Posted by markwk on April 26, 2011 at 2:51pm
Regarding the slight off-shoot from the discussion on edu features ( http://groups.drupal.org/node/137779 ), I wanted to open a new discussion about using OpenAtrium to create an educational collaborative distro, AtriumEd.
One change I'm making is adding a wysiwyg.
Other thoughts and ideas and changes?
Comments
One thing we're interested in
One thing we're interested in for OA is better taxonomy integration - e.g., views and blocks at the site and group level that help students use tags to track topics across content types.
Organize OG Groups Directory Area
I'm also interested in taxonomy / organization for groups themselves. I've found that organizing groups or giving groups organization can be be challenging. Especially considering student like the idea of creating their own groups for temporary projects from time to time.
For now I have a simple CCK option for class | social group | project group, regardless of whether its public or private.
For example, I'd be interesting in associating "projects groups" for example with classes some how, perhaps via something like node_reference
I probably wouldn't mix
I probably wouldn't mix student groups system with course home system. This seems like it could get very difficult to diagram / keep track of as a student as to which context they are in. As it stands I get a bit lost in OA if there are a lot of projects in my sample spaces since it's only color differentiating things. Students teams / groups sounds to me more like stock OA where as AtriumED would be changing terminology a bit and adding in other features (like schedule builder ;) ).
Ex Uno Plures
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Your meaning is that student
Your meaning is that student project groups should exist elsewhere? Like some other site?
I agree entirely the student work groups is stock OA stuff. AtriumED should be geared toward educational goals for classroom, blended and e-learning scenarios.
In my example, nothing is changing in terms of what a group, except that they are labelled as class, social or project, in fact these can still be public or private.
I am currently using the notebook feature as both a space for general class materials and assignments. The only difference is that I am using a cck field (general /or/ assignment) to split the content into two blocks. Does this seem correct or better to create a separate feature called something like "Writers' Workshop" ?
ahh ok. I misunderstood
ahh ok. I misunderstood original thoughts on the subject I think. I was thinking student groups that they could assemble independently of any course to work on projects. Probably me jumping to thinking about archaic, bundled LMS functionality ;)
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Open Atrium versus Drupal Commons
I guys,
Between us we represent Penn State, U. Wisconsin, and we're working on similar things here at Babson College. We are deciding between assembling these organic groups (OA) features in Drupal 7 starting from a base drupal install, or we can go with Open Atrium, or Drupal Commons. I was hoping you guys might also take a look at Drupal Commons to see if that distribution would make more sense. It seems a bit easier to customize. Acquia tells me lots of work is being put into Commons as well. Anyhow it might be easier to work with Acquia rather than Phase 2 Technology, since Acquia might care what our needs are.
Anyhow. I'm making an internal facebook wall for our students which I will be able to share at some point. I hope to publish it as a feature in the next few months.
Cheers,
James
Babson College
Phase2 has a long commitment to the community
Phase2 has done some great work in the install profile space. If there are clearly developed needs about different ways to use OA, I'd imagine they'd be pretty open to it.
FunnyMonkey
Group Features vs. Site Features
When I started thinking about the question of which distro for my educational needs 5-6 months ago, Drupal Commons seemed a little immature and little bit too much of everything. Since then it has seen tons of work and site-wide features are not possible, and at the same time, OA hasn't changed much. It's possible that OA will move to D7 once they change all the dependencies to D7. Then we might see some changes. Obviously Acquia has put a lot of mental muscle behind Commons.
Anyways, for me, the Commons vs OA question is at the level of customization between Group Features (OA) vs. Site Features (OA).
Scratch that. It looks like
Scratch that. It looks like Commons will soon be using: http://drupal.org/project/og_features which will give you group level customizations but without the requirement of Spaces.
Detail here: Here are the
Detail here: Here are the details on this and other changes in the works for Commons: http://commons.acquia.com/blog/new-dev-release-available-2011-april-18
Also very interested...
Glad to see this discussion!
OA is really great, but is lacking some key features for us for use in the classroom... the obvious need is wysiwyg that is easy to enable (I think it should just be built into OA), better taxonomy integration, and some features specific to course administration.
We would love to see creation of education specific features that can then be turned on or off for groups as it makes sense. Gradebook (including assignment collection, grading/feedback), a way to post content "modules" inside the group that students can complete, SCORM or equivalent support, quizes, dropboxes, shared files, wiki, blog, etc etc. I am pretty new to all of this, so there may be other/better ways to get this functionality - perhaps new drupal modules or more actively developing ones that exist. Lots of room for collaboration here.
Anyway, just thought I'd share my two cents and encourage the discussion.
Marc
Center for Patient Partnerships @ UW Madison
Take functionality of this
Take functionality of this release -- http://drupal.psu.edu/content/134
And replace your dropboxes / shared files / gradebook (if you wanted...). Most likely I'm going to use Atrium or something like it as a backbone for this project. Right now its just there to demonstrate what the functionality could be like within 1 course space.
