Public Blog 
Setting up hierarchies correctly
Before you start using eSafety, policies and terms it is important to make sure that the hierarchies are correctly set up. Recently we introduced a setting called Hierarchy type in Administration >> Hierarchy >> Add/Edit hierarchy. This setting is crucial in order to make eSafety, terms, and policies work. The hierarchy type drop-down list has five options: Not defined, Site, School, Class and Group.
It is important to define the root hierarchy as a Site. You should not add a site under a site. The organisations for which you want to add terms, policies and eSafety rules must be defined as School or Site. The logical rule is: one site, and several schools within that site, but not several schools within a school. In the example below Downhill LA is the root hierarchy and has the hierarchy type Site. The schools below – Chesterson and Enfield – are added as schools.
If schools have sub-hierarchies, for example classes, they should have the hierarchy type Class, while groups within the class should have the Group hierarchy type. When the hierarchies are set up with the correct hierarchy type as illustrated below, eSafety, policies and terms should work.
Note: Below a hierarchy defined as School you can have hierarchies defined as Class, Group, and Not defined.
Read more about eSafety, policies and terms in the help!
Software update 7 January 2010
New year – new possibilities. The first update this year has focus on the administration area and attendance and behaviour keeping. The mentor role is expanded to manage both attendance and behaviour keeping. In addition we present a number of minor changes.
Due to the amount of new features the blog entry for this release is divided into four parts.
Course dashboards and page tool
The course dashboards and page tool are now enabled for all users. The functionality is described in this blog entry and in the online help: dashboards and pages.
Better performance
We are taking several initiatives to improve global performance. It is now possible to store static files, such as images, on a content distribution network (CDN). This means that the files are located closer to you, and enables faster loading of it's learning. The CDN is enabled for all sites within the USA. We are also working to get rid of the evil frames – in the next release, perhaps?
Personal storage space quotas
After the update on 7 January the personal file storage quota is removed from individual users to policies. As a result, users who have been granted individual quotas are given the same storage quota as normal users.
To grant different storage quotas to individual users, administrators can create a policy for the users they want to grant a different storage quota. It is only possible to have one storage quota per policy. If you want to grant some users with 1 GB storage and another group 2 GB, two policies must be created. We have already created a policy for users with no personal storage space.
Read more about policies in the help!
Diglib
We have created a new blog for the Diglib updates.
Read more in the Diglib blog
Minor changes
SCORM: SCORM resources can now be imported as a single resource or split into multiple resources. The second option is new and allows the content to appear as multiple links in the navigation tree, based on the structure of the SCORM package. Teachers can insert the individual links in, for example, the planner.
New web 2.0 plug-in: Norwegian customers can now embed videos from NDLA (Nasjonal digital læringsarena) in the rich text-editor.
Individual learning plans: It is now possible to delete an individual learning plan.
Dashboard as a landing page: If dashboards are enabled for your site, you can now select the different dashboards as landing pages for a profile under the Administration tab >> Profiles >> Edit profile >> Start URL. A landing page is the page users see when they log in.
DirectEdit: A new version of DirectEdit is included in this release. You are automatically asked to install the new version the first time you use DirectEdit after the release. In addition to fixing some bugs, the new version has better support for Open Office applications. Administrators that have to install DirectEdit manually on their organisation's computers can download the MSI file here.
Note that there is a known issue connected to DirectEdit and Microsoft Office when 'Protected mode' is on.
Planner column width: Column width is adjusted in the planner.
Welcome e-mail: Some of our users have experienced that Hotmail marks the welcome mail from it's learning as spam. We have now reduced this possibility.
SyncID: You are now allowed to see (but not edit) the SyncId in the Manage Enterprise web services and Edit hierarchy pages.
Google and Postini: It is now possible to edit the Google Apps credentials in the Google administrator interface in it’s learning. It’s also possible to add Postini credentials here. Enabling and adding the correct credentials automatically creates students, teachers and guests groups in Postini and assign the users correctly.
Enhancements
- JavaScript error in 'Min Arena': Users trying to connect to it's learning through 'Min arena' got a JavaScript error if using Internet Explorer. This has now been addressed.
- Perform for all: When using the 'Perform for all' functionality in Administration >> Users and access rights, the changes affected all users, and not just the search subset as expected. This has now been addressed.
- Course content blocks: The course content block was not showing in all courses. This has now been addressed.
- Conference: If a user was in a conference and then navigated away, an error message appeared saying the user is already connected when the user tried to rejoin the conference. It also took some time before users that logged out of it’s learning were removed from the conference. This has now been addressed.
Update: eSafety and Policies
eSafety
Administrators can now configure the users' visibility and communication settings for a site – in it's learning, these settings are called eSafety. Some rules are configurable, while others cannot be edited.
In short, the settings decide:
- who will find users in searches.
- who users may communicate with.
- who users may receive communication from.
With eSafety you can, for example, prevent learners from sending and receiving messages from staff at other schools.
eSafety is a profile setting managed from the Administration tab >> Profiles >> Edit profile.
Read more about eSafety in the help!
Policies
A policy is a collection of profile settings that can be assigned to profiles or individual users within an organisation – such as a site or school. Policies override the default profile or user settings. You are allowed to combine settings of different types in a policy, as well as assign multiple policies to a profile or user.
