07 March 2009, 14:49

We have a clean install of the latest stable release - as of Thursday.  It will be used with students in our district (as young as 10 up to 18 yrs old).

I assume that since we have only one district, the Institutions are moot.  

I would want teachers to be able to work with their assigned students directly - groups seems to be the answer.  

Students would change groups at least yearly (and for those in our HS/MS - twice a year possibly).

Does this seem like the correct way to organize?  I am reading voraciously the documentation - but feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Sharon

07 March 2009, 15:12

Hi Sharon,

great to hear that you start to work with ePortfolio in your schools.

The group concept is perfect. Mahara 1.1 allows enhanced featuring with gropus. I am thinking about the best group type.

controlled group is good if you want to give your students NO way out of group. You have to "collect" them, that meens a littlebit of work for the teachers.

I would select a request membership group. You show the studensts how to find groups and they post an request to join the group. Alternative the teacher could write an invitationif you create a invite only group. But this means that the teachers have to seek their students. Therefor I think request membership groups are best.

The new group page shows all joined members and you can check if the class is complete.

Hope that helps

Heinz

08 March 2009, 7:00

in addition i think it is a good idea to add new users in an "General Institution" group automatically. Option Users auto-added? on the create/ edit page asks if automatically put all new users into this group?

Look how "Mahara Community" Group handles it here on mahara.org! 

On this way the admin oder the group admin can check for new users and offer assistance or send invitations, freindship requests etc.

08 March 2009, 8:56

This is a great idea.  I would begin with uploading the users and automatically have them in the General group.

Then I can put each advisor/teacher over another group - can multiple groups be made at once through a batch file?

 

08 March 2009, 9:09

Hi,

you can create a couple of groups with auto add new user. Yes

Heinz

08 March 2009, 14:56

Hi - nope, there's no way currently to add groups through a batch file the same way there is for users, but it sounds like a good feature request so I made one. Another related feature request is for auto-joining users to groups via CSV, which would "complete the package"

03 March 2010, 17:55

It appears you can change a group type after members have joined.  So one way to get around batch upload for group membership is to create a general group, instruct your students to join the group, then change the group type to a controlled membership.

07 March 2009, 21:18

Hi - yes, institutions would be moot under your scenario.

I agree with Heinz, the best way for now is probably 'request membership', it provides the least work for teachers. Students can request membership to new groups as they need to, and teachers can approve them. The only disadvantage is that students would be able to leave them as well, but that, probably not such a problem - if students leave then they will be in trouble with the teacher when they don't do their work!