Sakai 2011 Conference Information

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Adam Marshall

The Sakai Foundation is pleased to share the initial information and call for presentations for the Sakai 2011 conference in Los Angeles. All conference information will be added to www.sakaiproject.org/sakai-conference-2011 as it becomes available.

The growth in projects, partners, adoption and engagement in the Sakai community creates an opportunity to have a remarkable conference this year. Yet as you can imagine, the move from Berlin to Los Angeles has compressed the timeline of conference preparations.  Achieving this is going to require a community effort. If we can each make a small contribution to the success of the conference and meet the deadlines, it will be a tremendously successful event that is beneficial to everyone involved. Please take a few minutes to review the information and deadlines below.

We would also like to emphasize that the invitation to participate in the Los Angeles conference, like all Sakai conferences, is a global invitation. The geographic range of our organizations creates a rich perspective and experience that is core to the Sakai community and central to our success. In addition to participating in local Sakai events, please consider joining the community in Los Angeles.

Request for Presentation Suggestions

As a new addition to our process this year we are seeking information from conference participants about the session content that they would most like to see included in the program. What sessions would you like to hear? What topics do you hope to have covered? Our hope is that community members will share topics and ideas, and review this list to get ideas for presentation submissions. If you are attending the conference, please share your content requests. If you are willing to present, please consider the requests as you are formulating your presentation proposal. This information can be submitted and reviewed immediately.

Call for Presentation Proposals

We are requesting proposals for conference sessions, pre-conference workshops, birds of a feather topics, and showcases/tech demos. Please consider sharing your expertise in a formal session, or an informal discussion or demo.

Registration and Lodging

Registration will open on April 1. This timeframe is driven by a need to define the pre-conference sessions prior to opening registration. If we are able to get through this process more quickly, I will send a message to the list with that information. You may book a room with the conference rate immediately.

As we begin the process of gathering and reviewing presentation content I would like to acknowledge the conference committee that is contributing significant time to bring this together: Chair-Chuck Powell (Yale University), Brian Dashew (Marist College), Bruce Sandhorst (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Debbie Smith (Concentra), Ian Dolphin (Sakai Foundation), Jenn Cummings (Concentra), John Lewis (Unicon, Jasig), Joel Thierstein (Rice University, Connexions), Kate Ellis (Indiana University), Kim Eke (UNC Chapel Hill),  Kim Thanos (Sakai Foundation), Lance Speelman (Indiana University) Lynn Ward (IUPUI), Lucy Appert (New York University), Mara Hancock (UC Berkeley, Opencast), Michelle Ziegmann (UC Berkeley, Opencast), Mary Miles (Sakai Foundation), Mathieu Plourde (University of Delaware), Rob Coyle (Johns Hopkins University), Trent Batson (AAEEBL), and Doug Johnson (University of Florida).

Best,

Kim Thanos

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WebLearn Survey tool improvements

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Adam Marshall

During the February 2011 WebLearn upgrade, several improvements to the Survey tool were implemented:

  • one no longer has to close a survey to view the results
  • maintainers and contributors can now respond to a survey if so desired
  • it is now clear in the interface that an initial notification of a survey is always sent, whereas the sending of reminders can be configured by the user

Various bugs in the tool were also fixed by the WebLearn developers. In particular, when creating an ad hoc group, one can now supply an Oxford SSO username, and it is no longer possible to inadvertently supply an email address with no corresponding WebLearn account.  It is now possible to create a public survey (requiring no log in) without having to set up a nominal ad hoc group. Manual email reminders can now be sent, in addition to any system reminders that might have been set up. Taking a survey after the end date but before the extension date no longer gives an error, and the list of questions on a template now refreshes correctly.

More details about the Surveys tool improvements can be found at http://tinyurl.com/6k5uj7t.

OUCS offers a half-day course on the WebLearn Surveys tool once per term, which can be booked via the Courses Database, when booking opens for Trinity Term. The course book for self-study can be downloaded from the WebLearn section at http://tinyurl.com/portfolioITLP. There is a step-by-step guide on the WebLearn Guidance site at http://tinyurl.com/4jgwz8j.

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New surveys step-by-step guide is now available

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Adam Marshall

A substantially improved Surveys tool step-by-step guide has just been made available.

It now reflects all the recent improvements which went live at the start of February 2011.

