[Using Sakai] Requesting Help In Copying Courses from One Semester to Another (without breaking links)
Shawn Miller
shawn.miller at duke.edu
Fri Jan 6 15:09:28 PST 2012
We've been worried about the same thing here at Duke. Our faculty are used to copying their courses in Bb from semester to semester, and will no doubt still approach Sakai this way in the coming semester. Some have adopted the 'hidden project site as a repository' approach - linking to their resources from the new course sites - but this is incredibly problematic in that they have to either a) make the resources folder of the repository site 'public', or b) add all the students to the repository site as well.
We were about to start doing some research to see if anyone else in the community has developed, or has considered developing, a change that would allow users to choose 'relative' or 'absolute' linking when they add links via the editor. That would leave our users with options to use Sakai either way.
If someone knows about this being developed, or knows of an old proposal from someone, we'd love to discuss and/or be involved.
***********************
Shawn J. Miller
Academic Technology Consultant
Center for Instructional Technology
shawn.miller at duke.edu
919.660.5978
http://twitter.com/shawnj55
http://cit.duke.edu/about/staff/miller/
On Jan 6, 2012, at 2:30 PM, <sakai-user-request at collab.sakaiproject.org>
<sakai-user-request at collab.sakaiproject.org> wrote:
> Send sakai-user mailing list submissions to
> sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> sakai-user-request at collab.sakaiproject.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> sakai-user-owner at collab.sakaiproject.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of sakai-user digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Requesting Help In Copying Courses from One Semester to
> Another (without breaking links) (Valenti, Andrew P.)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 19:30:09 +0000
> From: "Valenti, Andrew P." <Andrew.Valenti at tufts.edu>
> Subject: [Using Sakai] Requesting Help In Copying Courses from One
> Semester to Another (without breaking links)
> To: "sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org"
> <sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>,
> "production at collab.sakaiproject.org"
> <production at collab.sakaiproject.org>
> Message-ID:
> <594BD04C115DA94BA29F38E625AF8AF1092D0F91 at SSVMEXDAG01MB04.tufts.ad.tufts.edu>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi Sakai Colleagues!
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> I am writing to solicit ideas, suggestions, and solutions to problems that occur when links to tools & content in one course site are created using the Import from Site tool to bring content into a new course site.
>
> The Problem
> In the Tufts instance of rSmart Sakai CLE 2.7 (which we call Trunk), we do not use Sakai Course Management. A new course is created each semester, automatically triggered by the appropriate SIS information; under our course management process, course shells are not reused from semester to semester. In some schools, it is a common practice that instructors create a syllabus using an HTML page in which they insert links to their course materials using the FCK editor and these links will be "absolute" meaning they point to the resources contained in the original course site. The first time the course is created there's no problem as the instructor/site owner has permission to access them. Let's suppose that in a subsequent semester a new instance of the course is created and the instructor decides to populate it using the Import from Site tool. If the instructor selects the check box for importing Resources (along with whatever else is needed), the tool will bring in the
> syllabus and the course materials. If no further action is taken to modify the links that are in the copied syllabus, the following will happen.
>
> To the instructor clicking on a link in the copied syllabus, the instructor is able to access the content and everything appears to be working. To a student, confronted by an HTTP access error message, the links appear "broken"; what has happened? The "absolute" link in the copied syllabus points to the course material in the instructor's original course site for which the student does not have permission to access. Thus, the instructor can see it but not the student. Interestingly, the course material copied from the original site is "orphaned" with no links pointing to it. Emerging from discussions with our internal support team and our Sakai vendor, rSmart, were three alternatives:
>
> Option 1 - Use a non-production site as a Sakai "content repository"
>
> a. Create a root site that serves as a content repository and make the content "public".
> b. In the original course design, ensure that the syllabus uses links pointing to the desired content in the repository site
> c. When the course is copied over, the links in the syllabus will work because they correctly point to content that has been made public. Since no actual course material has been copied to the new course site, there is no "orphaned" content.
>
> Advantages:
>
> * Instructors don't have to be aware of "relative" vs. "absolute" addressing
> * Maintains single copy of course materials in a repository
>
> Disadvantages
>
> * Requires thinking though an "information architecture" design for content stored in Sakai in order to oversee and maintain protection of copyrighted information
> * Difficult to prevent multiple repository sites from proliferating which adds to content management woes
> * Ultimately, we'd like content to be stored in a repository outside of Sakai which will allow us to provide more sophisticated content management services such as, access control, capacity planning, and more sophisticated search capabilities
>
> Option 2 - Copy content/fix addressing
>
>
> 1. Change the FCK editor so that the instructor creates "relative" links to course material when initially creating the syllabus.
> 2. When the course is copied using the Import from Site tool, the relative links correctly point to the course material copied into the new site.
>
> Advantages:
>
> * Material is kept in course sites which simplifies the management of copyrighted information
> * Doesn't require instructors to be too aware of "relative" vs. "absolute" address and doesn't require them to set up a non-production repository site.
>
> Disadvantages
>
> * Changing a pervasive tool such as the FCK editor can have unintended consequences which even thorough testing may not surface. It also creates a fork in the application code tree that we'd have to maintain.
> * Course material is duplicated from site to site, gradually consuming file storage
> * Moving to an external content repository will be require scooping up information from individual sites
>
> Option 3 - Use Duplicate Site tool
>
> Advantages
>
> * The tool maintains the proper link addressing and might be the simplest solution.
>
> Disadvantages
>
> * In our current design, the duplicates sites would not be automatically populated from our feed. We'd have to undertake a manual process to populate them with the roster.
> * Currently instructors don't have access to this tool. We'd need to think through this workflow.
> * Continues the duplication of course material.
>
>
>
> Why we need your help
> Each solution has advantages and disadvantages which might be balanced differently based on an institution's LMS strategy and course management process. Since the course duplication seems like it would be a fairly common process across the higher education Sakai community, we'd like to know what approach your institution has taken to populate new instances of a course and how you've overcome the aforementioned problems. If there are additional options that we've not identified, we'd certainly like to hear about them!
>
> Thanks in advance for the time you've taken to help a fellow peer institution!
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Andy
>
> Andy Valenti, MSc., PMP
> LMS Project Manager
> Educational & Scholarly Technology Services
> University Information Technology (UIT)
> Tufts University
> 108 Bromfield Road
> Somerville, MA 02144
>
> Tel 617.627.3814
> Email andrew.valenti at tufts.edu
>
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-user/attachments/20120106/73272b7c/attachment.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> sakai-user mailing list
> sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user
>
>
> End of sakai-user Digest, Vol 35, Issue 2
> *****************************************
More information about the sakai-user
mailing list