For clarity and consistency, teaching assistant functions have been separated into two complementary (and stackable) roles: Course Editor and Grader, conferring editing and grading capabilities, respectively. The Grader role was modeled on the Non-Editing Instructor role, but some additional functions which were not part of the initial role have been identified as necessary for the work of a Grader. The following additional capabilities have been identified as appropriate and have been enabled for the Grader role.
Import grades into Moodle Gradebook (identified 9/10/24, resolved 9/19/24)
Release grades from a Marking Workflow (identified 9/25/24, resolved 9/26/24)
View all Groups in a course (identified 9/26/24, resolved 9/27/24)
Identified date - 6/6/2024- resolved 6/12/2024
Categorization of issue (bug fix)
Box is a standard file repository for Moodle, and has been used with all the implementations (LATTE, Moodle, etc). Course backups from LATTE have been shared to Box via a custom process, so they can be restored to either Moodle or Communities.
There was a bug where a user could open up their Box directory in Communities via the file picker, but the plugin times out instead of allowing the file to be uploaded into Moodle. - The Communities integration was missing write permissions to match the Prod. Updated and works.
Identified date 4/10/24 - resolved
Categorization of issue (bug fix, new functionality) in development/troubleshooting phase
Part of the new Moodle implementation included a new site-wide theme containing a customization of the editing interface for each activity, for instructors. A starting “simplified view” was delivered on the initial load of the settings page, clicking a custom “advanced view” button link would reveal all the options, and transform the button to a “Hide advanced view” link. An update from Moodle 4.2 to 4.3 introduced a change in the library structure of the pages, complicating the customization - depending on the activity sometimes the Advanced button won’t hide back to simple view, sometimes some functions would never show. A simplification was determined, switching from using a Customized theme (new functionality for Brandeis) to leveraging CSS overrides (known workflow already implemented in LATTE). Part of the Custom Brandeis theme included calling out to a customized internal library to deliver the hiding button functionality - which is proving difficult to replicate using CSS overrides.
Identified date: start of implementation - Tool upload resolved, external “Schedule of Courses” integration resolved.
Categorization of issue (new functionality, translating a legacy workflow to a new system, deprecation of existing hardware/software) deployed
LATTE included a custom-created block/form that allows instructors to upload a syllabus document to an internal file repository. The tool would sanitize the filename and allow the instructor to indicate whether to Syllabus could be made public to Brandeis’s Schedule of Courses web page, and provide a link to the document. Because the tool was written to use the local Moodle file repository, it was impossible to run the tool concurrently in LATTE AND Moodle. Additionally, the tool relied on an internal Moodle ID number to connect a particular syllabus to the Schedule of Courses page, making it impossible to have both sites providing syllabus links to the external website.
A new Course tools block was developed that connects to an external file repository, and allows multiple Moodle sites to contribute to the same repository. This updated block was configured for both LATTE and Moodle. Additional development leverages the Workday course code as the identifier for the syllabus, rather than the Moodle Course ID - which allows for the syllabus links to work in the Schedule of Courses page. Additional integration is underway to push ALL syllabus links to the Schedule of Courses page, though requiring Brandeis account sign-in for “non-public” syllabi.
Identified date: Start of implementation - tool works in M4 Prod.
Categorization of issue (translating a legacy workflow to a new system, deprecation of existing hardware/software) in development/troubleshooting phase
The Course Syllabus viewer is a custom application accessible from the LATTE Course Tools block, that allows for the viewing of uploaded course syllabi, even if an individual isn’t enrolled in the course. This tool leverages the internal Moodle file repository for Syllabi.
Leveraging the newly developed external file repository, the updated Syllabus viewer will allow for viewing Course Syllabi that are not hosted in LATTE. With this update LATTE Syllabi can be viewed in the LATTE Syllabus viewer and Moodle Syllabi can be viewed in the Moodle Syllabus viewer at the same time, while still connecting to the Schedule of Courses website. In Moodle it will be possible to view past LATTE Syllabi, even after the entire LATTE site has been deprecated.
Identified date - Resolved July 10, 2024
Categorization of issue (translating a legacy workflow to a new system, deprecation of existing hardware/software) - in discovery phase
The Photo Roster Tool is a locally developed process that ties school ID photos to a custom report in LATTE - allowing instructors to review pictures of enrolled students and print them out in a formatted document.
This custom application was historically developed with only one learning management system. It has been updated to allow for this functionality in multiple LMSs at once. A bug was discovered where a user who’s Moodle ID was below 1000 would not be shown in the Photo roster tool after a certain threshold of students - that has been resolved as well.
Identified date 3/15/24 - Resolved 6/1/24
Categorization of issue (new functionality)
Leverage new-to-Brandeis core Moodle functionality to provide a mechanism for the request of new Course shells in the Communities environment.
Identified date: Implementation - Resolved.
Categorization of issue (new functionality, translating a legacy workflow to a new system)
As part of the migration from LATTE to Moodle, a new process was developed to migrate course backup files from LATTE into customized folders in BOX. The Moodle Box integration allows those shared course backups to be opened within any of the new Moodle LMS environments, and used for the course restore process. It is additionally possible to insert some long-ago generated course backups from past archived courses.
The combined collection of current and archived courses represents close to 20,000 course backups. Courses that contain special characters in their titles or courses containing too much content create challenges for the automated file moving processes. Custom development occurred, as this was the first time at Brandeis that Boomi was used to create folders, move files, and share files and folders with end users. As of now Academic course backups as far back as 2018 have been shared via Box with the course instructors.