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WebLearn User Group Meeting: 9 March 2011

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Adam Marshall

Come along to our face-to-face meeting of the WebLearn User Group at OUCS on Wednesday 9 March and join us afterwards for our traditional cream tea.  Users from the departments of History of Art and Earth Sciences will share with us how they use WebLearn to support teaching. We will hear about latest developments in WebLearn, including the Oxford podcasts tool, and the WebLearn-Nexus integration project. We will also explore what users would like to see in pre-populated template sites in WebLearn. Come and let your voice be heard…

Booking is required for catering purposes – book now to secure your place

Date: Wednesday 9 March

Time: 14:00 – 16:00 followed by cream tea

Venue: OUCS, 13 Banbury Road

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Technical information about oAuth and Sakai (WebLearn)

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Adam Marshall

Matthew Buckett wrote this article about the authentication technology that we opted to use to allow mobile phones to connect to WebLearn (Sakai).

“We went down the route of using OAuth between Mobile Oxford (m.ox) and Sakai as it allowed m.ox to make requests to Sakai on behalf of a user without the user having to give m.ox their password. (Oxford has a web single sign-on service (Webauth) which is the only place that users should enter the Oxford credentials).

An alternative would have been to trust authentication done by m.ox in any requests coming from them (for example,by having a signed header containing the username) but this means that any compromise on m.ox could expose all Sakai accounts.

By using OAuth only the users who have allowed m.ox access to their account are at risk from any compromise of m.ox. We are not saying m.ox is insecure, but as an application grows in size there are more points to attack.

OAuth is also a reasonably popular standard that existing tools/libraries support. This work builds on an existing Java OAuth implementation (Apache License)

http://code.google.com/p/oauth/

One probably needs to have a basic understanding of 3 legged OAuth to read bits of this article, see:

http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1381-how-to-use-three-legged-oauth/

First off the code is in our public git repository and can be checked out with:

git clone git://git-repo.oucs.ox.ac.uk/git/repos/local-project/oauth

The web view of the repository is at:

http://git-repo.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=repos/local-project/oauth;a=summary

Basically we wanted to allow m.ox to be able to make requests to Sakai with an OAuth token and allow Sakai to take the token, validate it and associate with the user who had issued the token.

To keep the code reasonably self contained we wrote a small servlet filter which looks for the OAuth token in any request and if it finds it attempts to validate it and authenticate the request based on it.

This can be seen:

http://git-repo.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=repos/local-project/oauth;a=blob;f=filter/src/main/java/uk/ac/ox/oucs/vle/OAuthPreFilter.java;h=00b692d9bd4e5dae4ea0b3d187efbbb743dbbb63;hb=HEAD

This filter is bundled up into a jar so it can be added to the dependencies of an existing webapp. If the filter finds an OAuth token, as well as authenticating the request with it, it adds a SecurityAdvisor to the stack which only allows a whitelist of permission checks to succeed. This is to limit how much access someone can get with a OAuth token.

The tool in the OAuth project contains two parts, first is the set of webpages which are used to allow a user to authorise a consumer (m.ox). These are basically the standard ones shipped with the OAuth library which is used. The main difference is that I’ve hooked it up to Sakai’s store of tokens.

http://git-repo.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=repos/local-project/oauth;a=tree;f=tool/src/net/oauth/example/provider/servlets;h=a0c68f2eac40374373885ad003b542ae1bd6cd43;hb=HEAD

The second part of the tool is a Sakai tool which can be added to a user’s My Workspace which allows users to revoke tokens they have authorised. This allows users to remove m.ox’s access if they lose their phone. As a side note m.ox’s sessions last a lot longer than our standard Sakai ones. This was done because repeated username / password entry is a barrier to takeup and due to the limited permissions the exposure isn’t as great as a users normal login.

The OAuth tokens are stores in the Sakai database using Hibernate; this should be fine in a cluster.

The external OAuth library is put into /shared and this isn’t good as it infects all Sakai tools with it’s implementation, ideally this should be hidden behind a private API.

The list of consumers is also static so to add a new one a restart of Sakai is needed, this isn’t ideal but wasn’t too much of a problem for us as at the moment we only have one consumer.”

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Upcoming Sakai Conferences

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Adam Marshall

From Ian Dolphin:

I am pleased to announce the venue, and confirm the date, for the Sakai North American Conference 2011. The conference will take place on the 14th, 15th and 16th of June, at the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles. The 13th and 16th will be available for pre-conference workshops and project co-ordination meetings. The conference committee, chaired by Chuck Powell of Yale University, will be making further announcements in coming weeks. Thanks for your patience and forbearance whilst we completed the initial conference arrangements.

