Development for Syllabus Repository

Development for Syllabus Repository

by Jeff Geronimo -
Number of replies: 14

Hi all,

I'm the Moodle administrator for a private arts college in IL looking for some input/advice from anyone out there that might be able to help. Our college is moving full steam ahead in wanting to centralize the way course syllabi are stored and available. Most recently, faculty members have been posting their syllabi (PDF or MS Word) in their individual course sections and also submitting separate copies to their administrative departments for accreditation purposes. I'd like to know if anyone has any development ideas for how we could create some type of centralized repository workflow for syllabi in Moodle?

Given that my programming and development knowledge is somewhat limited (though I do have access to a great team of developers and programmers), I currently have three ideas I'm considering:

Option 1: Create a separate file repository in Moodle in which faculty/staff could call up the File Picker and upload their syllabus to this repository. They could then go back to their Moodle course, add a resource, and choose the syllabus they just added to the repo. They could also update the same syllabus in the repo so that an updated copy is always available. This workflow theoretically also means that administrative staff could have access to the repo at any time. The downside to this is that faculty would have to get used to a different workflow than what they're used to (i.e., upload to the repo, link to the file via a  Moodle resource, etc.).

Option 2: Create a separate Moodle course in which faculty/staff cohorts could be enrolled so that everyone can upload their syllabi in one course. This course would be available to all administrative staff for accreditation/filing purposes. While this is probably the easiest option, I suppose the downside would be that faculty would have to add their syllabi in two different places (one in the syllabus course, and one in their own course).

Option 3: Find some way to create a module/process/workflow that would allow faculty to upload their syllabus one time in their course, while the same file at the same time gets uploaded to a common repository. Does anybody know how/if a process like this could be accomplished?

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these options and/or any other options I could consider.

Thanks!

Best,

Jeff

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Jeff,

That staff are outputting their syllabi as PDFs makes things more complicated in Moodle. Here's why:

  1. Teacher uploads his/her PDF (version #1).
  2. Admin lists the PDF in another part of Moodle.
  3. Teacher edits and re-uploads his/her PDF (version #2).
  4. Admin's copy of PDF is still version #1.

The problem with PDF is that it's not an editable format, it's basically a printout. It's more convenient to have one shared original, editable document that can be edited online, where it's stored, and then users can download/print the latest version whenever and wherever they want.

Option 4: Use a separate file repository for PDFs, e.g. http://ownCloud.org/ (ownCloud can edit OpenOffice and LibreOffice docs online) or a commercial service, e.g. Google Docs or Microsoft Live (However there are privacy issues with passing on other people's data to 3rd parties).

Option 5: Use a wiki where teachers can collaborate on syllabus development. Wikis keep a history of edits and who made them which can be rolled back if necessary, e.g. accidental deletion of all or part of a page. Some wikis support extensions/plugins that allow users to print out pages as PDF (You can try out MediaWiki.org's PDF printing on any Wikipedia.org page).

There are many more options. I see the main issue being what staff want to do and what they feel comfortable using. They may keep all their course materials in .doc format (very common) and not want to change the way they work. For example, I've witnessed teachers having to learning Wiki markup generate a lot of problems and ill will and the Wikis end up only getting used by a minority.

I'd keep the people who have to use informed at all stages and wherever possible get them to make suggestions, try things out, see what they like, and what they don't. You might find the feedback you get surprising.

I hope this helps! smile

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Jeff Geronimo -

Hi, Matt,

Thanks for the great information! I'll have to add your suggested options to my list and think about this even more. I do have a follow-up question, however: you mentioned PDFs making things more complicated in Moodle. Unless I'm mistaken, if a teacher uploads a PDF (or any other type of file for that matter) into a file repository and adds an instance of it in several places, isn't the file added as an alias? Therefore, if the file were to get updated/overwritten later in the repository, wouldn't all instances and aliases of the file be updated as well?

Thanks,

Jeff

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Jeff,

Re: "Unless I'm mistaken, if a teacher uploads a PDF (or any other type of file for that matter) into a file repository and adds an instance of it in several places, isn't the file added as an alias? Therefore, if the file were to get updated/overwritten later in the repository, wouldn't all instances and aliases of the file be updated as well?" - AFAIK, Moodle's file management system creates a new copy for any edits changes so that the originals are not affected. Imagine the scenario where a teacher uploads a document/file and another teacher edits/replaces it without informing the teacher... this could lead to incoherent course resources and conflicts.

