Web Links, which are items in Resources which, when clicked, redirect the user to a specific web page. In general, these are external web sites but could also be links to pages or documents stored in WebLearn.

Web Links are not included when exporting the whole site (Site Info > Export Site), however, you can use the following Unix command line script to automatically generate a web page containing all Web Links in a particular site. (You must make sure all folders containing WebLinks (in Resources) are available to the Public. To do this, select Edit Details alongside the desired folders and set to public visibility.)

That script again

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$#" -ne 1 ] ; then
  echo "Usage: weblinks2html WebLearn-URL, for example, weblinks2html https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/direct/content/site/[[siteid]].json" >&2
else 
  # assumes the web file has public access
  curl $1 > json
  cat json | grep -e \\.URL\" -e entityTitle  |\
  sed -e 's/"entityTitle": "/echo \\\"">/g' -e 's/"$/<\/a><\/li>";/g'  |\
  sed -e 's/URL"/URL/g' |\
  sed 's|^  "url": |echo "<li><a target=\\\"_blank\\\" href\=\\\"" \| tr -d "\\r\\n"; curl -s -D - -o /dev/null |g' |\
  sed 's+,$+ | sed -n ZzZzZzZzZzZzs\/^Location: \/\/pZzZzZzZzZzZz | tr -d '\'\\\\r\\\\n\'';+g' |  \
  sed "s/ZzZzZzZzZzZz/'/g" |\
  sed 's/"https/https/g' | \
  sed 's|\\/|/|g' > curls;
  . curls | sed '/^">/d' > weblinks;
  (echo "<ul>"; cat weblinks; echo "</ul>")

This generates a page containing an HTML list which can be pasted into a WYSIWYG editor on a web page. Here’s an example

Windows 10 users can open a Unix (Linux) window via the  Windows Subsystem for Linux facility see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 or use linux.ox.ac.uk which can be accessed using Putty (see: https://www.putty.org/).

Alternatively, send a message to weblearn@it.ox.ac.uk making sure to include the address  (URL) of the WebLearn site containing the Web Links and we’ll do it for you.

There is one caveat: only the first 5 levels of nested folders in Resources are exported.

Sakaiger

As I’m sure most readers know, WebLearn is built upon the open source Sakai platform.

One of the software’s founders, Dr Charles Severance has decided to initiate a guerrilla marketing campaign and have some fun, by buying a cheap old car (a ‘lemon’), calling it the ‘Sakaicar‘, sticking a pair of “Sakaiger” ears on it and running it into the ground on the racing circuit!

IT Services offers a variety of taught courses to support the use of WebLearn and the plagiarism awareness software Turnitin. Course books for the WebLearn Fundamentals course (3 hours) can be downloaded for self study. Places are limited and bookings are required. All courses are free of charge and are presented at IT Services, 13 Banbury Road.

Click on the links provided for further information and to book a place.

WebLearn 3-hour course:

• WebLearn: Fundamentals – Thurs 16 May (14:00 – 17:00); or Tues 4 June (14:00 – 17:00)

WebLearn Bytes sessions:

• WebLearn Lessons tool – Thurs 16 May (12:30 – 13:30)
• WebLearn Surveys tool – Thurs 6 June (12:30 – 13:30)

Plagiarism awareness courses (Turnitin):

• Plagiarism: Interpreting Originality Reports using Turnitin (for staff) – Thurs 23 May (12:30 – 13:30)
• Plagiarism: Awareness and avoidance (for postgraduate students) – Wed 29 May (12:30 – 13:30); or Thurs 13 June (12:30 – 13:30)

User Group meetings will run again in Michaelmas term

Please join us at the next meeting of the WebLearn User Group:

Date: Tuesday 12 March 2019

Time: 2:00 – 4:00 pm, followed by refreshments

Venue: IT Services, 13 Banbury Rd

Come and meet with fellow WebLearn users and members of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team to give feedback and share ideas and practices.

Book now to secure your place.

Programme:

• Canvas@Oxford project team: Update on the Canvas rollout to Year 1 programmes of study
• James Shaw, Bodleian Libraries: Copyright and the CLA: Preparing digital material for presentation in a VLE
• Jon Mason, Medical Sciences: Interactive copyright picker (based on source and intended use)
• TEL team: Design and content for WebLearn pages
• Adam Marshall: WebLearn updates

Join the WebLearn User Group site: https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/info/wlug for regular updates and access to audio recordings of previous presentations.

Dr Jill Fresen, Senior Learning Technologist, Technology-Enhanced Learning, IT Services, University of Oxford

IT Services offers a variety of taught courses to support the use of WebLearn and the plagiarism awareness software Turnitin. Course books for the WebLearn Fundamentals course (3 hours) can be downloaded for self study. Places are limited and bookings are required. All courses are free of charge and are presented at IT Services, 13 Banbury Road.

Click on the links provided for further information and to book a place.

WebLearn 3-hour course:

• WebLearn: Fundamentals – Tues 29 Jan (09:15 – 12:15); or Tues 19 Feb (14:00 – 17:00)

Plagiarism awareness courses (Turnitin):

• Plagiarism: Interpreting Originality Reports using Turnitin – Tues 12 Feb (12:30 – 13:30)
• Plagiarism: Awareness and avoidance (for postgraduate students) – Tues 5 Mar (12:30 – 13:30)

User Group meetings:

• WebLearn User Group – Tues 12 Mar (14:00 – 16:00) + refreshments
• Turnitin User Group – Fri 15 Mar (14:00 – 16:00) + refreshments