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

[Jon Gorrono]

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Michael Nardell <nardell at ucsc.edu> wrote:
> 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.

RIght. UCD's institutioanAdvisor implementation returns
UserDereference.getDisplayId() ... so it's the same value that gb2
uses for the students in the UI



> 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.

Right again. Our implementation checks that the member role is defined
and one of a list of 'student' roles we have provided students via our
coursemanagment implemenation

> 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)

Agreed: It's a bit tricky or lucky to remove all ambiguity...  our
implementation ranks all the passed-in Sections by Category (using a
Comparable with Collections.sort()) and returns the first one... if
there are more than one in the winning category, the first one found
is returned.

The ideal case for us is a Lecture with a Lab.... since we have
Lectures ranked higher, the primary is the Lecture section.


> 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.

As John Bush said, I think you're spot on.

> 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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>



-- 
Jon Gorrono
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