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Rex Lorenzo -

At UCLA we developed a plugin that handles syllabi in a separate section for a course and allows instructors to upload a public version of the syllabus for course shoppers/non-enrolled folks and a private version for enrollment students only.

We presented the tool at the Portland Moodle Moot. However, we have still yet to register the plugin at the Moodle Plugin database.

Github: https://github.com/ucla/moodle-local_syllabus

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/rexlorenzo/syllabus-presentationmoodlemoot

Give it a try. We use the plugin to then do additional reporting on how many courses have syllabi, we are able to send the syllabus links to our Registrar, and sent it to other entities on-campus.

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Rex Lorenzo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Jeff Geronimo -

Thanks for sharing this, Rex! I'll look through the slides and try out the plugin. May I ask if you know if this plug-in will continue to be supported for 2.6? We are looking to upgrade to 2.6 later this summer and it's something I'd love to keep in mind.

Thanks again,

Jeff

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Rex Lorenzo -

It should work for 2.6 I believe.

We are upgrading to 2.7 in the summer, so we will update it to support the new event system and logging system as well.

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In reply to Rex Lorenzo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Rex,

Thanks for sharing! smile

I've installed it on Moodle 2.6 on my testing server. So far everything works as described.

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Rex Lorenzo -

Thanks for everyone who is trying it out. It will really motivate me to submit it to the plugin database.

Someone asked for some reporting tools, but the reporting tools that we developed for the tool are really tied into our University's subject area, division, and term categorization. So we developed reporting tools outside this plugin.

If someone has an idea of how to make a generic report that works for the most people, let me know. Also, please feel free to submit any bugs or pull requests if you have any.

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Kevin Wiliarty -

One idea that I have kicked around for a while without ever acting on seriously would be to develop a Syllabus resource whereby syllabi could be created on the fly based on the contents of a Moodle course itself. In affect, then, the course would be a kind of syllabus editor. These syllabi could be available for download within a course, but then also potentially for culling at a system level. Even from the faculty perspective, might that not be preferable to building a Moodle course AND maintaining a syllabus document?

Some of the things you might want:

  1. The ability to add text at the beginning and end of the syllabus that would not normally display on the course page (such as a preamble, a list of references, etc.)
  2. The ability to opt out of showing certain activities or resources
  3. The ability to include activity or resource descriptions even if they are not displayed on the live page
  4. The ability to display the contents rather than just the title of a Page resource (such as a description of the grade breakdown).
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Kevin Wiliarty

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Mark Pearson -

I really like this idea Kevin. Though would you not want this as a 'Report' rather than Resource?

One could imagine running the report to generate a pdf which then got added to the Course Overview and updated whenever the Syllabus Report was run again.

The big advantage of this approach is that it makes the syllabus dynamically reflect the course as taught. So if you tweak the learning objectives in your course, for example, you can also easily update the syllabus.

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In reply to Mark Pearson

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Matt Bury -
Picture of Plugin developers

Another issue with document/data repositories is that of meta-data so that the repositories can be searched or filtered and teachers/curriculum developers can find the relevant information they're looking for. If you expect that you might accumulate a large number of syllabi or many versions of syllabi (They usually develop over time) then this can become an issue.

I think UNESCO's OER Commons project is doing some work to address meta-data models to facilitate search and filtering in ways that are useful to educators.

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In reply to Mark Pearson

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Kevin Wiliarty -

I've imagined it sometimes as a report, sometimes as a resource, sometimes as a block. I guess that a resource seems most appealing to me at the moment so that you might, for instance, have more than one (for different audiences). It should also be something that the students can find in an accustomed place. Even if it is presented in the course as a resource, the idea would be to have it dynamically reflect the current contents of the course. It would be something like a 'print view with options.' That won't be what everyone wants, but I do believe that many faculty would appreciate it.

Anyway, it's still in the realm of the hypothetical. For now.

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In reply to Jeff Geronimo

Re: Development for Syllabus Repository

by Jeff Geronimo -

Thanks, everyone, for all of the great suggestions and insights on this. I'm going to spend some time revisiting some of these options and share whatever updates I have along the way. This syllabus repository workflow is certainly one of the biggest LMS trends in higher education, especially for accreditation purposes, so it's nice to get some input on how we might be able to streamline the process.

I'll be back in touch!

-Jeff

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