- Strip old versions
- Check links on a page
- Remove pages
- Revert mass changes
- Set Page Flags (Read Only, HTML, ....)
Michael,
I saw that the students can use the admin-function of the wiki. So they can delete elder versions. thats not ok.
I have enabled these functions for everyone who has "edit" access. Shall I hide them all if the user is not a teacher or just the functions which remove pages ? What do you think ?
BTW: I will import the german initial-content you translated as helpfiles.
BTW: I will import the german initial-content you translated as helpfiles.
That's an interesting question. I think the answers depend on what the wiki is used for.
In a pure wiki context, anyone who has edit abilities should be able to do these things. But I can see a use for being able to just let them edit, and not change any of the versions. I think this needs discussion.
My thoughts -
- If its a 'student' wiki, than the student should have full control over their own wiki - including admin functions. Is there a reason anyone can see why they should not?
- If its a 'group' wiki, only editing teachers and teachers assigned to the group should have admin prvileges. All other members of the group can just edit.
- If its a teacher wiki, it should work correctly already.
mike
Ok, I have committed a fix for this. It happened to myself: A student accidentally deleted a whole page...
the access to page-deletion functions is restricted: A teacher can always delete, students only if it is their student-wiki.
the access to page-deletion functions is restricted: A teacher can always delete, students only if it is their student-wiki.
Short answer: Introduce an extra level: split student wiki into student wiki and personal wiki
Long Answer:
Good point: As Tom wrote: what if a student deletes a teacher hint on his page without really using the hint (then it is not a personal but a student/educational wiki)
If the student cannot delete the old versions, You and the student can see this hint shining in an older version of that page and have an educational conversation about that..
One of the mechanism to protect a Wiki when it is open for everyone is this page-version-control, so be carefull when you give it away as admin/teacher.
The same protection should there be for the uploaded files: Everyone can upload, only the admin can delete. Everyone can overwrite a file with an empty one, to hide the content for others, but in the versions there should be a file version store with the old file for the admin to put it back in place
(Like I had in my Swiki ).
Files are not under version control and it would be helluva work to introduce it...
I would look at the wiki with another view: If a student does not care about a hint of a teacher, its not a technical problem. When he/she just deletes it, it is the same situation as in real life when a student does not listen to advices...
Wikis are built upon the philosophy of working together in a good spirit. And it works as examples as wikipedia show. I see the removal of the Admin-function more as a protection from accidentally removing a page than a real protection from misbehaving students. If we want full protection from misuse, we have a lot of work to do...
My expirience usually is, that good students are motivated by having control over a system and get angry or unmotivated when these privileges they would need are missing.
There is an increasal of logging lines on my agenda, so destructional behavior can be identified and sorted out, usually outside of moodle I think
...
I would look at the wiki with another view: If a student does not care about a hint of a teacher, its not a technical problem. When he/she just deletes it, it is the same situation as in real life when a student does not listen to advices...
Wikis are built upon the philosophy of working together in a good spirit. And it works as examples as wikipedia show. I see the removal of the Admin-function more as a protection from accidentally removing a page than a real protection from misbehaving students. If we want full protection from misuse, we have a lot of work to do...
My expirience usually is, that good students are motivated by having control over a system and get angry or unmotivated when these privileges they would need are missing.
There is an increasal of logging lines on my agenda, so destructional behavior can be identified and sorted out, usually outside of moodle I think
...Welcome in the real world with real students. Without blinking with their blue eyes they will say that there even was never such a hint on that page and you start to doubt...: you gave so many hints to all these students....
So, as always: "Trust them is good, monitor them (and your own behaviour ) is better"
Maybe it helps to remember that the current politicians of your country were once students?
lol @ the political analogy.
I agree, Ger. I'm thinking of the rare rare instance of someone being awful. And the less rare instance of someone being clumsy.
-T
I agree, Ger. I'm thinking of the rare rare instance of someone being awful. And the less rare instance of someone being clumsy.
-T
I haven't look at the code for this yet, sorry, but there are multiple versions stored, yes? (example) and each has the user id stored with it. So could we not only allow the deletion functions with logic based upon these user ids?
For example "do not allow students to delete a page when a teacher has edited it" ... and so on...
For example "do not allow students to delete a page when a teacher has edited it" ... and so on...
Elegant!!
One step further, let non-administrative users delete their own versions only. That should handle multi-student Wikis, non-administrative teachers, TAs, etc. Plus then you don't need a group check on delete necessarily. If your rights system will allow it why don't you encourage the teachers to restrict a page rather than deleting it so that they are protected from their own mistakes.
How much harm really comes from not supporting delete though? Most Wikis would prefer that a page be orphaned and ignored rather than deleted.
How much harm really comes from not supporting delete though? Most Wikis would prefer that a page be orphaned and ignored rather than deleted.
Funny, I've been watching what y'all are doing with MyDMS and hoping I could get versioned file management for eWiki from there 
Re #1: What if a teacher writes some significant inline responses to a student wiki and the student deletes it?
So, after following this discussion, I'm thinking we need to do what Ger suggested.
That is, split the 'student' wiki into a 'student' wiki and a 'personal' wiki.
A personal wiki wll be what the student wiki is now. The student will have full control over it for their own use.
The student wiki will give them full editing control, ability to recall versions (non-destructive) but not destructive controls such as deletions.
I'm also going to introduce a 'course' wiki type, for an unrelated task. I'm creating a new course social format, based around the wiki.
Michael, I'll handle this unless you've already started it.
mike
That would be the best of the two worlds ! I have not started yet it it would be great if you could handle this...
I look into the issue of more logging and a "notify on change".
I look into the issue of more logging and a "notify on change".