your paper, you talk about a number
of recommendations becauseyou're also working across so
many different nations and somany different cultures at USP
that your teaching always needsto be contextualised and also
reflecting the cultures in whichthe students operate. How has
the portfolio helped you achievethat? How has it contributed to
(17:36):
it?
Soropepeli Ramacake (17:38):
When we're talking culturally competent,
it's still done in the firstlanguage, in English. Students
still have to reflect inEnglish. So it defeats the
purpose if we were to be reallyculturally competent or
responsive. But in saying that,students are given an
opportunity to reflect onpractice that's happening in
(17:59):
their own nation, and they putforward different practices or
different services that areinvolved in the work that's
being done on the ground intheir own nation. So that's
lifting the profile of thoseservices and what's being done
on the ground to help in thathumanitarian level.
But I think to be trulyculturally responsive, we need
(18:20):
to allow students to be able toreflect in their own language,
and then that is able to betranslated into first language,
so that they can be marked, oreven if they can just reflect in
their own language, which isnatural for them, and much
freer, then we are truly meetingthe student at their level and
(18:42):
working to genuinely supportthem to thrive and succeed.
They just reflect at that leveland contextualise at that level,
and then we then can then marketfrom our end, in just that
natural environment that they beallowed to present in that's
still a progression. And for me,that's an area where, instead of
(19:05):
them meeting university standardin English, why can't we do it
in other ways, where theuniversity comes down to their
level, allows them to dopresentation in their own
language and culture and thenstill mark them from their area?
Kristina Hoeppner (19:20):
Yeah, especially also thinking about
the reflections that they can,as you say, express themselves
really of what they want to say.
They might not be as proficientin English, and therefore you
have that language barrier tonot being able to really say
what you do. Do you know if anystudents used a translation
service so that they did reflectin their language first, and
(19:41):
then had it translated intoEnglish before they submitted
their work.
Soropepeli Ramacake (19:47):
Yeah, we haven't got that provision here,
but what I've allowed studentsto do in the past is to do work
in their own language, and thenI've organised translation. Say
you got a student from Kiribati.
Coming in in the mode oflearning for them to pass is in
English, which is not what theyused to once they pass that
language, mode of English, thenthey go back to deliver to their
(20:09):
people in Kiribati, not inEnglish. If we can meet them in
their natural environment andmark the work in their natural
environment, we're helping eachother because they're meeting a
need academically, but alsowe're supporting them to do
really well in their naturalenvironment at the end of their
study.
Kristina Hoeppner (20:29):
Yeah, and that way you also have the
opportunity to personalise thelearning more to the students
and also make it more relevantfor them because they continue
to work in that context.
Soropepeli Ramacake (20:42):
Definitely.
Kristina Hoeppner (20:43):
Soro, where do you see the long term
benefits of creating a portfoliofor your students? At the
beginning, you had alreadymentioned a couple of benefits
in regards to them reflecting,talking about their learning.
Are there any other benefitsthat you have either already
(21:04):
seen as part of the work you'vedone with your social work
students or that you have bynow, maybe also already seen
through the other portfolio workthat is happening at USP?
Soropepeli Ramacake (21:16):
I think it's a really, really good tool,
the ePortfolio, that capturesstudents' learning and also
reflections. But I think Ireally want students because
we're not doing it from the 100level. I would rather that they
use it from the 100, 200, and300, so that we have a
comprehensive repositoryavailable for students to be
(21:38):
able to track their learning andevidence their learning and also
be able to export that to futureemployers.
If we can get to a level wherewe can start to utilise that
more smartly, I think we're onto a winner, so that students
can have an opportunity to tracktheir learning from when they
(21:59):
started at the 100 level. Theywere novices, or they were
struggling. Then get to thesecond year, they're starting to
grow and know, and then at thefinal end, they are able to
show. So know, grow, and show,if I can put it in transition
from not knowing to knowing, andthen being able to show that
knowing, yeah. So I would usethose words, no grow show. I
(22:23):
would like that because thenthat gives me the evidence that
what I'm teaching them and whatthey're learning is making
sense, and they can transitionright throughout, so that we are
creating work-ready students atthe end of the third year.
That's one thing.
Another thing that I would loveis if Mahara had way, and you
(22:47):
can tell from what I'm sharingwith you, I'm all about
development, growth,progression. I would love if we
had functionality within thetool where we can just tap on a
or click on a checkbox andcreate reports or statistics or
analysis, analytics like that,where it spits out onto a
(23:07):
report, summarises a learningfor the student that's happened
in the last three years. Andthen you just print that out,
maybe a two pager that you handover to whomever is willing to
employ you.
That way, the tool is becoming asmarter tool that can populate
all that information that youwant more like a reporting
(23:29):
document. So I would love that.
I'm a development myself, and sowhen there's something lacking,
I try and develop something tomeet that. And hopefully, if
there's opportunities tointegrate some of those
developments into Mahara. That'dbe really good for us. Rather
than reinventing the wheel, wejust integrate something in the
tool to piggyback off.
