Wikieducator tutorial/Pilot testing/Improvements

Introduction

Participants in the pilot test of the WikiEducator Newbie tutorials have suggested a number of improvements. This is part of the developmental testing and quality assurance mechanisms for this development. The community is welcome to assist us in implementing these improvements in the tutorials. We hope you can help us.

Suggested improvements

1. Provide clearer instructions and support (possibly in the getting started guide) distinguishing between independent study questions, and those requiring activity in Moodle. (Submitted by Helen & Paul). After an independent study activity - users are not sure whether they should go to the forum or not. Suggestion - provide guidance in the instructions or feedback of these activities. Status: In progress (see new pages here: Getting started) - to do:
   • Produce screen shot and text for This page Status: done
   • Produce a transcluded page with all the subsections on one page for printing
   • Create and insert Nav template in WikiEducator for the Get Started tutorial brent 02:42, 16 February 2007 (CET)
   • Language edit
   • Produce Open Office and pdf version of the Getting Started Tutorial - so users have something to work from when the start their learning
   • Explain the difference between self study activities, eg Reflection, Reading, Activity which do not require compulsory postings in the Moodle forums. However, the Discussion activity requires participation in the forums. This must be included in the Getting Started Tutorial.
2. Navigation between two virtual environments is confusing (Submitted by Dave & Helen)
3. Helena and I have been wondering whether Tutorial 0 - What is free content? wouldn't be better at the end of the tutorials rather than the first thing? It seems quite a 'heavy' concept, quite academic in some ways, and perhaps it would be preferable to build people up towards thinking about the implications of wiki authoring, free content, etc rather than risking intimidating them in the beginning with all these concepts. Perhaps after learning some editing, it might be a better time to start thinking about these larger issues. brent 23:07, 12 February 2007 (CET) Brent - I think you're right - I set this up as an optional tutorial & folk have started with this. I recommend that we move this to the end for the next iteration of the course. --Mackiwg 23:16, 12 February 2007 (CET). Patricia and Carol have also recommended this move.. Status: Done
4. Consistency edit required - use WikiEducator throughout (not Wikieducator) - (Submitted by Dave)
5. Consider changing links to the tutorials from Moodle to open up in a new Window (assuming the majority of participants find the frames confusing) - (Submitted by Dave). Status: Done
6. Refine instructions on the audio links to direct people to click on the "play arrow" rather than the link below (Submitted by Dave and Helen).
7. Add file size to all MP3 audio links (Suggestion by Brent)
8. Explore the relevance of a simple guide on OERs and start a brainstorm list on topics to be covered in such a guide (submitted by Sir John)
9. Simplify some of the instructions/objectives not to be too academic (it might be overwhelming to somebody who does not have an academic background). Stay strictly with the exercise on how to use the Wiki. Leave philosophical perspectives out. Although worth reading and hearing about, to explain the differences to licensed software, the philosophical perspectives/political sciences point of view should be incorporated into the startup guidelines or under a separate heading for students to read up on and initiate a thought provoking process (submitted by Patricia). Thanks Patricia - see comment above - We'll shift this tutorial to the end. In the pilot it was intended as an optional tutorial - but do take your point that many users would not necessarily be interested in this. However, we must have the resource available so that participants know the difference between free and non-free content to avoid transgressions of copyright. Good feedback. --Mackiwg 19:07, 13 February 2007 (CET)
10. Chapter 4 - Wiki Editing: If you cannot upload an audio file if you have a dialup connection (what does Africa/India use), more detailed instructions on how to obtain the audio file and where needs to be given (do we have an alternative that can easily be uploaded with open software?Maybe a link). (submitted by Patricia). Thanks Particia - there will be multiple versions of the course. One version will be a standard website that is loaded on a CDROM with all the audio files stored locally. This way participants can view content locally and only connect when practising editing skills. --Mackiwg 19:07, 13 February 2007 (CET)
11. Forward/next arrows not initially obvious (Submitted by Paul) - suggest that we include these instructions with a screen shot in the Getting started resource. Status: Done
12. Consider the pros and cons of numbering the tutorials (Submitted by Dave)
13. In the basic formatting tutorial - add tip re bold and italics if you want the whole page to be italics, each paragraph must be formatted individually - the syntax does not hold over line breaks (Noted by Patricia)
    • While not necessarily a good idea, you can achieve such large-scale italicizing by wrapping the appropriate section of the document, like a sandwich, neatly between <I>...</I> tags.--Eloquence 20:15, 14 February 2007 (CET)
14. FAQs posted by Randy here must be moved to the relevant tutorials. Also, the draft answers must be reworked.
15. Create a single page with all the FAQs listed in addition to the FAQs for each tutorial. Make sure that we link to the generic FAQ page from each FAQ subsection in the tutorials.
16. Upload a local version of the Cheatsheet - perhaps adapt and refine for WikiEducator tuts, perhaps Helen can help - Suggested by Dave who had problems downloading from Wikipedia.
17. Participants have found discussion forum instructions confusing. Currently Mediawiki does not support threaded discussions that are integrated into the software. Users expect to click on the Discussion templates and go directly to the forums. (Verbal suggestion by Francis) Suggested solution - add a boiler plate footer text to the discussion template (sufficiently generic so-as not to impact on other projects using these templates. Perhaps someone can think of a smarter solution? Status: Done
18. Hot link Index must be completed, and we should explore a more "economical" layout that doesn't use so much real estate on the screen. This could become the main page for the Help page. Status: In progress
19. Adapt communication tutorial to include the web chat feature now installed on WikiEducator
20. Create a localisation tutorial (new page) for the Open Education Content project (Suggested by Peter)
21. Create a tutorial on the tools for free content creation - Start with a pre-knowledge activity comparing the tut to a camera magazine, what lens, lighting how the shot was taken etc. Adult learners benefit from good examples. (Suggested by Randy).
22. I find the navigation very fastidious - much more distracting than in the course You, your computer and the Web that I took from the UKOU a few years ago. (John) Sir John - its a difficult trade off, there are advantages to learning a wiki in a real wiki environment - but also disadvantages like the navigation problems. We will deal with this in two ways - To package the tutorials as a static website, which will help with navigation. The 2nd solution will take a little more time. There is a partially completed Google Summer of code project which is almost complete. This will embed threaded discussion within the wiki so we wont have to deal with switching between a LMS and the wiki tutorials. It will take about $20K to get this open source project completed - I'm searching for funding. --Mackiwg 02:39, 16 February 2007 (CET)
23. Develop an OER howto guide that is relevant and appropriate for LDCs - this should include examples of sample materials that people can readily use, incorporating capacity building resources on how to create OERs (submitted by Geoff). Status: Commenced, see OER Toolkit for LDCs.
24. Add tip about image sizes and how resizing works in the wiki. Mention the issue that if the materials are intended for printing re quality of images. (Suggested by Dave)
25. Add BIG Stop sign warning about saving pages (Suggested by Dave)
26. For audio files - also add link to the actual file - some users prefer to use the desktop media player. (Suggested by Dave)
27. Re the images and media Tutorial - svg should not be with images, but as a Drawing format. and it should be clear that .gifs are supported but not recommended. Also, ogg/vorbis has been left out (Oops ;-() -Suggested by Philip.
28. Provide a "warning" that students are working in a real wiki environment and that edits are published to the Web.