To Publish or Not to Publish, That is the Question

By Alan Regan

Q: "Are class sites automatically unpublished at the end of an academic term?"
A:  No.

Since we've received a few questions about this recently, I thought I would post a quick note on this topic. The question is related to Courses (powered by Sakai), the university's official learning management system. At the beginning of each academic term, we automatically create course sites for all five schools. These sites are initially "unpublished." This means that faculty can see them, but students cannot. It allows professors the time to upload resources and configure the site before classes begin. When ready, professors "publish" their sites so that students can see and access them.

At the end of the term, we do not "unpublish" sites automatically. We leave this at the discretion of our professors. Many professors encourage learning to continue even after a class has ended. Several graduate students have noted their appreciation for the fact that conversations in discussion forums, lecture materials, and other content are still accessible after a semester/trimester ends.

Of course, if a majority of professors prefer that we automatically unpublish all class sites at the end of a term, we can easily do this. If you are a professor at Pepperdine University and feel that past class sites should be automatically unpublished, please let us know.

Q: "Do you delete old class sites?"
A:  No.

With our previous learning management system, storage was very expensive. On our new service, Courses/Sakai, storage is not as expensive. Rather than routinely erase old classes, we decided to retain all past classes. This way, professors can refer back to older class materials and even copy materials into new class sites.

At the end of each academic term, we strongly recommend that professors backup their class Gradebook or other grade data for safekeeping. This is a good practice and will serve as an additional backup in the event that a professor accidentally removes content on Courses/Sakai.

See Also:

• Publish Class Sites 
• Copy Materials from Another Class Site in Courses

Checklist for a New Academic Term

By Alan Regan

Welcome back!

As you get started with a new academic term, we want to remind you of the most common items professors do at the beginning of a new semester/trimester.

Checklist for a New Academic Term:

1. Access Courses (powered by Sakai).
2. Publish your class site so that students can see and access it.
3. Reorder your site tabs to access your classes quickly and easily.
4. Add or remove tools to engage students in learning activities.
5. Reorder your tools to focus student attention.
6. Post your syllabus to inform students of learning objectives and requirements.
7. Copy course materials from a previous semester to repurpose your hard work.
8. Combine class rosters if you are teaching cross-listed classes or multiple sections of the same class but want to manage only one site.

If you are new to Courses (powered by Sakai), need a refresher, or want to expand your knowledge, please sign up for a one-on-one consultation with our Technology and Learning team.  You may also contact your Seaver College technology liaison or graduate campus support representative for training and support.

And if your students need some guidance, point them to http://bit.ly/coursesguide or TechCentral.

We hope you find this information valuable!

Sakai Teaching Hacks

By Gerry Flynn

Do you want to: 

• learn your students' names
• track attendance 
• foster discussion
• provide space for student collaboration
• employ Youtube videos or Twitter hashtags

...in your classes?

If so, then you would benefit from viewing these "Teaching Hacks" presented at the 2011 Sakai conference: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF2011/2011-16-15+LMS-Based+Teaching+Hacks

Matt Clare of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, details provocative teaching strategies he has used with Sakai, including:

• Clandestine attendance tracking
• Giving an entrance quiz on "How I Learn Best" 
• Getting a fake student account (to see what your students see)

At Pepperdine, our version of Sakai is called “Courses.”  You may practice Matt Clare’s strategies in your own course sites by logging in to: https://courses.pepperdine.edu/

Additional information about Courses is available at: http://community.pepperdine.edu/techlearn/tools/courses/

Sharing a Table of Information in Sakai

By Alan Regan

A professor inquired about sharing a table of information with his students. He wrote asking how to "... create a table of text that can be edited in the Resources section of Sakai. Right now I'm having to keep updating a Word document with each addition of information and it would be easier to do this in Courses."

Here are a few options to consider:

1. Create an HTML document in Resources
2. Create a Google doc or spreadsheet and share the link in Resources

Create an HTML Document in Resources

Using the rich text editor, a professor can create an HTML page in Resources (Resources > Add > Create HTML Page). Clicking the Table button in the rich text editor, the professor can specify the number of rows and columns desired. Once created, the professor can easily add or delete rows/columns by right-clicking in the row or column and making the appropriate selection.

Whenever the professor needs to update the information, he/she would return to Resources and edit the page (Actions > Edit Content). If the professor is familiar with HTML, he/she can click the "Source" button and modify the source HTML code to customize the table design with more detail.

Create a Google Doc or Spreadsheet and Share the Link in Resources

Pepperdine University offers Google Docs for Education for our community. It's available at http://google.pepperdine.edu. 

The professor can use the Google Docs service to create a new document or spreadsheet and create the table of information as desired. When sharing the document, click "Change" to modify the permissions. Select "People at Pepperdine University with the link" or "Anyone with the link" if the professor may have non-Pepperdine University participants such as guest lecturers. NOTE: Think carefully. Don't enable editing unless you want all class participants to be able to edit the document.  Also, if you select "anyone with the link" then if participants in the class post the link online or email it to others, then anyone with access to the link can see the information.

Copy the link from the Google document. Return to Courses and go to Resources in the course site. Add the link by clicking Add > Add Web Links (URLs). Paste the web address and give it a title (if desired). Click Add Web Links Now to post the link.

There are likely other solutions to this need, too.  We hope this information helps!

Google Hangout with Dr. Margaret Riel

By Alan Regan

Hong Kha and I had the pleasure of testing Google+ Hangout with Dr. Margaret Riel and some of her learning technologies students. Dr. Riel has years of experience using learning circles effectively in online teaching. We volunteered to help her record a demonstration of Google+ Hangout for small group meetings online.

Check out Dr. Riel's write-up and her screencast of the demo session:
http://mindmaps.typepad.com/mindmaps/2011/10/google-hangouts-with-extras.html

Box.net offers 50GB of free online storage for mobile device sign ups!

By Alan Regan

Do you own an iPhone or iPad? If you don't have a Box.net account and you're looking for some online storage, then check out the following offer: http://blog.box.net/2011/10/12/were-giving-ios-users-insane-amounts-of-free-storage-box50gb/

The company claims that you can receive 50 GB of free online storage forever, but you have to act before December 2, 2011. Normally they offer 5 GB of free storage.  To take advantage of the offer, you need to download the free app from and click "Sign Up" for a new account from your device (not from your computer).

Recently, Apple launched its iCloud service which offers 5 GB of free online storage. And Dropbox.com offers 2 GB of storage for free.

LINKS:

• Apple iCloud - 5 GB (http://www.apple.com/icloud/)
• Box.net - 5 GB (http://www.box.net)
• Box.net special offer - 50 GB (http://blog.box.net/2011/10/12/were-giving-ios-users-insane-amounts-of-free-storage-box50gb/)
• Dropbox.com - 2 GB (http://www.dropbox.com)
• Google Docs - 1 GB (http://docs.google.com)

Interesting Discussion on Sakai and Desire2Learn on Inside HigherEd

By Alan Regan

Members of both the Sakai and Desire2Learn communities are discussing the situation where Blackboard and Moodle seem to dominate the news, yet both Sakai and D2L are viable and robust with large user communities. This is in response to a request from Joshua Kim for more information about the platforms.  He titled his request, "Please Push Back on my D2L & Sakai Biases."

Since we recently transitioned from Blackboard to Sakai at Pepperdine University (and since many other institutions are doing so, too), I felt this was a fascinating thread.  I hope you find the information as interesting as I did!

LINK: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/please-push-back-my-d2l-sakai-biases