sms, q&a and course evaluations in sakai
DESCRIPTION
Overview of the SMS, Q&A and Course Evaluation contrib tools in SakaiTRANSCRIPT
SMSQ&A
Course Evaluations
Stephen [email protected]
http://twitter.com/stephenmarquard
Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape TownJune 2010
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3 Sakai contrib tools
SMSMobile messaging from Sakai
Q&AQuestions and Answers
Course EvaluationsOnline course evaluations and surveys
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SMS
Wth Sakai U 2 can snd txt msgs to grps of ppl! W00t!
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SMS Overview
What is it?SMS provides mobile text messaging in Sakai, including a tool for sending messages, and a “switchboard” for handing incoming messages to tools or scripts.
Where do I find it? http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SMS/
https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/sms/http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SMS
More information?Screenshots on Confluence. Ask questions on the sakai-dev list, or contact UCT.
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Outgoing SMSIn the SMS Messages tool,
a. Write message (with context and sender)b. Select recipients by one or more of:
Users with a role (e.g. Student)Users in a group (e.g. Tutorial 1)Users by nameList of mobile numbers
c. Calculate cost / creditsd. Sende. View delivery status
See more screenshots at http
://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SMS/SMS+Messages+Screenshots
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Incoming SMS Examples• Placement offers: “UCT Health Sciences offers you a place in MBChB for 2010: SMS
‘offer studentnumber accept/decline’ to #####” (200+ responses in 10 minutes).
• Q&A: What new use of Vula are you considering? SMS your answer to #####
R 3461 I would like to use Vula for surveys
• Q&A: Ask a question about Vula: SMS your question to #####:
Q smsdemo How can I use Vula for surveys?
• Other possible uses for incoming SMS: Chat, Polls, Glossaries, etc.
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Incoming SMS
• Any tool/service can accept incoming articles by registering a command prefix with the SMS service.
• Either implement ShortMessageCommand or configure a REST endpoint for incoming messages.Example code:https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/qna/trunk/impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/qna/logic/impl/sms/QuestionSmsCommand.javaExample REST registration: see http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SMS/Incoming+SMS
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Deployment considerations
Service providerYou need a service provider with an SMPP gateway (e.g. http://www.clickatell.com). What destination networks / countries are supported, and at what cost per message?
Mobile numbersPopulate user numbers in the user profile, or implement a provider (e.g. for LDAP lookup or some external source).
Privacy and defaultsOpt-in or opt-out, private or visible.
Cost and accounting modelWho incurs costs for sending messages? Prepaid or postpaid? Default implementation supports a prepaid model, with credit allocation per site.
SMS: PrivacyOur approach at UCT (Vula = our Sakai):
Student, staff and third party cell numbers in Vula come from Peoplesoft, SAP HR, Third Party system
Default My Workspace / Profile settings:
Allow Vula users to send SMS messages to my cellphone: YesHide my cellphone number from other Vula users: Yes
Users can opt out (0.5% so far)
People sending messages see only the username, not the user’s cell number
Use SMS wisely Otherwise people will opt out which makes it less useful for everyone.
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Q&A
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Q&A OverviewWhat is it?A tool which supports question-driven interaction (optionally anonymous) with web, email and SMS workflows (comparisons: Yahoo Answers, StackOverflow, Purdue Hotseat).
Where do I find it?http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/QNA/Homehttps://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/qna/
More information?“A question is worth a thousand answers” (Paris Sakai conference presentation):http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/download/attachments/39616558/paris-sakai-qna.pdf
Ask questions on the sakai-dev list, or contact UCT.
Why questions?
• Many students ask the same question• Students will ask a question online which they wouldn’t or
couldn’t ask face-to-face• Students may ask a question differently (or at all) if they can
ask it anonymously• Students answer each other’s questions• The student questions and answers provide a window into
student thought processes, their difficulties, confusions, misconceptions and successes.
• Questions and answers provide academic support, peer support, and diagnostic insights.
