07 April 2017, 20:14

Hello,

We've been using Mahara for a number of years, and I'm delighted at the improvements we've seen over that time, but this issue is still causing problems for our students when developing their portfolios.

When you copy one of your own pages, it is automatically linked as a duplicate. Any changes made to either copy is then replicated in the other. Despite telling students several times each year not to do this, and to only copy from our 'template group', we invariably get a few students every year who copy the first page that pops up when they search, which is usually their personal page. The students who do this then often end up with 6-8 identical pages and several days of wasted effort as every change is cascaded through their entire portfolio.

While we could take the harsh "if you can't follow basic instructions" line, I would much rather address this as a usability concern. I proposed a change to how "copy pages & collections" functions in the tracker last year but wanted further input from other users. My suggestion is that when users click on the copy page (or collection) button they should be presented with a choice:

1) Use page as a template - copies all blocks but doesn't link them (return 'fullinclself')

2) Create a mirrored page - textbox/notes link and changes to either update both copies (return 'full')

https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1638962

Any thoughts?

08 April 2017, 2:39

Hi Gordon

I thought I saw that happening the other week but hadn't been aware it was by design - I just thought I was cracking up.

I use Mahara to create help pages for each service I support and I tend to copy the old page to create a "new improved" version.  As we speak, I am looking at two pages for our Media Library that I created in this way and they are very different - as I expected.

Are there two ways to copy - one from within the page and one from the list of pages?  Do these 'Copy' buttons have different functions?

Regards

Marion

08 April 2017, 2:59

Hi Marion,

Yes. If you copy from your personal pages it links them so that any changes are mirrored. If you copy a page from a group or someone else's pages, however, it creates a complete standalone version. This is the method that we use - we setup all of our template pages in a group and give students viewing access to the pages, then when they copy they get their own personal version that they can edit without changing the original. Where it goes wrong is if someone clicks 'copy page' but doesn't realise the difference and takes the copy from their own version instead of the templates.

Regards, Gordon.

11 April 2017, 8:57

Hi Gordon,

Which artefacts are the problem? Is it just the notes or are you suggesting to also duplicate journal entries and files when they are copied from your own pages?

Cheers

Kristina