[OSGeo-Edu] Moodle/Content Management System discussion

[Charlie Schweik]

On Wed, 2007-10-17 at 09:30 -0400, Ned Horning wrote:
> Charlie,

> Did you (or anyone else for that matter) consider using DocBook for 
> writing the tutorials? We're also in the process of deciding on a set of 
> standards to use for our tutorials and user guides and DocBook is 
> currently the top of our list. I think OO Writer supports DocBook but I 
> haven't tried it yet. There is also XMLMind which has a freeware (not 
> open source) version for creating DocBook compliant documents. The 
> DocBook specification can easily become overwhelming but I think for our 
> purposes we could adopt a handful of tags from the specification that 
> would meet our needs. 

I wasn't aware of DocBook Ned. But I agree -- developing an XML-based
structure is what we should do... but as you say, it needs to be
*simple* or people won't do it. 

I liked Rice U's Connexions in that they had a OO/Word template that one
could use to start a tutorial so it followed their standards. Would be
good if we could do this too.

I'm willing to work with you or follow your lead -- whatever is best for
you. I think if you and I converted 1 or 2 of our existing material in a
standard format and passed it by the group this would move us in the
right direction toward a "recommended", but not required, tutorial
standard.

I'm feeling a little sense of urgency. My Research Assistant Sasha
Stepanov is ready to help convert and I need to give him instructions. 

THE QUESTION: 

How hard would it be for you to develop a DocBook structure that we
could use? I think it would be excellent if this was Open Office
compatible. Should I see if Sasha can investigate this?

Charlie



> We are also considering LaTeX since that is geared 
> more toward the writing of scientific documents. Has anyone out there 
> compared LaTeX and DocBook? How about experience using different tools 
> for writing LaTeX and DocBook documents?
> 
> Although I don't think it's all that important for everyone to use the 
> same formats publishing if I sense there is a critical mass within OSGeo 
> to use particular formats, templates, or software we will likely follow 
> suit. In any case we'll let you know what we decide to do.
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Ned
> 
> Charlie Schweik wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-10-15 at 08:18 +0200, maria.brovelli at diiar-topo.polimi.it
> > wrote:
> >   
> >> Just to summarize. At the moment three processes are working:
> >>
> >> 1) collecting people and material
> >>     
> >
> >   
> >> In the first case, if people already have educational stuff and we  
> >> suppose that the list of material is going to grow up, we need to  
> >> manage them via metadata. Anyway we can wait and see. At the moment  
> >> the content inventory is not so populated...
> >>     
> >
> > Hi Folks. Regarding the discussions about Moodle and such, here's what
> > I've concluded regarding my own material. What I am trying to get to is
> > a model of how we do content management in general in situations where
> > new derivatives are OK. 
> >
> > 1) Develop Modules in Open Office Writer using a standard "metadata
> > header"
> >
> > We am going to convert my QGIS/PostGreSQL/PostGIS/GRASS plug in -related
> > tutorials from wiki page format to Open Office Writer. Through this
> > effort  am going to try and establish a "recommended tutorial metadata
> > structure" in terms of headings for the modules.
> >
> > 2) Publish in pdf format
> >
> > 3) Create a course on OSGeo Moodle with links to the pdf files. (not
> > sure what to do with our associated data yet)
> >
> > 4) Develop a course entry on the OSGeo Wiki Inventory page following our
> > current metadata structure.
> >
> > What I still don't like about this is that people can't search for
> > modules across courses easily as we grow. But I suppose that can be an
> > issue for later.
> >
> > Let me know if any of you have objections to this strategy. If this
> > sounds OK, we'll send out an example of a Module in OO writer (#1) for
> > people to look at and comment on.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Charlie
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Edu_discuss mailing list
> > Edu_discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
> >
> >   
> 
-- 
Associate Professor 
- Department of Natural Resources Conservation (www.umass.edu/nrc) 
- Center for Public Policy and Administration (www.masspolicy.org),
- Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
Phone: (413) 545-1824
Website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik