The release of Moodle 2 brought with it a challenge which most Moodle administrators and teachers had not encountered before, that is, the integration of a content repository with the course management system.
So i have written up a white paper is a look into some the repositories solutions available for Moodle 2, their features and the type of integration functionality.
For more information visit http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/whitepaper-moodle-2-repositories/
I just read this yesterday and passed it along to our technology facilitator and IT director as a catalyst for discussion for repository direction. It was very informative, thanks!
Thank you for the feedback and glad you found it useful.
This is the first of a series of whitepapers, so getting all feedback helps!
G
Gavin
A very useful summary of the current state-of-play of repositories. A couple of points of feedback.
Cheers
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
Thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated.
Yes, the information on the sharepoint integration with M2 is related to the new version from them - you would need to contact them directly, but I felt it was important to include for balance.
The matrix shows the difference of Alfresco "out of the box" integration vs ELIS. The ELIS integration has a lot more features (same as the ELIS CM for 1.9).
I haven't tried the Edu-Sharing one, my german is rusty, but its on my list when i have time to install all that to try it out. I have emailed them to get a test account, time will tell. But here is hoping!
Thanks again,
Gavin.
Hi Gavin
Aah! I had missed the Alfresco-Elis comparison as it was split over several tables.
One minor update, the out-of-the-box Alfresco repository interface does currently allow resource-linking (rather than copying) if you add a URL rather than a File.
It might be useful to include the particular Alfresco version associated with the various bundles (Elis and Edu-sharing). Earlier versions of these bundles were locked into Alfresco 3 or 3.2, whereas Alfresco 3.4 has been around for some time and Alfresco 4 recently released.
Good to know the BFC Moodle 2-SharePoint integration will be available soon.
Some final related points. WebDAV, by definition, should allow versioning. It might also be worthwhile emphasising that the WebDAV repository interface could allow 'generic' integration of a whole raft of different repositories. For example, SharePoint, Alfresco, ePrints, Documentum and Dspace all have a WebDAV interface.
Cheers
Geoff
Hi Geoffrey,
On ELIS/Alfresco, was wondering if I should put a complete table into a landscape appendix or not, all side by side. Perhaps I should in next version of document.
Will check on the Alfresco aspect, I dont recall seeing that option to link to Alfresco via File picker alfresco plugin, mea culpa.
Regarding WebDAV this a tougher issue I guess. Its not really a repository and as you say, it technically could allow access to many different systems (including Blackboard). Each WebDAV interface on a repository has its own choice of how it exposes the local stuff. So technically it has potential to do anything or very little.
Perhaps I should flag it as a special case? rather than say it could do it versioning (which it could or it may not depending if the host webDAV server displays the multiple versions or just the one of the file). Something to think about.
On versions of software, the reason I hadn't added them was that it would "lock" the general document to one combination of all the versions and just require too much updating. My plan was to release, get feedback (like this) and then release an updated version after Moodle 2.2 is released -
Thats the general idea for each of my papers/e-books, to re-update the suite of documents after each major moodle release. But as someone suggested to me just yesterday, it may be good to have a number of people help maintain them rather than just me, which is an idea to play with too.