Kristina Hoeppner (23:52):
We should talk about that in order to see
what your developments are, andhow we can support these along
also making them then availableto everybody, so everybody can
benefit from them. Now, Soro,what do you wish everybody knew
about portfolios?
Soropepeli Ramacake (24:08):
What I would like everyone to learn?
It's a really good and effectivetool to capture your students'
learning and voice around theirperspective, around their
learning, and that it's awonderful way of tracking what
they've been doing. I've foundthat the ePortfolio does that
(24:28):
for me, and it also shows mewhether the students are able to
reflect well.
You can tell by reading theirreflections whether the student
is going in depth in theirreflection and critically
analysing things. So from thatlens, I can tell whether a
student is able to think deeperor really just giving me what's
(24:50):
happening at a surface level. Iwant students to be going deeper
into why they're doing whatthey're doing, and so the tool
for me does that.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:00):
It makes that learning more visible because it
can be shared with you aslecturer and also with others,
and then you can feedback on it.
Soropepeli Ramacake (25:09):
That feedbacking loop is really,
really important. When I markthe students' work, that's
exactly what I'm doing. I'msaying, 'Thank you for your
reflection. I'm so glad to knowthat these things are resonating
well with you, and these thingshave challenged you, or these
things have triggered you, andthat you've got ways to work
through a strategies to workthrough those things.' And then
(25:32):
complementing them so they'rereflecting, and I'm reflecting
on their reflection and thengiving them feedback.
Kristina Hoeppner (25:37):
Fantastic. So that takes us already into our
quick answer round. So the lastthree questions for you are,
first one, which words or shortphrases do you use to describe
portfolio work? We kind ofprobably already have them with,
know, grow, and show or do youwant to add some others?
Soropepeli Ramacake (25:58):
I was thinking about what ePortfolio
and the work that we do withinMahara is all about, and match
it with what we're trying to dowith our students. And that's
what I came up with. You know,just to make things easier for
me and to be able to pass on tothe students is that first what
we're trying to get you to do isto know what you're doing and
(26:19):
learning. And then once we'redoing that, we're wanting to
monitor and track whether you'regrowing in that learning. And so
the practice, practiceknowledge. So you know the
theory, you then grow into yourpractice knowledge, and then you
show. The evidence is really youbeing able to do the knowing
when you're out in theorganisation, and that's through
(26:40):
the reflection that they aregiving within Mahara. And so for
me, yeah, those are the threekey terms, the know, the grow,
and the show.
Kristina Hoeppner (26:50):
Thank you.
Soro, what tips do you have forlearning designers or
instructors who create portfolioactivities?
Soropepeli Ramacake (26:58):
For me, it's just keeping it simple for
your students. Also utilisewhat's already there, rather
than reinventing the wheel, anddon't make it too difficult or
onerous for your students.
Simplicity is always good, asthey say, you know, the KISS
principle - keeping it simpleand understandable for our
students, easy to navigate, andthe platform has to be easily
(27:20):
navigatable for them as well tobe able to understand where I
need to put stuff that I need toevidence into.
Kristina Hoeppner (27:31):
Now on to the last question, Soro, what advice
do you have for your portfolioauthors, for your students?
Soropepeli Ramacake (27:38):
The advice that I would give them are
these, read the instructionscarefully [Kristina laughs]. Do
not rush things. Do not beoverwhelmed. Take your time and
utilise the ePortfolio becauseit's to your benefit. Those are
the five things that I want topass on to the students.
Kristina Hoeppner (27:59):
Those are really, really good concise tips
for the students that wouldn'tjust help them with their
portfolio work, but in general,for anything they do in their
educational journey.
Thank you so much for theconversation today, Soro. I
really appreciate you sharingwhat you have learned so far
having used portfolios at USPwith your social work students,
(28:22):
still being on the journey andnot yet being done, and
therefore also sharing some ofthe things that you would like
to see improved and being thespark for future conversations
between the two of us and alsoIrene and the rest of the
learning design team at USP.
Thank you so much.
Soropepeli Ramacake (28:42):
Thank you for having me, Kristina, and
thank you for the work thatyou're doing and the team behind
you. I love utilising the toolsthat you have, and I'm willing
to collaborate and support youso that we can keep growing and
keep helping our students inwhatever they do through your
platform. And I'm reallyhonoured to be part of this
(29:02):
podcast and wish you well forthe upcoming Christmas and New
Year.
Kristina Hoeppner (29:07):
Thank you so much, Soro. Now over to our
listeners. What do you want totry in your own portfolio
practice? This was 'Create.
Share. Engage.' with SoropepeliRamacake. Head to our website,
podcast.mahara.org, where youcan find resources and the
transcript for this episode. Itwould be great if you shared our
(29:29):
podcast with a colleague ofyours so they can listen as
well. I'll be back with a newepisode in the new year. Have a
wonderful holiday break and seeyou in 2026. Until then, create,
share, and engage.
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