Turns out Mbilwi Secondary School has been doing a great job for many years.
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
If you’re a Drupal person and would like to have a crack at developing a feedback module for FHSST please read on for the specification details and contact me with any clarifying questions or a quote for the work. I intend to make a decision by the middle of next week (18th November) so you’ve got a week to get the information to me.
FHSST Feedback Module
The FHSST site allows authors to build books in LaTeX. The original goal was to have many LaTeX-competent authors working on many sections. We have learnt that very few people are comfortable with LaTeX and PSTricks. To better accommodate people who still want to make contributions but not get their hands dirty we must provide a simple way to give the necessary input.
We would like a feedback module to be written for Drupal to help with this. This module should allow three types of feedback:
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errata
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suggested contributions
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testimonials
Errata
Each erratum needs to contain:
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erratum title (mandatory)
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detailed erratum information (mandatory)
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book for which it is submitted (mandatory)
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book version for which erratum is applicable (mandatory)
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book section in which error occurs (mandatory)
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book page number (optional)
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submitter’s:
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name and surname (mandatory)
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email address (mandatory)
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role, one of:
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learner
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educator
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parent
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other
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timestamp of submission (recorded automatically)
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status (only changeable by coordinator – starts in pending):
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pending
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corrected
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disputed
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timestamp of resolution (i.e. corrected or disputed state change – recorded automatically)
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person changing state (recorded automatically)
When submitted, an erratum must go into a queue and the coordinators of the relevant book should receive an email notification that it has been submitted. They can then login and review the erratum. Once they have processed it they must be able to set it to either corrected or disputed in the case where the erratum is actually incorrect.
A page should be provided where users can see all errata submitted, the submitters’ name, the relevant book and version, and the status of the errata. The title should link to the full erratum view.
A block should be provided where users can see the 5 most recent errata submitted (title, book and status).
Suggested Contributions
This is to allow general users to submit a contribution to be included in the book by a LaTeX-enabled author. Each contribution should have:
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contribution title (mandatory)
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detailed contribution (mandatory)
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attached files (optional)
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book for which it is submitted (mandatory)
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book section (optional)
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submitter’s:
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name and surname (mandatory)
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email address (mandatory)
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role, one of:
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learner
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educator
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parent
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other
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timestamp of submission (recorded automatically)
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status (only changeable by coordinator – starts in pending):
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pending
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incorporated
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discarded
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timestamp of resolution (i.e. incorporated or discarded state change to be recorded automatically)
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person changing state (recorded automatically)
When submitted a contribution must go into a queue and the coordinators of the relevant book should receive an email notification that it has been submitted. They can then login and review the contribution. Once they have processed it they set it to either incorporated or discarded state in the case where the contribution cannot be used.
A page should be provided where users can see all contributions submitted, the submitters’ name, the relevant book and version, and the status of the contribution. The title should link to the full contribution view.
A block should be provided where users can see the 5 most recent contributions submitted (title, book and status).
Testimonials
This is simply to collect information about how the content has been used.
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testimonial title (mandatory)
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detailed testimonial (mandatory)
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book for which it is submitted (optional)
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book section (optional)
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submitter’s:
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name and surname (mandatory)
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email address (mandatory)
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role, one of: (mandatory)
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learner
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educator
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parent
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other
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timestamp of submission (recorded automatically)
Administration
For the feedback module the books for which feedback is being received need to be configured. This should happen from the module administration page and not depend on the book module of Drupal. The administrator will add the books for the module and then add, on a book-by-book basis:
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versions
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chapters and sections
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coordinators
When a book is added at least one version number is required. For each version number provided, a list of chapters and sections is required. A book will have multiple versions, each with their own unique chapter and section listing. This listing can be a simple textarea where each line is a chapter or section heading.
Each book must also have a list of coordinators who are users on the system. Coordinators should be able to access a list of all errata and contributions for their books. They should be able to view them and change the status if necessary. The time when the status is changed should be recorded.
Special Remarks
All the feedback types should be node types and should integrate into the Drupal CMS properly so that they can be integrated with other modules designed to manipulate nodes. The theming information should also be separated so that they can be re-themed.
A special page should be provided that can be used as the homepage. This page should have a customisable body of full html and then have forms for all three feedback types. This will be presented to non-authenticated users as the homepage allowing them to provide the feedback directly from the front page. We would like jQuery/jQuery UI integration in this page so that a button can be shown for each type of feedback and if clicked the form must render as a modal window. Submission using these forms should be via AJAX and should trigger an update on the blocks for the content types if they are shown.
To simplify the forms when a user selects a book the relevant versions should be loaded. Once the version is selected only the relevant sections should be loaded. Validation for all form fields should be implemented.
The module should be written in such a way to conform to the Drupal 6.X API and should only have dependencies on well established modules (modules that are actively maintained and have demonstrable support and traction within the Drupal community).
We would release all the code under the Gnu General Public Licence.
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I’m charging on ahead with development of the open assessment bank. We will be calling it FullMarks and the most important feature will be that teachers can actively participate.
We’ve decided to run our own internal competition. The prize will be bragging rights as the optimal process for future covers for OpenPress / FHSST texts. We are going to allocate the same budget sourcing sets of covers for the Maths and Physical Science books, but we are going to have the Maths set commissioned by a regular design firm and we’ll get the Physical Science ones created on 99Designs.
Quite frankly, my sympathy goes to the learners who have to share one book between four and cannot do their homework properly, while publishing house executives sit in plush offices dreaming up misleading copyright messages to intimidate teachers and learners.
EVEN THE NUMBER 1 science school in South Africa will benefit from having access to FHSST, Siyavula and OpenPress.
There are hints that Sam might not want to be programmer or a rugby player, but he may still change his mind.
We are going to run a full manual aggregation process to test and demonstrate the process we envisage for the OpenPress web-service.
I have a Fellowship from the Shuttleworth Foundation to work in the area of Open and Collaborative Resources. My Fellowship enables me to work on a number of projects in this area. I believe in the liberation of information and supporting education in South Africa.
I manage the Siyavula project, where I co-ordinate the development of a comprehensive set of Open Educational Resources (OER) supporting the South African National Curriculum.
Along with Sam Halliday, I co-founded the Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) project which launched in 2002 and has collaboratively produced a set of openly licenced science and mathematics textbooks
In collaboration with Steve Song, Interconnectedness Fellow, I founded OpenPress, a project to deploy a print aggregation service to support teachers.
I also run FullMarks, an open assessment bank, to help teachers rapidly generate tests, capture results and access reports based on those results.
I have a PhD in physics from the University of Cape Town and conducted my research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California on the results from the STAR experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
My blog highlights the progress on my various projects and contains thoughts on the OER space as well as life in general.
Twitter: marknewlyn
- First #FullMarks RSVP a couple of minutes ago - from a school I haven't even spoken to - AWESOME! :-)
- Just connected with a Curriculum Advisor about attending the #FullMarks sprint upload event - wicked!!
- Checking my email for the first time since Wednesday - it hurts as expected!
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