Title	Sakai Course Site Creation and Automation
Presenters	Carl Perry (University of Florida)
Date and time (EDT)	June 13, 2012, 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Room	Tower 1402
Facilitator	(Empty for now - What's this?)

Description

Creating thousands of course sites each semester can be a daunting task. Add in the fact that individuals and departments have their own unique conventions and requirements. The workload can really pile up at the beginning of the semester.

This presentation will overview course site and roster creation and how UF has automated most of this process. This includes the ability to dynamically create course sites from pre-configured template sites. The advantages and disadvantages of different course creation strategies will be highlighted. A technical overview will be given, including specific Java Web Services used to achieve automation. This session will benefit universities who are developing a strategy for creating course sites or are interested in improving their current course creation process. The University of Florida is currently using Sakai CLE 2.8.

Materials

All materials listed here do not need to be reviewed prior or during the presentation. They are simply for quick reference.

Sakai Web Services
- Getting started: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/WEBSVCS/How+to+use+the+Sakai+Web+Services
- Useful Java Web Services for roster and course creation (Only for reference. Always check for the latest version appropriate for your institution)
- SakaiLogin.jws
- SakaiScript.jws
Presentation Slides

Tips:

If you create a GUI for your middleware database, using a javascript framework such as extJS provides functinoality such as sorting, filtering, hiding columns, etc
When using copySite() in SakaiScript.jws - The Site id needs to be unique (Unique auto incremented id from a database) Two course site id cannot have the same id.
The copySite() function will not copy over content from the Home page. I store the Home content in the middleware database, and pass it to the copySite() function as the description.

Attendees

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Action items

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