Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Re: Re: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2


 
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4: Re: Re: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 3 05/29/08 07:28 PM
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When you do an import it automatically goes into the personal folder for the person importing the design. That way you can look at them, tweak anything you want to tweak for LAMS 2.0 (given that LAMS 2.0 has new options), before copying the design to a shared folder.

So if they are showing up in your personal folder, it suggests that the instructor imported them when logged in as you. At least, LAMS thought it was you.

The My Groups has a folder for each matching "section" on the Blackboard side. Now when I say "section", I can't remember what exactly that matches on the Blackboard side but I think it is "section". On other systems it matches on "course", or maybe "module".

These folders are shared by all users in that section/course/module, so everyone who has authoring access get that folder and can save designs there.  So if you talk to the other staff using LAMS in your courses you should be able to find out which folders everyone can see, and then you can use them as shared folders.

Unfortunately the way the integrations work, we have trouble getting a nice name for the folder from  Blackboard, so you see those horrible folder names.

If you want to know which folder maps to which section/course/module in Blackboard, try starting a new lesson on the Blackboard side (ie run a learning design). Then look in all the folders in My Groups. Each folder in My Groups should have a subfolder, and in one of them there will be a copy of the learning design that you just started. That will tell you which folder goes with with section/course/module.

This copy of the learning design is actually the version of the design that LAMS uses to run the lesson. That's why you can go back in to authoring and change the learning design in authoring without affecting anybody already running it - LAMS is actually working off a copy.

This is really handy to know if someone runs a learning design with their class, then accidentally deletes their original copy in their personal folder. When they are sitting there all upset as all their hard work is gone, go into authoring, go into the subfolder, find the copy of the learning design and open it up, then do a save as to save it into the person's normal personal folder or a shared folder (or export it to a zip file so you can email it to them). You will be a hero at that point.

Now why don't we document all this? We'll because it sort of is documented but all over the place, and understanding some of the internals of how LAMS works is needed before the explanation really makes sense. And add the Blackboard integration in too and it makes it even more complicated, and the actual words (e.g. section/course/module) I'd use to explain it are probably different for Blackboard (either version), Moodle, .LRN, etc, etc.

By the way, we do want to make those folder names better. It is on the todo list. Its just a long way down the todo list.

Hope this helps!

Fiona

Posted by Fiona Malikoff

5: Re: Re: Re: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 4 05/29/08 07:57 PM
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That is extremely helpful Fiona, thank you.

I can see why this is the kind of thing that you would hesitate to add to a wiki because it is quite involved.

Just to make sure I completely understood, I have attached a screenshot of the Select Sequence screen in the Blackboard unit that I am managing.

Looking at this in the light of your explanation, is it correct to suggest that:

1. There are no LAMS sequences available for shared editing as yet.
2. There are 3 LAMS sequences "running" in one course and another (apparently empty) one running somewhere else. I actually don't think they really are running, because I can't see them anywhere, but maybe LAMS "thinks" they are.
3. There are two sequences that I must have imported myself (I can't remember doing this, but I must have), and they are not available to anyone else.

Do I pass? ;)

Tim.

Posted by Timothy Allen

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6: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 5 05/29/08 09:44 PM
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Yes Tim, you pass with flying colours.

As for those three that are running but you can't see them in Blackboard. Could you have started them and then hidden them on the Blackboard side, or set them up to run sometime in the future? Once you start them in LAMS the copies of the learning design will stay in the folder, even if you then remove the link to the lesson on the Blackboard side.

If I remember correctly, the Mac Uni installation of Blackboard CE can use some sort of sub-section level container for grouping things the students can do - so maybe they were started in one of these containers and then the container removed or hidden? Sorry - I can't remember what these containers are called. I just don't use Blackboard enough to remember the terminology.

Fiona

Posted by Fiona Malikoff

7: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 6 05/29/08 11:01 PM
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Yes I think those funny sub-containers are call "LAMS links" - it is inconsistent with the Blackboard GUI, but I guess they only had access to the API...

Anyway, many thanks for your help. Now I can get going on sorting out the instructor's Byzantine LAMS sequence. :D

By the way, I think your wiki is great. I am hoping to promote the use of wikis more at Macquarie, but sadly they are probably too cheap to pay for a great platform like confluence. :(

Posted by Timothy Allen

8: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 6 05/30/08 01:11 AM
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Can I bother you with one last question?

In my testing, I have noticed that whenever I create a LAMS lesson within Blackboard, and then delete the lesson, the read-only copy that was being used for the lesson cannot be deleted!

This means that deleted LAMS lessons will accumulate and can never be removed from the LAMS workspace!

Is this a bug or am I not doing it properly?

Tim.

Posted by Timothy Allen

9: Re: Re: Migrate LAMS 1 sequences to LAMS 2
In response to 8 05/30/08 01:28 AM
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In general, yes, they will accumulate in LAMS database and can't be removed.

In future versions of LAMS (when people's databases are getting huge) we may have to look at this but at the moment we tend to take a conservative approach of better to leave it there than remove it and have some decide they wanted it back later.

So when you are removing it in Blackboard, you are removing the student's link to it, rather than actually removing it in LAMS.

Also on your comment about Confluence. Yes, we really like using Confluence for the wiki. We are very appreciative that Atlassian has allowed us to use it under a special license made available to open source projects, otherwise we wouldn't be using Confluence for the wiki (or JIRA and Fisheye for Bug Tracking for that matter).

Fiona

Posted by Fiona Malikoff

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