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Some Newbie Questions



  • 2006-07-25 08:00:15

    Some Newbie Questions

    Generally I like what I see a lot. My main issue so far is creating an environment that is easy to navigate in and to configure flexibly.

    I don't have technical problems but some questions:

    i) Can you configure a home page in any other than your standard format? If not is this what the Mambo (Joomla?) link was supposed to address?

    ii) When you create a course, there seems to be no link between what is in the course home page as an Icon and the tabs and the manage. How is all that done?

    ii) The administrator module seems very light - I did not see how I would set the tools to be used - for example the manage tab does not enable you to remove some of the tools many of which are just clutter if you don't need them.

    iib) Is there a configuration module I have missed? In VB or Mambo/Joomla you know exaclty where you are and you can configure in many ways. Here I feel a bit lost when trying to understand what I can actually set up - is there an element I have overlooked?

    iii) Are there any beacon sites that you use to show what can be done with the package. I have looked at a couple of sites from your link page but they are generally very small with minimal content.

    iv) Does your wiki have any doument size limits?

    Any help would be much appreciated.
    Thanks Nick


  • 2006-07-25 08:36:22

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    You should probably see the documentation first (i.e. the handbook linked in the footer). Most of what you have asked in described there.

    i) Manage>Properties

    ii) One is student tools, the other is instructor tools

    ii) admin does not have a manage tab. Instructors use Manage>Student tools

    iib) Manage>>Student Tools

    iii) See the atutor.ca demo

    iv) limited by your php settings


  • 2006-07-25 09:05:57

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Thanks Greg, I'll follow up your suggestions.
    Cheers,
    Nick


  • 2006-07-25 10:22:36

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Dear Greg,
    We have looked at the documentation and still ahve a few questions please bear with us.

    i) We can see a bit what the interface might be like for the student, from the handbook. Although it will be good to use it live.

    ii) We will need to create a home page for students that acts as a point of access to both courses and resources. So for example, as we work in a fairly narrow field, we might expect a user to want to browse all case studies or all key readings. Is this sort of 'horizontal' display feasible. I think we could map most of our objects onto your tools but at present the display of data appears to be course>resource whereas we foresee browsing by resource category>course as of value - is this possible in A-Tutor?

    iii) Is there a search advanced by with we could search for resources across all courses? This might be aonther way around the same problem.

    Thanks again,
    Nick


  • 2006-07-25 10:57:02

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    i) Apart from the Manage tab, there is no difference between the student and instructor views

    ii)You probably want to build an external school homepage, or something like that, outside of ATutor. The student homepage in ATutor is the MyStart page, which has a list of all student's enrolled courses. Then each course has it's own homepage.

    iii) All public courses, and all courses a student is enrolled in, can be search with the search tool, though I do not believe the "resources" ala reading list are currently a part of the search.


  • 2006-07-26 05:20:11

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Dear Greg,

    I am working with Nick. I've got the following question:

    i) Is there any way of having a cross-course data exchange, either through the file storage or the reading list? As Nick mentioned, would we have course topics quite close to each other, whose members would have to be able to share certain documents, links etc.

    Best,
    Nicole


  • 2006-07-26 06:19:37

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    IJust to add to what nicole mentioned above, we tried the groups and categories and these looked hopeful. It appeared that there were some technical problems in this - are they working currently in current version?
    Best,
    Nick

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    Dear Greg,

    I am working with Nick. I've got the following question:

    i) Is there any way of having a cross-course data exchange, either through the file storage or the reading list? As Nick men...
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=8468;page=1#8478[/op][/reply]


  • 2006-07-26 08:33:07

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    The only thing that can currently be shared across courses, are forums.

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    Dear Greg,

    I am working with Nick. I've got the following question:

    i) Is there any way of having a cross-course data exchange, either through the file storage or the reading list? As Nick men...
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=8468;page=1#8478[/op][/reply]


  • 2006-07-26 08:35:00

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    As far as I can tell, groups are working fine in the current version. If you are having trouble, describe the problem.

    I'm not sure what categories you are referring to.