Preliminary conversations have begun to shape the Sakai European Conference. Whilst this remains a primarily regional event, the Foundation will be providing some coordinating support. Likely dates are around the end of September or beginning of October. Again, further details will be posted as they become available. European colleagues willing to serve on an organising committee should contact me directly at iandolphin@sakaifoundation.org .

At the moment there are three possible venues: Oxford, Amsterdam and Barcelona.

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Embed Oxford Podcasts in your site

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Adam Marshall

We have developed a new tool (Oxford Podcasts) which now makes it very easy to embed items from the rapidly growing Oxford Podcasts collection into a WebLearn site. (The Oxford Podcasts website contains exactly the same material as Oxford’s iTunesU area.)

You may add any number of Oxford Podcasts to a site and when a new media item is added to the podcast series you have chosen, it is automatically added to your WebLearn site.

First of all add the ‘Oxford Podcasts’ tool to your site via ‘Site Info’.

Then elect to ‘Browse Oxford Podcasts Collection’, a pop-up window will appear which allows one to browse  or search and select a series of podcasts.

Double clicking on a series will add the URL to the Oxford Podcasts tool; all that remains is to complete the addition of the tool to the site.

The podcast series will appear in the left-hand side tools menu and will use the name of the podcast series as the tool name. Clicking on the tool will bring up a WebLearn page containing in-page media players for all audio or video items.

You may add any number of Oxford Podcasts to a site.

Links

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New Version of WebLearn Released

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Adam Marshall

New WebLearn was upgraded on 1st February 2011 to version 2.6-ox6.1, this includes the delayed  upgrade to the surveys tool. There are more detailed release notes for those who want to know more!

Improvements

  • Survey tool improvements:
    • one no longer has to close a survey to view the results
    • maintainers & contributors can now respond to a survey if so desired
  • New tool called ‘Oxford Podcasts’ now available, this includes a wizard for browsing and selecting Oxford Podcasts for inclusion on a site
  • Pop-up help added for Student Enrolment System (SES)
  • One can now join / leave a site via Site Info

Bug

  • Survey tool bug fixes
    • taking survey after end date but before extension date no longer gives an error
    • prior to publishing a survey, selected sites and groups no longer reports that the survey has ‘0 members’ (unfortunately there are still problems with counting the number of recipients when ad-hoc groups are used)
    • List of questions on a template now refreshes correctly
    • the survey author no longer has to assign the survey to a group if the survey doesn’t require a login
    • when login is required to view survey results, the login page is now displayed
    • it is now clear that an initial notification of a survey is always sent whereas the sending reminders can be configured by the user
    • can now supply SSO username when building an ad hoc group
    • email addresses of users without WebLearn accounts are now shown within ad-hoc groups (instead of internal identifiers)
    • manual reminders can now be sent
    • selecting ‘login to WebLearn’ & supplying an email address with no corresponding WebLearn account as part of an ad hoc group is no longer possible
    • view results page is no longer cached, previously a cached version of the page saying “results not yet available” was seen in error
  • Editing a file using webDAV no longer silently changes group access to a file (this does not apply to Apple Mac users)
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Mobile Oxford wins the UCISA Award for Excellence

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Adam Marshall

Mobile Oxford which amongst other things provides access to WebLearn on a mobile phone has just won a prestigious award.

Mobile Oxford is being used as part of our Mobile Phone Polls pilot – students can vote in a WebLearn opinion poll by using their mobile phone.

From Peter Tinson (Executive Secretary of UCISA):

The 2010 Award for Excellence, sponsored by Eduserv, has been won by the University of Oxford. Their submission focused on the development of mobile applications information services to the staff and students of the University as well as services for the general public in Oxford. The developed resources are available for any other higher and further education institution; a pilot deployment has already been installed for Oxford Brookes University.

The panel recognised that the development was not just targeted at Oxford’s students but at the city as a whole and noted that the application was now in use in both the institutions in the city.

The submissions from the University of Nottingham and Oxford Brookes University were highly commended.

Details of all the submissions are available from the Awards section of the website.

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WebLearn team report Oct 2010 – Jan 2011

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Adam Marshall

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
    1. add a checkbox “Add these sessions to schedule” – means that all sessions do not have to appear in the site calendar
    2. events no longer mess up the display of the calendar
    3. 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.
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