[Using Sakai] Randomly assigning students to groups

[John Norman]

This would work particularly well if you were had these attributes  
available :-)

[implications for profile or account registration]

John

On 2 Oct 2009, at 10:22, Adam Marshall wrote:

> another scenario could be to "randomly" create group but with  
> constraints so that (say) the group has an equal number of men and  
> women, or an even mix of ethnic minorities and so on.
>
> adam
>
> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org [mailto:sakai-user-
> | bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Daphne Ogle
> | Sent: 01 October 2009 23:25
> | To: Marshall Feldman
> | Cc: sakai-user; sakai-ux UX
> | Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] Randomly assigning students to groups
> |
> | Thanks Marsh!  It is very helpful to understand context so your
> | scenario is invaluable.
> |
> | I've added your use cases and scenario to our documentation.  This
> | work is being done for Sakai 3.  As you probably know, timelines for
> | early releases are out a year and a fuller Sakai 3 is likely a few
> | years out (http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SAKDEV/Sakai
> | +3).   So, the bad news is this isn't functionality you'll be able  
> to
> | use soon but the good news is that it is captured and will be
> | integrated into the Sakai 3 work.
> |
> | I'll share designs next week.  Priorities and work schedules are  
> still
> | being worked out so I don't have a good feel for when this will be
> | implemented yet but I think it's fair to say that you'll be able  
> to do
> | the activities you mention down the road in Sakai 3.
> |
> | Thanks again,
> |
> | Daphne
> |
> | On Oct 1, 2009, at 12:46 PM, Marshall Feldman wrote:
> |
> | > Hi Daphne,
> | >
> | > I just responded to Joshua Baron's post by adding a feature  
> request
> | > to JIRA. Here's what I wrote:
> | >
> | > This feature request is modeled after and extends a feature on
> | > WebCT. At its core, the request is to add the ability to generate
> | > groups automatically. Students (or project site participants)  
> would
> | > be assigned to groups at random. The instructor would specify the
> | > number of groups or the size of each group, and Sakai would assign
> | > students at random to different groups. Besides random assignment,
> | > additional assignment methods might be included (e.g., in
> | > alphabetical order to divide class into N groups) and/or use  
> certain
> | > criteria for constructing groups (e.g., [1] equal numbers of male
> | > and female students per group or [2] equal numbers of seniors,
> | > juniors, etc. per group).
> | >
> | > In addition to generating groups automatically, the instructor
> | > (maintainer) should be able to select options that would
> | > automatically configure tool components related to groups. For
> | > example, WebCT has the option of creating a Discussion Board topic
> | > for each group to which only group members (and, optionally, the
> | > instructor) have access. On Sakai, this option would create a
> | > separate forum for each group at the time the group is generated.
> | > Sakai might also configure other tools and their components as
> | > follows. (1) Announcements -- automatically send an announcement  
> to
> | > group members informing them of their new status as group members,
> | > (2) Assignments - optionally associate an assignment with the  
> group,
> | > (3) Messages - as an alternative to an announcement, send a  
> message
> | > to all group members and allow instructor to author message  
> content,
> | > (4) Resources - Create subdirectories in a specified path under
> | > Resources and automatically give group members +rwx rights in  
> their
> | > group's subdirectory, (5) allow instructor the option to schedule
> | > events for the group (e.g., a meeting with the group), (6)
> | > optionally add subsections to the wiki, with each group having its
> | > own subsection and appropriate privileges.
> | >
> | > As for scenario, much of what I'm looking for is already  
> captured by
> | > your current scenarios:
> | >
> | >   * Instructor creates equally distributed student groups
> | >   * Instructor creates small student project teams in 30 person
> | course
> | >
> | > As for what's actually going on, here's the scenario (although I
> | > don't think it adds much to the above):
> | >
> | >   Marsh is teaching a 30-student course in which students work in
> | >   teams to construct conference posters. As it is a pure
> | >   distance-learning course,
> | >   he wants to assign students at random to teams. He also wants to
> | >   generate for each team various team-specific tools that the team
> | >   members can use
> | >   for collaboration. These include a separate forum and Resources
> | >   subdirectory for each team. The students will use these to
> | >   collaborate on and prepare
> | >   their posters. When they are ready to submit their posters, the
> | >   students will upload them both to their Resources subdirectory  
> and
> | >   the Assignment drop box.
> | >   To allow the entire class to view the posters, Sakai would  
> ideally
> | >   generate a web page with links to the posters, one link per  
> team,
> | or
> | >   the instructor may have to do this manually.
> | >
> | > Thanks for asking about this. Please let me know if and when the
> | > tool is ready with these features.
> | >
> | > Regards,
> | >
> | >   Marsh Feldman
> | >
> | > --
> | > Dr. Marshall Feldman, PhD
> | > Director of Research and Academic Affairs
> | >
> | > Center for Urban Studies and Research
> | > The University of Rhode Island
> | > email: marsh @ uri .edu (remove spaces)
> | >
> | >
> | >     Contact Information:
> | >
> | >
> | >       Kingston:
> | >
> | > 202 Hart House
> | > Charles T. Schmidt Labor Research Center
> | > The University of Rhode Island
> | > 36 Upper College Road
> | > Kingston, RI 02881-0815
> | > tel. (401) 874-5953:
> | > fax: (401) 874-5511
> | >
> | >
> | >       Providence:
> | >
> | > 206E Shepard Building
> | > URI Feinstein Providence Campus
> | > 80 Washington Street
> | > Providence, RI 02903-1819
> | > tel. (401) 277-5218
> | > fax: (401) 277-5464
> |
> | Daphne Ogle
> | Senior Interaction Designer
> | University of California, Berkeley
> | Educational Technology Services
> | daphne at media.berkeley.edu
> | cell (925)348-4372
> |
> |
> |
> |
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