With the introduction of policies, you no longer have to edit existing profiles or create new profiles if you want to change the permissions for a set of users. This creates a more flexible system, allowing schools to have their own rules, independently from the rest of the site's schools.
How does it work?
Let's use an example to illustrate the usage. In a hierarchy with four schools – Chesterson, Springfield, Whitneyville, and Enfield – Chesterson has experienced that a group of pupils have been bullying others through the internal messaging system.
To put an end to this, the headmistress at Chesterson decides to turn off internal messages for all pupils. She asks the system administrator to disable the messaging system for the Pupil profile, but he is reluctant. He points out that editing the profile would disable the messaging system for all pupils in all four schools, and, knowing how extensively the messaging system is used by the other schools in the hierarchy, he argues that this is a really bad idea.
Instead, the system administrator asks the headmistress to consider using policies. He argues that the best option is to create a policy and assign the policy to the Pupil profile at Chesterson or – optionally – to individual pupils of the school. The last option would efficiently prevent only misbehaving pupils from using the messaging system. The headmistress agrees, and, instead of blocking the messaging system from all pupils at Chesterson, Springfield, Whitneyville, and Enfield, the administrator simply suspends the privilege for four individual pupils at Chesterson School.
Read more about policies in the help!
Important about hierarchies and the new functionality
In order to allow adding terms, policies and eSafety rules, the root hierarchy should be defined as a site. The organisations for which you want to add terms, policies and eSafety rules must be defined as schools or sites. You should not add a site under a site. The logical rule is: one site, and several schools within that site, but not several schools within a school.
Hierarchies are edited from Administration >> Hierarchy. Select the correct type from the Hierarchy type drop-down list, and click Save.
Update: Attendance, Behaviour and Terms
Attendance 2.0 beta
Forget everything you know about the old attendance keeping system – we now introduce a brand new attendance platform. Our efforts have been focused on making the attendance keeping as efficient and simple as possible. The new system has keyboard shortcuts, supports tabbing, and features a new and intuitive user interface. Presence is automatically kept.
Both teachers and mentors are allowed to keep attendance. Teachers keep attendance at course level, while mentors manage attendance for their groups.
New reports and day and week overviews facilitate early detection of problems connected to absence. The reports show information such as attendance statistics for individual learners or courses and calculate absence rates.
To help reminding the learners of the importance of attendance and participation, we have made it possible for them to follow their attendance across courses under the ePortfolio tab.
The new attendance keeping system is based on two new concepts: Attendance categories and attendance codes for easy grouping of the attendance. Organisations are allowed to decide their own codes and categories.
Attendance 2.0 beta is enabled for all customers in the primary and secondary segment. Sites using the old attendance system must contact our support in order to have it enabled.
The next step in the development of the attendance system will be to add support for exporting to Management Information System (MIS).
Read more about attendance in the help!
Behaviour beta
The new behaviour tracking is a tool for keeping track of positive and negative behaviour. Both mentors and teachers can keep behaviour, and the learners are presented with reports of their conduct. It is possible to add your own behaviour types, and use weighting to grade the behaviour. Behaviour is enabled for all schools belonging to the primary and secondary segments.
Note that the behaviour system is not fully translated to all langugages and English texts may appear.
Read more about behaviour in the help!
Terms
Administrators are now allowed to add terms to the organisation. A term is usually the time during which the organisation holds classes, sometimes called 'semesters', 'quarters', or 'trimesters', depending on institution and country.
The first features to use terms are the new attendance and behaviour systems, but in the future we will include it in other functionality.
Read more about terms in the help!
Important about hierarchies and the new functionality
In order to allow adding terms, policies and eSafety rules, the root hierarchy should be defined as a site. The organisations for which you want to add terms, policies and eSafety rules must be defined as schools or sites. You should not add a site under a site. The logical rule is: one site, and several schools within that site, but not several schools within a school.
Hierarchies are edited from Administration >> Hierarchy. Select the correct type from the Hierarchy type drop-down list, and click Save.
Update: Software development Kit
SDK update: support for editor plug-ins
If you have an idea for a new learning tool in it's learning, you should consider making it yourself – or hire a developer to do it! Our SDK program has been running for a while, and a skilled developer can add both applications and plug-ins to your it's learning site. New in this release is support for plug-ins, countries, languages and licenses.
What is a plug-in?
Plug-ins are small tools you access from the editor's Insert button.
What is an application?
An application is a learning tool that can be added to courses and projects from the Add page, just like the tools you know such as notes, tests and assignments. Applications are more advanced compared to plug-ins, and can support assessments, reporting and feedback.
Fictional example of a plug-in
A user clicks the Insert button in the editor, and clicks the Atekst link in the drop-down. The user is directed to Retriever's Atekst database of newspaper articles. The user search for an article and clicks the Add to it's learning button. With a simple click of the mouse the news paper article is inserted directly into the editor.
Countries and languages
When adding new plug-ins and applications you are allowed to add support for different languages, and decide which countries they should be available in.
License details
It is now possible to add licenses for applications and plug-ins – for example decide whether they should be free or licensed. If licensed, it is possible to add pricing information.
Read more at developer.itslearning.com!