Features could be a good way of distributing efforts across universities if we're working towards similar goals even if its just to get baseline functionality. I still see universities / colleges taking what's available and cobbling things together to meet their own needs (or at least mine) and leaving "features" out there as a good way of talking about needs but not really implementing. The one thing I don't like about features is that once implemented they can have certain connotations that are difficult to break free of even for simple changes. Then there's the maintenance of features and sustainability of a feature in an ecosystem of modules but that's another subject entirely.
Ex Uno Plures
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http://drupal.psu.edu/
Classroom use
FWIW, Voicebox comes with a WYSIWYG that is fully configured, and a featureset that is built to be extensible (with both a full and a minimal install), and taxonomy clearly integrated throughout.
We would welcome an OG feature.
We tried to make as few assumptions as possible with the base config in order to preserve the flexibility of the base install. With that said, the simplicity of the base install is one the profile's main assets.
FunnyMonkey
I've nearly got a wysiwyg
I've nearly got a wysiwyg working with OA as default. I've also got a teacher's correction module in the works.
I currently just using a cck_option for general vs. assignment as a way to collect assignments with a split block for each. I'm not sure this is really the sustainable solution. So, one question I was wondering was whether I should instead create an new content type for Writing assignment and either 1.) create a separate feature or 2.) incorporate it to the existing notebook feature? Thoughts?
(Brian, question: how are the automatic book getting generated in ELMS? I was thinking about having something like an automatically generated notebook book and assignments book)
Not sure about the first one
Not sure about the first one but as for ELMS. The book outlines are getting created via nodeapi for the course / group node creation. Since it's using the multi-step module once you've completed step 3 it builds the book node. I believe this all takes place in the elms_spaces module though it could be elms_helper. It's pretty easy to do via nodeapi though I'm currently looking at using http://drupal.org/project/skeleton to ship more premade course content outlines with ELMS alpha 4.
Ex Uno Plures
http://elmsln.org/
http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/
Two other options
http://drupal.org/project/node_template could be useful; we also have some code that could be useful for quickly cloning books in the Book Copy module: http://drupal.org/project/book_copy
FunnyMonkey
template didn't support books
template didn't support books in D6 so I steered away from it after trying it out but http://drupal.org/node/336280 does look interesting to me from book_copy. Shifting a book's clone from one OG protected space to another is causing a lot of issues for me at the moment (I believe cause of PURL requirement in OG/Spaces setup). I'll add book_copy to my list of things to check out though as I still have to solve this problem.
Ex Uno Plures
http://elmsln.org/
http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/
AtriumED Dev Build / Release
Happy Workers Day!
I got a dev build / release of so-called AtriumED. The build file is here: https://github.com/markwk/oa_edu_lc_make and features are here https://github.com/markwk/atrium_features and here https://github.com/markwk/lc_features and you'll definitely want use the modified profile file here: https://github.com/markwk/openatrium The make file should work fine to get everything together.
Still some site specific stuff (foreign language learning), but love to have someone else check it out and see how it goes. The WYSIWYG seems to work fine and the quizzes and polls (most annoying part of getting it to work) now are only displayed and function as group features.
=========================
Changes Made So Far:
-Added WYSIWYG with ckeditor.
-Modified User Profile for educational setting.
-Separated General from Assignment in Notebook area.
-Set RealName to use Full name instead of Username.
-Modified Group settings and organization for educational setting.
-Added Teacher Role with permissions to view user emails.
-Updated Naming Conventions of Features for Educational Setting
-Added a couple "edu" specific features.
-Specified Book Pages as either General or Assignment with Separate Blocks.
-Comments on separate page with Talk module and display tab like: Talk (0 comments) 0 new
=========================
Added Features
Embed Video
A simple feature for adding 3rd Party Videos.
Imageboard
A gallery and image sharing area for groups.
Polls
A polling booth for creating polls and gathering feedback.
Quizzes
Create multiple choice, short answer and essay quizzes.
Words2Words (working but still in development)
Add vocabulary words, flag for review and study flashcards.
=========================
Possible Future Features
-Assignment Content type / feature?
-Integration with ELMS's schedule builder
-Integration with an evaluation / grading mechanism.
-Auto create lesson or assignment nodes.
Wow! Looks like a big step
Wow! Looks like a big step forward!
We've put together a very modest beginning of a feature to improve taxonomy support in open atrium.
Here's what you can do:
As you can see, there are certainly some areas for improvement, but I thought I'd share this little bit to at least provide a starting point.
Ideas for further improvement: dashboard setting exported in code? multiple column tag list? better icon? ....? ....?
Expermenting with uuid_features
I'm currently experimenting with uuid_features that allows taxonomy and even nodes to be included with features.
