[Using Sakai] [DG: Teaching & Learning] site templates

[John Leasia]

We have a few templates instructors can pick from that are 
pre-configured with particular tools. For example, the Engineering 
school wanted every engineering site to have a 'honor code' tool (web 
content clone), Math dept. has several templates for different levels of 
math classses, on campus has their own template with tools they like, 
etc. We use the 'template' feature that allows you to configure a 
'master' site and when site creators choose a template from the drop 
down (check the 'Use Template' checkbox during Worksite Setup), they get 
a site with the pre-configured tools and don't go through the flow where 
they select tools.


The Use Template checkbox only shows if you have templates (these are 
sites created and indicated as templates (via sakai properties in 2.6, 
via a site property in 2.7).

We don't setup sites for courses automatically - instructors setup their 
sites so if you auto-create sites this probably isn't the answer.

It also requires communication to instructors to let them know about the 
template and that they should use it - since they could easily go ahead 
and create a site w/o choosing to use a template (nothing forcing them 
to do so).

John

Khan, Salwa wrote:
>
> Maggie,
>
> Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. One concern I had was 
> exactly what you described where faculty will think that the templates 
> include all available tools and that some of the other tools have been 
> removed.
>
> The way we envisioned this might get around that issue.  We planned to 
> have the templates available at the end of the list of tools they can 
> select when they set up their sites.  Thus they would see all the 
> tools that are currently available but at the end of that list would 
> see the two templates and if they were in a hurry could select one of 
> those instead of going through the rather long list of tools and 
> checking each one they thought they might use.  Of course, they could 
> always add additional tools to the template or remove those they 
> didn’t plan to use.
>
> As you suggest, we will have to focus on communicating the existence 
> and purpose of the templates. The question of what to include in the 
> templates remains a troublesome one.  We’re interested to see what 
> other schools have chosen to include.  We’ve based our initial choices 
> on what we’ve seen faculty here use most often, but as you say, the 
> template won’t be a perfect fit for most. Hopefully our experiences 
> will be instructive!
>
> Thanks again, Salwa
>
> Salwa Khan
>
> Coordinator, IT Projects
>
> Texas State University
>
> Instructional Technologies Support
>
> sk16 at txstate.edu
>
> 512 245-4390
>
> *From:* Ricci, Margaret P [mailto:mricci at indiana.edu]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 14, 2010 2:24 PM
> *To:* Khan, Salwa; sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org; pedagogy Learning
> *Subject:* RE: site templates
>
> Hi Salwa,
>
> This is an interesting question and actually a bit more complicated 
> than it might seem. At Indiana University we just changed the default 
> template, and it has had some unintended consequences.
>
> Here’s a little background. We have had a default template for several 
> years that had a lot of tools on it – at least a dozen. It was kind of 
> busy, and there were things on the default list that most faculty had 
> no idea what they were. Then there were several other tools that could 
> be added using Site Info (Site Setup in our instance). Last year, as 
> we were getting ready to unstealth the new Assignments tool that we 
> had been working on for a while, we started discussing how to handle 
> rolling it out with respect to the default tools. We decided not to 
> include an assignments tool on the default tools because it would 
> force faculty to choose which tool they wanted to use for their 
> assignments. They would have to go in and explicitly select one, and 
> thus, they would have to learn what the new one was good for (using 
> some information that we gave them). Well, this set off a long and 
> hard-fought discussion about what should be a default tool. The first 
> thing you learn when you set out to decide for people what tools they 
> need is that you will never be right. Some people argued that we 
> shouldn’t put anything there but Home and Site Info. That way everyone 
> would have to go in and decide exactly what tools they wanted to use. 
> We were in agreement that we wanted to cut down on the “noise” we had 
> with so many default tools, but there were many and varied opinions 
> about what were the necessary core tools. In the end, we paired down 
> the list somewhat and rolled it out. I have since spoken with a number 
> of faculty who assume that we have removed tools and that Oncourse 
> (our Sakai instance) just doesn’t do those things anymore. They still 
> have no idea that there are many tools that are available that don’t 
> show up until you go looking for them, even though we used several 
> communication channels to tell people what was coming.
>
> We also created a special template for one particular school that only 
> does online courses. In this case, the courses are designed by 
> instructional designers and taught by instructors with rather limited 
> permissions, so they knew exactly what they wanted. They don’t allow 
> their instructors to add or remove any of the tools.
>
> I can’t even imagine how long it would have taken to decide on tiers 
> of templates that have descriptive names. I’m not trying to be 
> pessimistic here or belittle the process we went through, but no 
> matter how carefully you craft your templates and name them, plenty of 
> people will be confused. Do your best to communicate, be ready to 
> answer a lot of questions (and possibly take some heat), and 
> understand that there will be lots of people who don’t fit into either 
> of your standard templates.
>
> Good luck and let us know if you hit on the perfect tool combination.
>
> Maggie
>
> Margaret P. Ricci
>
> Principal Instructional Technology Specialist
>
> Teaching and Learning Technology Centers
>
> Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
>
> Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education /
> University Information Technology Services
>
> 307 Ballantine Hall
>
> Indiana University Bloomington
>
> Bloomington, IN  47405
>
> 812-855-8355
>
> mricci at indiana.edu <mailto:mricci at indiana.edu>
>
> *From:* pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org 
> [mailto:pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] *On Behalf Of *Khan, 
> Salwa
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 14, 2010 10:22 AM
> *To:* sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org; pedagogy Learning
> *Subject:* [DG: Teaching & Learning] site templates
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> We are in the process of selecting tools that would be included in two 
> templates we would like to offer faculty to simplify the course/site 
> creation process.  One template would be a “standard” template with 
> basic functionality that includes Announcements, Home, Mailtool, 
> Resources, , Roster, Site Info, Site Stats and Syllabus.  An 
> intermediate template would include these plus Assessments, 
> Assignments, Forums and Gradebook.
>
> Is anyone using templates like these and if so, could you share the 
> list of tools for each template you offer?  Also what do you call your 
> templates?
>
> Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
>
> -Salwa
>
> Salwa Khan
>
> Coordinator, IT Projects
>
> Texas State University
>
> Instructional Technologies Support
>
> sk16 at txstate.edu <mailto:sk16 at txstate.edu>
>
> 512 245-4390
>

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