[Using Sakai] Using SAKAI Course sites

Mark J. Norton markjnorton at earthlink.net
Tue Jul 30 08:35:38 PDT 2013


On 7/30/2013 10:31 AM, igor Novopashenny wrote:
>
> Hi Neal,
>
> We are using SAKAI in the International Projects with Russian 
> universities.
>
> They don't have any course Management system and have self made 
> Student information system.
>

Ah, that explains a few things.  Custom information systems usually 
require custom integration.

> We want to develop eLearning courses in Sakai.
>
> And met several problems with it.
>
> 1.If we want to create a course site in SAKAI we need to have an 
> academic Term, Subject and Course.
>

Term is usually the one people stumble over.  You can create a new term 
with the following query:

insert into CM_ACADEMIC_SESSION_T values (null, 1, "mjn", 
current_date(), "mjn", current_date(), "cal-2013", "Calendar Year 2013", 
"Full year, 2013, Jan. to Dec.", '2013-01-01 00:00:00', '2013-12-31 
23:59:59', true);

With that in place, you can create new Sakai courses manually. Subjects 
could be defined using a course set, probably at the canonic course 
level.  To create courses in Sakai, you'll to understand how sites are 
used represent courses and how sections in a course are defined.

> This information is saved in the SAKAI Database in the tables with the 
> Prefix CM_. So it is necessary to fill these tables with the information.
>

Well, yes and no.  There's more to it to get the sites set up properly.  
Also, some of the CM database tables are optional and not necessarily 
used (such as Meetings).

> First of all we have tried to use the SAKORA tool. We used it and 
> created the tables. It works, and  it is possible to create the course 
> site in SAKAI. But the process of the creation of the SAKORA csv 
> Tables manually is very difficult, so we are looking for the other 
> solutions.
>

Isn't there a way to create the CSV list from your existing course registry?

> What we need is the easy way for the teachers to create their own 
> Course sites in SAKAI and  connect students to these Sites.
>

This can be done with the Worksite setup tool once the academic term has 
been defined.

> We want to have a list of departments of our university. Each 
> department wants to have an own list of canonical courses and create 
> the SAKAI course sites for such courses.
>

Having canonical courses suggests that you want to use more of the CM 
definitions.  Workset setup doesn't actually know about the Course 
Management service, so it won't let you create a new course from a 
canonic course.

> From the other side we want to have an ability to group the students 
> and add users to our course sites using such groups.
>

This is what enrollment is about.

> So, we thought about writing a Web Interface to edit the CM_ tables.
>

Again, not so simple.

> 2. If we have already such course site -- it is connected to the 
> specific academical term. I don't understand what steps are necessary 
> to use the same course site for an other academical Term  and another 
> group of students.
>

You can copy existing content to a new course site or use it as a 
template to create new sites.

- Mark

> Regards
>
> Igor
>
> *Von:*Neal Caidin [mailto:nealcaidin at sakaifoundation.org] *Im Auftrag 
> von *Neal Caidin
> *Gesendet:* Dienstag, 30. Juli 2013 15:59
> *An:* igor Novopashenny
> *Cc:* sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
> *Betreff:* Re: [Using Sakai] Using SAKAI Course sites
>
> Hi Igor,
>
> Could you explain exactly what you are trying to achieve?
>
> It should not be necessary to understand the database tables in order 
> to use Sakai. And it is not a good idea to populate them directly 
> yourself, that is what the application is for. Are you trying to 
> integrate with your Student Information System? If so, which one?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Neal
>
> On Jul 30, 2013, at 9:18 AM, "igor Novopashenny" 
> <Igor at escience.uni-bremen.de <mailto:Igor at escience.uni-bremen.de>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     Hi,
>
>     I'll try to ask them, but I'm also only SAKAI User and want to use
>     the course site.
>
>     But to do it, it is necessary to fill all these tables. Or do you
>     know some other solution?
>
>     The other question. If I already made the course site in SAKAI for
>     an academic Term, how can I use the same course site for the other
>     academic term, next year for an example?
>
>     Regards Igor
>
>     *Von:*sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
>     <mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org>
>     [mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
>     <mailto:user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org>]*Im Auftrag von*Neal
>     Caidin
>     *Gesendet:*Dienstag, 30. Juli 2013 13:51
>     *An:*igor Novopashenny
>     *Cc:*sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
>     <mailto:sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>
>     *Betreff:*Re: [Using Sakai] Using SAKAI Course sites
>
>     Hi Igor,
>
>     You are more likely to get an answer to questions of a technical
>     nature on the Production list (system admins, dbas, etc)
>     ,production at collab.sakaiproject.org
>     <mailto:production at collab.sakaiproject.org>, or the Developers
>     list,sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>     <mailto:sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org>.  The Developers list
>     is a bit more active, but you could try both.
>
>     This list is primarily focused on using Sakai, not developing or
>     debugging it.
>
>     Cheers,
>
>     Neal Caidin
>
>     Sakai CLE Community Coordinator
>
>     Apereo Foundation
>
>     Skype: nealkdin
>
>     On Jul 30, 2013, at 3:27 AM, igor Novopashenny
>     <Igor at escience.uni-bremen.de <mailto:Igor at escience.uni-bremen.de>>
>     wrote:
>
>
>
>
>         Hi,
>
>         we are trying to understand how the tables for the course
>         Management are organized in SAKAI.
>
>         Unfortunately we cannot find any documentation for the tables
>         with the Prefix CM_.
>
>         Analysing the documentation of the SAKORA tools and some other
>         documents we have understood a lot, but there are still some
>         open questions.
>
>         May be somebody can help us.
>
>         1.Table CM_MEETING_T. It looks like, that this table is not
>         used un the current versions. In any case it stays empty in
>         our installation. From the other side we don't understand
>         where the information about the sections (such as*Meeting
>         Details, Section Size etc.)*is saved. If I add some sections
>         the information is saved, but I don't know where.
>
>         2.CM_OFFICIAL_INSTRUCTORS_T What for is this table? It is not
>         used in SAKORA, so I don't understand what the Official
>         Instructor means.
>
>         3.CM_COURSE_SET_CANON_ASSOC_T- I understand the sense of this
>         table, but it looks like that it is not really used. If I make
>         the inputs in the tables manually and leave this table empty,
>         everything works without it.
>
>         4.CM_CROSS_LISTING_T- What is it?
>
>         5.CM_ENROLLMENT_SET_T- As I understand, this table is used do
>         manage different categories of the studies (lecture, practice,
>         laboratory, etc.). For a course offering different categories
>         of studies are defined here. After it the students are
>         connected to this categories of the studies via the table
>         CM_ENROLLMENT_T. Is it correct?
>
>         Kind regards
>
>         Igor
>
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