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    IJust to add to what nicole mentioned above, we tried the groups and categories and these looked hopeful. It appeared that there were some technical problems in this - are they working currently in c...
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=8468;page=1#8479[/op][/reply]


  • 2006-07-27 10:12:33

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Dear Greg,

    Two more question coming up while setting up the courses.

    i) I've created sub-groups within a course as instructor and am able to see them there. Once I log in as a student I am not able to see any of these groups, even though assigned to it. I get told "you are not in any group".

    ii) When in the instructor area I can see these groups, including several tools, e.g. blog, file share, links, forum. Is there any way of influencing the number of these tools, e.g. how could I add 'reading list', 'ewiki' etc. to that list?

    Thanks,
    Nicole


  • 2006-07-27 17:12:52

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Is the student you are logging in as a member of a group? Once you have defined a group, you need to add students to it.

    only 4 tools are currently available as group tools (the ones you've listed). More group tools will come in future releases.


  • 2006-07-28 09:57:57

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Dear Greg,

    Thanks for that.

    i) How can I upload other images/gifs to the icon database?

    ii) I can't see the 'reading list' in the students perspective, but in the instructor once. Is it inter-linked with something?

    Best,
    Nicole


  • 2006-07-31 08:17:13

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    i) Use an ftp client to upload icons to the images/courses/ directory

    ii) seems to be working fine. Add resources forst, then add them to the reading list.

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    Dear Greg,

    Thanks for that.

    i) How can I upload other images/gifs to the icon database?

    ii) I can't see the 'reading list' in the students perspective, but in the instructor once. Is it i...
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=8468;page=1#8505[/op][/reply]


  • 2006-08-03 03:47:08

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Dear Greg,

    There are still a couple of problems coming up while working with ATutor.

    i) There are still problem when logged in as a student: one can't see the working groups, even though created and members assigned to it. The same goes for the 'reading list' - it is all fine in the instructor area, but once in as a student these things don't work!

    ii) In the 'File Storage'>New File>Create New File. The system opens the created file into an excel sheet. How do I get it as a word doc?

    iii) Is there a way of adding footnotes/endnotes into a wiki document? It does not work in this version, at least not with <ref></ref>, which works with other wiki versions.

    iv) How could I add categories to the 'Reading List's" existing categories such as book/AV/handout/file/URL, e.g. article, discussion paper?

    v) ACollab seems not to work. I am aware of your plans to not use it anymore, but for our project the whiteboard would be very useful. There are problems with accessing ACollab.

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-08-03 08:20:39

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    We'll need some information about the system you are running. Complete the information asked for when you post a message to the forum.

    i) I'm not sure what to tell you about student login to groups. It all seems to be working, from what I can tell. Can you try to reproduce the problem on our demo site.

    http://atutor.ca/atutor/demo.php

    ii) That is a browser setting. You will need to reset the association in your browser options, between the file extension and the application that open those files.

    iii) You could manually add them. A footnote/endnote is not a feature you'd normally find in a wiki. BTW, the wiki is third party software (Erfurt Wiki) so we don't have much control over how it functions. You'd need to talk to its creator. The ref tags may be a custom tags from some previous wiki you've been using. I don't think it is part of ewiki.

    iv) Reading list resource types can't be change currently. That might be something we consider adding in the future though.

    v) ACollab itself has to be installed before you install the module. That said, it does not have a whiteboard. You might want to use something like Marratech, or maybe AComm, for that.


  • 2006-08-29 04:08:29

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Greg,

    Here are details:
    operating system - Mac OS X : Darwin Kernel Version 8.3.0
    version of ATutor - ATutor-1.5.3.1
    versions of php - PHP 4.3.11 :Zend Engine v1.3.0
    version of mysq l - 5.0.21
    webserver & version - Apache/1.3.33
    copies of error messages -
    changes to default settings -
    web browser being used - on Server : Safari
    and anything else relevant - Clients : Safari/IE/FireFox/Mozilla Based browsers

    And here are some more issues:

    i) Reading List: I tried to simulate it in the demo version, but there it is working - still not in our version.

    ii) Create a new file: I still got problems if wanting to create a word doc - it is working with .html.

    iii) Uploading images: Is it possible to upload pictures others than for the 'course icons'. e.g. to add pictures for the members?

    iv) Where do I change the time settings?

    v) Inbox: I've had some problems with sending emails through the internal mail system>error: you must choose a recipient - which I had done.

