Software
New WebLearn has not been upgraded during this period – it still stands at v2.6-0x10 although we do have a test instance of v2.8-ox1 which is still undergoing QA testing. We have had to postpone the scheduled release until 29th May due to a combination of technical and staffing issues.
The main work in this period has been in providing web service interfaces for the Blavatnik School Of Government (BSG) as part of their project to provide their students with an iPad App interface to their learning material and in the implementation of WebLearn version 2.8. None of this work is live yet.
Training and Guidance
The following new courses have been run (or are scheduled to run)
- Plagiarism: Turnitin Fundamentals
- Plagiarism: Interpreting Originality Reports using Turnitin
- Plagiarism: How to avoid it (for students)
- Turnitin User Group
- WebLearn: Tools for creating interactive online resources
See: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/atoz
Projects
The Student Enrolment System II finished at Christmas.
The OXAM Migration project formally finished at Christmas – the software is still undergoing user acceptance testing, there will be a new release on 29 May. (The new WebLearn tool replicates and improves upon the incumbent OXAM service.)
The Nexus-WebLearn integration project has made slow progress, we are currently working on insertion of (Tutorial) sign-up events in personal calendars.
OxCAP Phase II started (in January) and will run until March 2013. This is a JISC funded initiative to expose data (as a public XML feed) about graduate training courses at Oxford. OxCAP II addresses local needs: we will develop an internal protected feed, a new WebLearn tool which will allow a search of all graduate skills training courses at Oxford to be performed, a Share Point site for entering courses data and a JavaScript library to allow basic searching on institutional websites. This project offers a solution to a problem that students (and staff) have been demanding for a while now; this project has the explicit backing of the PVC for Education and the Registrar. See: http://tinyurl/oxcap
The SIPA project is beginning to bear fruit. We have new courses (see above), a new website (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/turnitin/), a Turnitin Service Level Description, a redesigned TII support site and a User Group site in WebLearn. Also we have been piloting the Turnitin Admissions licence (first institution in the UK to do so — Graduate Admissions are pursuing this), and have been working with the proctors who will liaise with the Education Committee and pass along the issues raised by the User Group.
Staff
A new member of staff, Colin Hebert (to be said in a French accent), started work in the WebLearn team in January. He is initially working on the BSG project and will then move to the “assessment and feedback” project known as SIPA where he will be improving WebLearn integration with Turnitin.
Features in the new release of WebLearn
- Big improvements to Sign-up tool based on user feedback (categories, change organiser, auto create groups, prevent withdrawing when closed, better export (compatible with OXCORT)
- Many improvements to the Forums tool (including better user interface (UI), photos of author)
- Improved webservices interface which can be exploited by Mobile Oxford
- New Profile tool with Social networking facilities
- New improved Email Sender tool (replaces Mailtool)
- Improved wiki UI
- Improved tool permissions ‘widget’
- SES tool bug fixes
- Site templates facility – it will be possible to base a new site upon a selection made from a choice of templates each tailored for a specific situation and each containing their own help and guidance.
