Just to chip in my five pence (inflation) worth:

I passed the zip to our web team, they installed it on a test server and
then for real, tied the user authentication with LDAP and that was
pretty much it for their involvement - anyone with a College account can
login. I got the impression it was painless and took an hour or two at
most. So far as I know it sits on a server with a few other
applications, primarily our wiki and blogging software. After
installation I asked for just a few changes, uploading a couple of
slightly different page templates and increasing the maximum file upload
size, and that was that. We now need to upgrade which I expect will be
equally straightforward.

That said, it helps that I'm in the IT team, so they're colleagues
rather than "them over there", and I did read the installation
documentation, so I could ask "could you go into management.php and
change x" rather than "can you work out how to...", but it really
doesn't require too much.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: A list to facilitate and support teachers using Xerte Online
Toolkits [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Terry
McAndrew
Sent: 15 January 2013 10:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Xerte on a network

Just to clarify the term 'locally' - in IT speak it means on your own
desktop computer rather than on a network via a server, in this case the
Xerte Online Toolkits server. I realise when I talked about Xerte I was
thinking Xerte Online Toolkits as that's the only version I have used.
Having an installation in your institution is another type of 'locally'
but not the one Ron objects to (I think!).

-----Original Message-----
From: A list to facilitate and support teachers using Xerte Online
Toolkits [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ron
Mitchell
Sent: 15 January 2013 10:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Xerte on a network

In addition to what has already be said by Julian and Terry I'd add the
following...

1. Don't even consider having it installed locally.
For me the only justification for that in your context is if you also
have a developer who wants to use the local install to develop
customisations or additional features.
A local install loses all the benefits of easy and college wide sharing
and collaboration, embedding LO's in the VLE etc It's free and open
source which means once installed it's available for ALL staff and ALL
learners to use at no extra cost

More importantly compare the impact and cost of time in the following
scenarios:

Local install
If installed locally every user Teacher or Student has to export any
LO's they wish to share and upload to somewhere online that others can
access.
Let's say that takes even just 10minutes per LO and multply that by the
number of anticipated users, the numbers of LO's they might create and
the frequency they might create or change those LO's. Let's be
conservative and say that's only 10 users creating 3 LO's each per week:
3 LO's x 10 minutes each to export and upload x 10 users = 300 minutes
per week and the reality is it would be many many more users and LO's
than this

Online college wide install
A member of the IT team completes the initial install but after that
version updates and occasional fixes and improvements amounts to less
than a week per year.

I've typed this quickly so my maths might be skewed but you get the
point...
Which costs more in terms of time?
Which has clearer benefits for teaching and learning?

2. Adobe Presenter and Captivate are completely different tools and if
you have them can be used very effectively together with XOT. I very
much doubt you have a license to allow all staff and all students to use
those tools and in terms of ease of use and T&L features there really
isn't any comparison.

HTH
Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: A list to facilitate and support teachers using Xerte Online
Toolkits [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Shirley
Crawford
Sent: 14 January 2013 20:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Xerte on a network

Hi

Hoping that someone can answer the following.

I am still trying to get Xerte installed on the network but our Network
manager is concerned about the amount of time and effort that would be
needed to maintain it, can someone give me an idea of what is involved
in running it on the network.

It has been suggested that we have it installed locally, I presume that
the new version will need Xamp?  I know from past experience that local
installs are not ideal as LOs cannot be shared and the user needs to use
the PC which has Xerte installed to edit the LO.

There is concern that staff would not use it.  How does Xerte compare to
Adobe Presenter or Captivate?

Alistair, I saw a message in December from Ian Hall at East Durham
College, thanking you for documentation and advice in helping put a case
for Xerte, would it be possible to have a copy of this?

I do feel that I am banging my head against a brick wall, so would
appreciate any help to the above questions.

Regards

Shirley

Shirley Crawford
E-Learning Teaching Mentor
(Room J453 Tel: external: 01726 226755 ext 2755) Cornwall College - St
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