    Best,
    Nicole


  • 2006-09-01 03:26:00

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Greg,

    An additional question:

    i) When creating a new course you can decide on the the level of access > public-protected-private. When setting it up on "private" you get the option to tick "hide this network from the browse network list". How is one then supposed to get to know about this course existing?

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-09-01 05:17:34

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    ii) you can not create word files ( I guess because it is not an open document format)

    iii) you can upload pictures to the file manager or file storage, but it is not yet possible to have profile pictures. I'd like this feature too.

    v) it is not e-mails, but internal messages. that said, there was a bug in 1.5.3.1 causing this, so you should upgrade to 1.5.3.2. if not, this is Joels answer:

    "Inbox has been fixed. The fix is to add ", M.member_id" after "M.login" on line 157 of send_message.php"

    (but do upgrade)

    additional question: there could be many reasons for not including a course in the course catalogue, for instance when developing a new course. you could then notify people by e.mail, or enroll people through manage -> enrollment, and they will get a link to log in.


  • 2006-09-14 07:03:46

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Hi,

    One quick question on the time setting. It seems to be linked to the server location rather than to the computer. Is there any way to disable the time setting?

    Another thing, which we came across: in the Forum, only the person being set as coordinator is able to edit/delete threads and comments. In order to get around this you can give the other members the privilege to do so, but then basically anybody is able to change anyone elses reply, without making that obvious. Are you working on this already? It would be handy, if the person who has written something is able to change its own words.

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-09-14 08:46:26

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Re timezones, there isn't a way currently to change it. We're working on it.

    Yes, only the instructor or privileged course member can edit. We haven't made any plans to change that. Being able to edit you own posts is not necessarily a good thing. It would need to be a course property (edit forum messages on/off), which means some effort would need to go into adding this feature. We are open to the idea, but it not something high on our priority list at the moment.

    For now, if a message needs editing, a student can ask the instructor to do it.

    [reply][b]In reply to:[/b]
    Hi,

    One quick question on the time setting. It seems to be linked to the server location rather than to the computer. Is there any way to disable the time setting?

    Another thing, which we came a...
    [op]forums/view.php?fid=7;pid=8468;page=2#8791[/op][/reply]


  • 2006-09-15 03:48:33

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Greg,

    Thanks for the previous comments.

    i) Anchors: Maybeyou ar ealready aware of it - I tried to create some anchors within a page, but I always get referred back to the 'first page' of the course, the same happens when I create footnotes with the two double curly brakets. Any advise on that?

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-09-15 09:13:19

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Use the following to create anchors. The [cid] tag will get replaced with the proper content ID.



    <a href="[cid]#bottom">bottom</a>


  • 2006-09-25 10:06:18

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Greg,

    i) We tried downloading several language packages, but it allows only a download per person. Is there any way around this? One should be able to download more than just one.

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-09-25 10:21:14

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Users can download all the language packs through the translation main page.

    Translators though are limited to one language at a time for translation, though that will change in the next release (decemberish)

    see:
    http://www.atutor.ca/view/4/8855/1.html


  • 2006-10-18 07:24:34

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Hi,

    How to I add anchors in the content navigation for linking different chapters with each other?

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-10-18 09:09:06

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    I'm not quite sure I understand what you are trying to do. You can not add anchors to the links in the Content Navigation menu.

    You could use the Related Topics feature, under the Properties tab in the content editor. You'll also have to turn on the Related Topics menu block Manage>Student Tools>Side Menu


  • 2006-10-18 11:00:10

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    Greg,

    I meant to link to link the different chapters in the 'content navigation' (see: side menu bar) in 'home'. For the moment I solved it by creating external links in order to be able to link e.g. chapter 1.1.1 with chapter 1 etc. If there is a more 'sexy' way of doing it, please let me know.

    Cheers,
    Nicole


  • 2006-10-18 12:17:24

    Re: Some Newbie Questions

    That would be the way to do it, though for interoperability purposes, these links would break if you were to reproduce the content, for another course session for example. If you're ok with that, right click on a menu link, save link location (or what ever your browser calls this function), the paste the link into your content page.