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Preview as Learner

1 Description

Members‘s view

Authors and administrators cannot verify whether or not their choices in the RBAC do actually translate into the view they intend their learners to have. They want to switch perspectives into the learner`s view. Providing a learner‘s view requires decision taking on three issues:

1. What constitutes a learner‘s view / what should be presented?
2. Where should this learner‘s view be offered?
3. Who can perform this action?

We did not agree at the 10th DevConf. Yet, the issue is pressing and needs to be adressed soon, we recommend to cut down on complexity by evading question 1: We do not create a genuine "Learner`s view" throughout the whole system but only a "Member`s view" for groups and courses.

Using the "Member's view" a course or group administrator can easily see how the course/group and its content is shown to a member. Wrong permission settings will be identified much easier. Access problems of course or group members can be avoided. The following scenarios will be supported:

• Courses: Users with the according permissions can see how a course is displayed to a course member.
• Groups: Users with the according permissions can see how a course is displayed to a group member

The member's view ignores all pre-conditions or additional roles. It shows an object only from the perspective of a fictional user with the appropriate role. It is therefore no substitute to the existing feature "Permissions of User".

This reduction in complexity will hopefully lead to an agreement on the other questions .

Alternatives for question 2: Where should this member‘s view be offered?

1. The member‘s view is offered in the „Permissions of User“ screen. (Problem: Tutor may not have the permission to access the permission tab)
2. The member‘s view is offered in the „Object Permissions Setting“ screen. (Problem: Tutor may not have the permission to access the permission tab)
3. The member‘s view is offered on the course / group content screen. (
4. The member‘s view is offered in a new tab (like in Blackboard) (Problem: You should be able to navigate to sub-resources. E.g. a forum, this can not happen within a course tab.)
5. The member‘s view is offered in the top menu like "Last Visited". (Problem: This would move a "course feature" above the course title. The menu item would be appearing/disappearing on navigating through the repository)
6. The member‘s view is offered when "all commands" is activated. (Problem: We would prefer to get rid of the "all commands feature".)
7. The member‘s view is offered is somehow offered on the level of the course title. This would be logical, since the function affects all user interface items below the course title. (Problem: May clutter user interface)

Alternatives for question 3: Who can perform this action?

• Course or group administrators and users with permission "Administrate" would be allowed to use the member's view.
• Users with permission "Write" would be allowed to use the member's view.
• Using the member's view would be a new permission.

2 Status

• Scheduled for Release: Release Release 4.0
• Funding: Funded by PHTG and Universität Hohenheim.
• Development: Feature is to be developed by LEIFOS GmbH

3 Additional Information

• If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: Matthias Kunkel

4 Discussion

JF 26 Jan 2009: We discussed the general presentation of the "members view". We suggest to disable the main menu and the breadcrumb navigation and to present a message on top instead, that includes a note like "You are currently in members preview. Click here to return to the normal course view."

Rugy 27 Jan 2009: I think this is a good idea. The thing I'm struggling with is the 'members view' activation button placement. To keep the logic it should be placed next to the 'tree and up arrow' buttons. On the other hand, this will get a bit cluttered. Do we still need an 'up arrow' button? We have a breadcrumb and a 'last visited' drop down. That should be enough for back navigation. Maybe we could put a 'member view' button instead of the 'up' arrow button until the results of the usability test kick in ;-)

Jour Fixe, 10 Aug 2009: The button to start the learner preview should be realised as link right of the object's tab list. Preconditions of the user that starts the preview have to be ignored. We might add a precondition handling in a later version.

5 Follow-up

2010-04-28 by Rugy:
Learner view should should be controlled by the "write" permission or by a dedicated option - not by "administer local roles"

2010-12-09 by ILIAS_LM:
Qualitus has been creating a new feature request concerning the permission to use "member view": Permission Requirement for Preview as a Learner