Thanks for the feedback Paul. How does your student registry system
handle the example you give? Does it know about Module D and enrol
students in it? Does it know there is a relationship between Modules A,
B, C and D? How do you currently add students to modules in WebPA - do
you have some automated process? If not, how much effort do you think
it would be to manually populate Module D as well (or use LTI to set up
this relationship)?

I am just trying to gauge how much effort we are saving by including
this functionality. Anyone else using it?

Stephen

On 07/11/2011 08:55, Paul A Chin wrote:
> Hi Stephen,
>
> I have one module which consists of students coming together from
> several modules so the idea of being able to combine them sounds good.
> I.e. students from module A, B and C all study on my module D. If you're
> asking if a student could be enrolled on more than one module
> simultaneously I might say yes, though with a caveat. To keep peer
> assessment educationally worthwhile, we shouldn't engage them in too
> much peer assessment at once so would suggest a student should only
> really be engaging with one WebPA activity at a time? Presumably this
> would make the need for multiple module enrolments the exception rather
> than the norm - if this is what you're asking?
>
> Regards
>
> Paul
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebPA [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen P Vickers
> Sent: 03 November 2011 10:28
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Proposed updates to WebPA
>
> As I hope most of you are aware, we are using WebPA as a case study in
> the JISC-funded ceLTIc project which is looking at implementations of
> the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification. As part of
> the work to integrate WebPA more closely with VLEs using LTI, I am
> preparing an updated version of WebPA which incorporates the following
> changes:
>
> 1. Assessments belong to modules and not to users, so that all tutors
> on a module can view and edit them.
>
> 2. Users are assigned a role for each module so that they can be both
> tutors and students (though not on the same module).
>
> 3. Tutors can have some admin rights to manage users on their modules;
> for example, adding and deleting students and tutors, and produce
> reports.
>
> The main visual change will be the addition of a "Change module" option
> and the name of the currently selected module appearing in the header.
> In this way tutors (and students and admins) can change from viewing one
> module to select another. The currently selected module will be used
> when viewing assessments, collections, and administering users. This
> module will be remembered for when a user logs out and back in, so they
> always return to the same place.
>
> This new version of WebPA is currently being tested (anyone interested
> in joining this activity would be very welcome to do so - just contact
> me). One issue which I am interested in feedback on, is the feature of
> the existing WebPA which allowed groups to be created with students from
> more than one module. This facility adds the complication of how to
> handle situations when the same student is enrolled in more than one of
> the selected modules; for example:
> - should they only be included once?
> - if only included once, which one should be used (may be important
> if marks are being reported)?
> - if only included once and they are unenrolled from one module,
> should they remain in the group based on the remaining enrolment(s)?
> - should their mark apply to all of the modules in which they are
> enrolled?
> Such issues do not matter as much when WebPA is operated as a separate
> system, but if we seek to offer an option to more tightly integrate it
> with a VLE, then they become more relevant. Support for LTI, for
> example, will allow the following functionality to be incorporated:
>
> a. single sign-on from the VLE which automatic creation of the user
> account and module if they do not already exist; role being assigned
> based on the role within the VLE course;
>
> b. tutors may update WebPA with the current list of enrolments for the
> VLE course;
>
> c. marks awarded to students may be pushed back into the grade book
> within the VLE;
>
> d. students from different courses (including courses in different
> VLEs) could be combined to work together in the same module.
>
> (Note that b and c are made possible by extensions to Basic LTI which
> are available for many/most VLEs including Moodle, Learn 9 and WebCT.
> These are expected to be part of the formal LTI specification in future
> releases. The addition of LTI support will not remove the ability to
> log in directly as at present.)
>
> So the question I would appreciate feedback on is: do you use the
> facility for creating groups based on students from more than one module
> and, if so, how important is it to you?
>
> Clearly there are workarounds if this facility was not available, such
> as creating a new module using the combined list of enrolments, or using
> LTI to enrol users from different courses into the same WebPA module.
> So to complete this work it would be very helpful to know whether this
> facility should be retained, or not.
>
> Thanks for reading this far!
>
> Stephen
> www.celtic-project.org

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