[Using Sakai] End-User Documentation

[Marshall Feldman]

    Hi,

Is there any good, detailed, "official," end-user documentation for 
Sakai's tools? The standard Help files often give only the most 
superficial information.

Here are examples of the kind of questions for which I'm looking for 
answers:

   1. The Schedule tool can import files formatted for Microsoft
      Outlook, Meeting Maker, iCalendar (iCal), and a generic calendar
      import (comma-separate values), but it seemingly can only export
      iCal ics files. Is this correct? If so, what is the
      Sakai-recommended method for exporting Sakai schedules to the
      other formats?
   2. The specification for iCal files
      <http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt> is complex. So it's not
      clear how Sakai converts the Schedule information into an ics
      file. For example, the specs allow for different "user types"
      (individual, group, etc.), but how does Sakai treat a calendar
      entry for a course? More generally, where does Sakai document what
      it exports in an ics file?
   3. Where is the documentation for the csv file format that Sakai can
      import? I found some unofficial documentation
      <http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CDIQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Finfo.t-square.gatech.edu%2Ffiles%2Fimport_calendars.pdf&rct=j&q=sakai%20schedule%20import&ei=c3yZTKuhIoP6lwebrIXsDw&usg=AFQjCNHuAlayqbCZVCZ3_twugo80RQOOJg&sig2=n90eWSZTyVs2guRy-3H8vQ&cad=rja>,
      but it's incomplete. For example, can one include HTML in the
      fields? Similarly, the csv format encloses strings in quotation
      marks, but is there an escape character to tell Sakai to treat
      certain strings differently? For example, how should one code the
      following text?

          Come to class prepared to compare and contrast William J.
          Wilson's /Declining Significance of Race/ with at least two
          more recent theories of "race." 

   4. What does the Schedule tool want in a csv file for all-day and
      multi-day events?
   5. There's some ambiguity associated with such things as noon and
      midnight, as well as multiple standards for dates and times. What
      standard does Schedule use?
   6. A similar set of issues arises with the Tests & Quizzes tool. For
      example, it allows keywords for question pools, but what delimits
      a keyword? Suppose for example that someone is teaching a course
      on race and wants to use the following keywords (delimited here by
      curly brackets): {Martin Luther King, Jr.}, {race}, and {"race"}.
      (In the literature on race, "race" with the quotes is used to
      indicate that "race" is primarily a social construction that
      misapprehends nature whereas race (without the quotes) indicates a
      more sanguine usage that treats the concept as if it referred
      unambiguously to something found in nature.)
   7. Similarly, are keywords case-sensitive?

All I can find in the standard Sakai (2.6) help regarding such questions 
are the following statements:

    * Under *Importing a Calendar*: "Click the radio button beside the
      type of calendar file you are importing (*|Microsoft Outlook|*,
      *|Meeting Maker|*, or *|Generic calendar import (comma-separate
      values)|*), and then click *|Continue|*."
    * A search in the Help for "keyword" returns three items: "Advanced
      Search," "Modify Assessment," and "Working with citation lists."
      Only the second pertains to the T&Q tool, but all it says about
      keywords is "Modify the "Objective", "Keyword", and "Rubric"
      metadata fields"  (thanks a lot). Furthermore, although it does
      not show up in a search for "keyword," the *Adding, moving,
      copying, or removing a question pool or subpool* entry does have
      this similarly superficial information: "In the optional
      "Keywords" field, type any keywords that may help you or someone
      else locate this question pool."

Searches on the Sakai wiki 
<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF/Welcome+to+the+Sakai+wiki> 
yield almost 400 hits for "Schedule" and 250 for "keyword." Many of 
these, probably most, are of more interest to Sakai developers than 
end-users. Also on the wiki, there's a section dealing with "Using Sakai 
<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF/Welcome+to+the+Sakai+wiki>," 
but in that section the one item that seems geared to answering 
questions such as those above is called "End User Support Aids: A 
collection of end-user support materials and information 
<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/ESUP/End-User+Support+Working+Group>." 
Clicking through, one finds a section containing documentation, but it 
is at such a high level that answers to questions such as those above 
are akin to finding needles in haystacks. Currently there are ten 
entries of contributed items, the most relevant of which have titles 
like "Custom Help Pages & FAQ."

It shouldn't be this difficult. All I'm looking for is what in the old 
days of IBM mainframes used to be in documents called "User Guides" and 
"Reference Manuals." Is there an easier way to find "official" answers 
to questions such as those above?

Thanks.

     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:


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tel. (401) 874-5953:
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        Providence:

206E Shepard Building
URI Feinstein Providence Campus
80 Washington Street
Providence, RI 02903-1819
tel. (401) 277-5218
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