Supported workflows
• Instructor-led: Student asks question > instructor responds privately (by email), and/or publicly (in the site)
• Collaborative: Student asks question > peers respond > (optional) instructor / TA provides or nominates a definitive answer
• Questions may be moderated, i.e. only become visible in the site once reviewed by an instructor / TA
• Site members may be allowed to ask questions anonymously
Tool demo
• Set up tool “personality” and workflow through Options and Permissions
• View, ask and respond to questions• Create and organise categories and reorganize
questions across categories
View questions and ask a new one
Viewing responses
Respond to a question (instructor)
Add an answer (student)
Organise questions
SMS support
• Q&A is minimally SMS-enabled• Supports asking questions by SMS, receiving
answers and/or retrieving answers• Not really exposed in UI yet (except for Options)
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Course Evaluation
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Course Evaluation OverviewWhat is it?A tool for delivering course evaluations or surveys.
Where do I find it?http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/EVALSYS/Home
https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/evaluation/
More information?Ask on the [email protected] mailing list.UCT screencast (instructor-managed evaluations) http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/EVALSYS/Course+Evaluations+video+tutorial
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Caveats
• How you might implement this depends heavily on institutional processes and policy.
• Evaluation System is a complex tool which has support for different institutional models of delivering evaluations.
• The information in Confluence is not up-to-date.• No 2 sites run the tool in exactly the same way.• Ask on the evaluations list!
Generic issues and concerns• Response rates may be lower (dependent on lecturer involvement and
feedback)• … but students give more written feedback online than in paper-based
evaluations• Moving from paper to online does not lead to less favourable ratings (U.
Michigan)• The set of respondents is representative of the course cohort by race,
gender, final course mark: lower response rates do not skew results (IPD, UCT)
• Online evaluation is popular with students and provides more opportunities for student feedback
• Different opinions and strategies about incentives• What happens to the results?
UCT self-service model
Site Owners or Support Staff can create and assign evaluations to one or more of their Vula sites. The evaluation owner decides:
o Who is evaluated (lecturers and tutors)o The questionso Start and end dateso How to encourage students to respondo What to do with the results
(subject to Department or Faculty processes or guidelines)
UCT possible teaching models
• One or more lecturers (aka instructors)o Every student evaluates all lecturers in the evaluation o Students are taught in cohorts: each student chooses his/her lecturer
to evaluate
• Tutors (aka TAs)o Tutors interact with students as a group: students evaluate the
support of the tutors in generalo Every student evaluates all tutors individuallyo Each student belongs to one or more tutor groups, and therefore
chooses one or more tutors to evaluate
UCT: running an online evaluation1. Add the Course Evaluations tool to one or more existing Vula course sites
2. Create a new evaluation:
a) Choose a template to start from
b) Choose start and end dates
c) Choose reminder options
d) Assign the evaluation to one or more Vula sites
e) Identify Lecturers and Tutors to be included in the evaluation
f) If necessary, edit the evaluation (add, remove or change questions)
3. While the evaluation is open:
a) Look at the response rates, and encourage students to complete the evaluation
b) Optionally, extend the closing date if the response rate is insufficient
4. When the evaluation has closed:
a) View results (online, PDF, export to Excel)
b) Provide feedback to students and/or class reps
c) Provide a copy of results to HoD, other staff
UCT evaluation structure
About the course
About you
(About all lectures/tutors)
Lecturer 1 questions
Lecturer question a
Lecturer question b, …
Lecturer 2 questions
Lecturer question a
Lecturer question b, …
Tutor 1 questions
Tutor question a
Tutor question b, …
Tutor 2 questions
Tutor question a
Tutor question b, …
General questions
Lecturer questions
repeated for each assigned lecturer
[respond to all, select one, select many]
Tutor questions
repeated for each assigned tutor
[respond to all, select one, select many]
UCT: selecting the Lecturers to Evaluate
UCT: The Student’s View