Expermenting with uuid_features
I'm currently experimenting with uuid_features that allows taxonomy and even nodes to be included with features. Probably try to use it to share taxonomy across several sites.
This looks good. I was
This looks good. I was looking at OA for a slightly different use within an educational setting - an intranet to help organise the Governors (and potentially staff). I like the addition of polls and ckeditor and am curious how you got polls and quizs to appear at group level only. I think I may try and use you enhance OA to get the additions - I'll need to strip out the language specific stufff and ammend the profile as well but think it would be a good base.
Also I created the platform using your drush make file and installed the site but I noticed that the user image at the top left corner is now about twice as big as stock oa and is overlapping some of the breadcrumb. Do you get this as well / know how to fix.
Also I noticed there is an LC homepage feature which doesn't seem to do anything once enabled - do you know what this is meant to do?
TIA,
JamieT
Thanks for the comments. 1.)
Thanks for the comments.
1.) Polls and Quiz limited to groups: Real headache this one. A friend and I had to hack at the atrium core feature in the end. There is some javascript and a few modifications in other places. Search "poll" or "quiz" inside atrium core feature and you'll see what I did. ***I need a real drupal programmer to check how proper these changes are... :)
2.) User image: Yeah, I noticed that problem too about user image size today. Not sure where it's coming from yet. I'll check it out this weekend.
3.) LC Homepage: that stuff was a previous feature I built for eduglu. It probably should be deleted, since basically that same function works with the group dashboard. I need to look into how to add more blocks/boxes to the dashboard automatically.
Still plenty of work that could be done, but like you said, it's a good base.
Mark
User Image Culprit
The user image size error seems to be coming from the realname profile feature. Disable that and its dependencies and it should be fine. I'll have to look at what is causing it exactly, because in an educational context, I think it is necessary to use RealName instead of a user name.
my 2 cents on realname
I'd probably stick to username or providing the option of changing it to users. I believe policies of some institutions would mandate that students have the ability to represent themselves in a semi-anonymous manner for legal reasons. Example locally being I know people can request to only have their username show up in the school's LDAP system when queried. Though if the names are coming from an automated source then just taking into account a blank name would probably do it.
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Interesting
Hadn't thought of that. I think I'll probably remove the realname requirement for now anyways.
Assumptions
RE: "I think it is necessary to use RealName instead of a user name."
This is a tricky line to draw - it bakes in an assumption, which in an install profile then becomes a technical dependency.
In VoiceBox, we used first name/last name fields, and wrote some custom code to use first last on views arguments that use the uid -
It's similar, but it avoids additional module cruft, and it means that there are fewer assumptions baked in.
FunnyMonkey
I agree with Bill. We store
I agree with Bill. We store a firstname / lastname field and then use a technique similar to RealName to just render username (main role). That way in chatrooms, comment streams and other postings in the course students will be able to quickly see bto108 (administrator) or abc123 (instructor) in our cases. This informs everyone who they are talking to without potential legal issues, was minimal code (one theme function in the elms_helper module i believe), and kept us from another dependency.
Ex Uno Plures
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Hello Mark, I like the
Hello Mark,
I like the enhancements you made to the usual atrium. Only one item I would want to change and you referred to it in your post above and that is the site specific Language stuff in the content types. Is it possible to take your features and add them to the usual atrium install and would this stop the language specific additions from happening or is it baked in to the features not the install profile? Any thoughts / ideas as to the best way to remove these fields?
Also as per btopro's comment (http://groups.drupal.org/node/144979#comment-505559) below have you looked at apps-open-atrium-folders and thought if that is worth inclusion in your make file?
TIA,
JamieT
Wonder if you all saw this
Wonder if you all saw this come out the other day. It came across the drupal planet feed and we're testing it for our intranet currently. It's awesome from my early usage of it. Great UI / streamlining of file folders in Atrium spaces. Could be really good for including documentation which is what we're doing currently or in a LMS context distributing lesson / course files to students. LMS replacement here we come ;)
http://nuvole.org/blog/2011/may/25/apps-open-atrium-atrium-folders
Ex Uno Plures
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http://drupal.psu.edu/
I noticed that post as well
I noticed that post as well and was keen to see if anyone else had tried this or not? Looks pretty good and exactly what I'd like to include in a demo I am preparing for. How did you go about adding it just downloaded the feature and go through the UI or did you modify a drush make somewhere?
TIA,
JamieT
I just downloaded it and
I just downloaded it and added the files into the right place, turned it on in my atrium site. So far everyone likes it (me included). It also works very well with outline designer which I have turned on in my stack. This way you can add the folders and sub folders up front but then move them around and rename things w/ instant updating. Not super necessary but still neat none the less :p
Ex Uno Plures
http://elmsln.org/
http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/