[gradebook2-dev] Question about InstitutionAdvisor and some of its methods.

[Michael Nardell]

Howdy : at UCSC we are starting to think carefully about the best way  
to implement grade submission through Sakai to our SIS. I am  
considering making the case that we should build our grade submission  
plan around Gradebook 2 (and not attempt to support Gradebook), even  
though our first phase of the grade submission plan may not be able  
to utilize GB2 web  services for transmitting the grades to the  
campus SIS.  Certainly building out a plan around web services where  
we would like to go, and that is a compelling reason for us to build  
an implementation around GB 2. However it also appears the the  
InstitutionAdvisor interface lays down method specifications that  
will be useful for us to implement, given some of the particulars of  
our grade submission requirements. Before I make this case too  
loudly, I wanted to check with the list to see if I am reading our  
particulars  into InstitutionAvisor and GB2 designs (a kind of  
wishful thinking I often fall into). Here are the method that seem to  
well suited for neatly handling our requirements:

public String getExportUserId(UserDereference dereference);
The getExportUserId method specification would seem to provide a way  
to bridge the gap between the User ID as it exists in Sakai and the  
User ID as it needs to be represented in the SIS. This is a  
particular challenge for UCSC since our SIS needs to receive users  
identified by a 7-Digit code that is held as a value in the  
sakai_user_property table.

public boolean isLearner(Member member);
This looks like a nice way to avoid sending over Student Auditors  
active in a course site. Not a big deal but nice to have.

public String getPrimarySectionEid(List<String> eids);
Our SIS need to receive grade rosters specified for particularly  
identified classes. In particular for UCSC the grade informations for  
students needs to be associated with a particular Primary Component  
(identified with a 5 digit class number).  This gets a little  
challenging in practice since multiple course sites could build for  
different sections that all should reference the same Primary  
Component (not to bad) or a course site could combine rosters from a  
couple of Primary Components (in the case of cross listed courses)

I am looking over the SampleInstitutionAdvisor, but I would like to  
know if some our particular requirements 'go with the grain' of the  
InstutionAdvisor.  Also if there are any ideas or experiences of how  
to handle these particulars.

Regards
Mike Nardell

-----------------------------------
Michael Nardell
Instructional Technology Integrator
University of California, Santa Cruz
nardell at ucsc.edu
v: 831.459.1672
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