Software
New WebLearn was upgraded on 11th January 2011 to version 2.6-ox6. For more detailed information please looked at the detailed release notes.
Unfortunately due to technical difficulties, it was not possible to upgrade the surveys tool. We apologise for this and will rectify the situation in time for the next upgrade on Feb 1st.
Improvements
- Addition of a ‘select all users’ button to Site Info
- Allow sites to be joined / un-joined via site info
- Display of joinable sites in the list of sub-sites
- New version of Tutorial Signup tool
- add a checkbox “Add these sessions to schedule” – means that all sessions do not have to appear in the site calendar
- events no longer mess up the display of the calendar
- when creating repeating events add “number of meetings” field as an alternative to supplying a date
- Addition of usernames to Tests tool results page
- Newer version of Markbook
- It is now possible to create a one-off public Poll in a non-public site (for use with m.ox)
Bug Fixes
- Dates now internationalised in daily and weekly printable view (PDF) of calendar and on list of events
- Fixed errors with deleting files / folder via WebDav
- The tables on the ‘Manage subgroups’ page are now wider
- Polls now supports voting for more than one option per poll via m.ox
- Non logged in users can now vote and see results in Polls tool via m.ox
Training
The Surveys course was run for the very first time in November. We obtained good feedback and will be aiming to further improve the course in the future.
Mobile polls pilot has been launched. A new feature allows audience members to vote in a WebLearn poll via their mobile phone this done via Mobile oxford (m.ox) – A workshop was held. See: https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/info/eas/polls
More video screen-casts have been produced including Migration for Old WebLearn and Forums. http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/adamweblearn/2010/09/video-tutorial-guides-for-site-managers/
Projects
Sir Louie is making solid progress, we expect to have an enhanced reading list tool available at Easter. This will happen in tandem with modifications to the UI of SOLO: when searching is invoked from WL there will be a link to “import this item to WebLearn” alongside each item. See: https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/central/oucs/sirlouie
The WebLearn team have been working in conjunction with the Podcasting team on the JISC-funded Listening For Impact project, see: http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/listeningforimpact This involves placing in-line audio and video players within WebLearn’s News tool and also developing a wizard for browsing the Oxford Podcasts website: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/.
The Student Enrolment System II project is due to start in February. This project builds upon the very successful initial phase and adds new features and for both students and administrators. In addition a layer of interoperability will be built-in via the use of the Oak Groups store and judicious use of open standards such as IMS LIS and XCRI-CAP.
The WebLearn team are involved in other two internal projects led by other teams within OUCS.
- Nexus-WebLearn integration which looks towards the integration of Calendars and groups (via the Oak Groups store) and will look at document workflow going from SharePoint to WebLearn (eg, development of course handbooks).
- Janus project: two factor authentication. This project will pilot an additional method of authentication in addition to the regular Webauth Login protection – this may take the form of a hardware token, phone-based validation or some other scheme.
The Student enrolment System II project is due to start in Feb.
Staffing
Dr Marc Savitsky has joined the WL team as a developer; Dr Robin Hill has joined on sabbatical from University of Wyoming and will be looking at generating site templates to help encourage best practise
Events
LTG hosted a UK Sakai day, despite the snow there were about 40 attendees with talks from Ian Dolphin (Sakai Foundation), Patrick Lynch (Hull U) who spoke about migration from Blackboard, John Norman (U Cambridge) who spoke about Sakai OAE (formerly Sakai 3) and Stuart Less (OUCS) who spoke about the benefits of choosing an open source VLE. The event was sponsored by SunGuard HE and rSmart who also spoke about their commercial offerings of hosting and support.
Upcoming
- HT 2011 Additional video-based documentation.
- Mid HT 2011 Improved Surveys tool with functional extension dates and other bug fixes.
- Mid HT 2011 Integration with Oxford Podcasts.
- TT 2011 improvements to Student Enrolment System student and administrator UI
- TT 2011 redesigned guidance site
- TT 2011 Site deletion (with recycle bin).
- TT 2011 Reading list improvements (Resources) integration with SOLO and real-time availability within reading lists.
