admin sites

Using a Hierarchy of Sites to Help Decentralise Administration

Dr Adam Marshall, The University of Oxford

Topics• Overview of Oxford IT support model• Challenges• Approach• Hierarchy• Managing access• Administration sites• Issues• Future initiatives

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Oxford UniversityFirst of all, some gratuitous photos of …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/oobrien/8908633/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/james7/2854302338

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/4161801314

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kshathriya/2274225022

THE OXFORD IT MODELI will now talk about …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/36759033

THE LAY OF THE LAND

There are 704 IT support staff:38 colleges 6 permanent private halls7 Divisions (4 academic)193 departments20,000 students18,000 staff

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SAKAI SUPPORT

Small central team (3 people)‘WebLearn’ Service manager; Learning technologist / trainer; Developer

Each unit has IT support staff (ITSS)Each unit has Sakai administrators

Called ‘Local WebLearn Coordinators’Create / setup / manage sitesFirst line of support

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CHALLENGESNow it’s time to hear about …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/urtica/333048846/

REQUIREMENTS

A hierarchy of sitesAccess for ‘large groups’Local coordinators have ‘admin’ rightsLocal coordinators can delegate rights

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LOCAL COORDINATORS MUST

Be able to create new & copy existing sitesPlace and move sites in the hierarchyGrant create rights to othersHave access to all a unit’s sitesAssign visit rights to:

.auth, .anon, ‘all staff’, ‘all students’, ….

Not do anything too dangerous!

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APPROACHTime to explain our …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_hintsa/2585707263/

WHAT WE DIDProject sites onlyArranged in hierarchyAdministration Sites (Cf Admin Workspace)

One per unitParticipants have reduced ‘admin’ rightsDifferent roles

Improved ‘Manage Access’ page

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HIERARCHYThis is a hard word to spell …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/3178448986/

OXFORD HIERARCHY

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Welcome Page

Division

Department

Module

IMPLEMENTATIONUsed hierarchy service from EvaluationsOverlay hierarchy over pool of sitesNo inheritanceOnly display sites user can visit

.auth / .anon sites can be in hierarchy

Use tabs as ‘breadcrumb trail’New ‘hierarchy box’ under ‘tool list’New ‘manage box’ under ‘hierarchy box’

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WELCOME PAGE

NAVIGATION

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Welcome Page Division Department

Breadcrumb trail

TOOLSCreate siteBring site (a site can be in > 1 place)Arrange (remove, swap)Need:

Move / remove treeCopy tree‘Primary location’‘Sync instances’ – same sub-sites everywhere

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ISSUESMy Workspace is sidelinedUsers expect inheritance (like our old VLE)Users want ‘Search under here’‘Active sites’ list has no contextNavigation if parent site is not visibleCan’t actually delete sites

Since no record is kept: too dangerous!

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SUPPLEMENTARY TOOLSFind sites with ‘and visit’ patch‘Search all my sites’ optionGrey-out unpublished sitesImproved access management (see later)Administration sites plus tools (see later)

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FIND SITES TOOL

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MANAGING ACCESSNow some information about …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/10413717@N08/2804363062/

REQUIREMENTSEasy assignment of .auth & .anon: ‘site.visit’

But prevent dangerous .anon

LDAP integration‘All Staff’ & ‘All students’: ‘site.visit’Find sites (site-browser) tool‘Auto-join’ patch (would be good!)Reusable internal & ad-hoc groups (coming)

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SITE INFO: MANAGE ACCESS

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SITE INFO: ADD PARTICIPANTS

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ADMINISTRATION SITESThe moment you’ve all been waiting for …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesm/2463776436/

REQUIREMENTS

Administrator powers but,SimplerSaferConstrained

Create sitesManage hierarchy‘Administrator’ access to unit’s hierarchyA second level with less rights‘Auditor’ access

HOW ADMIN SITES WORK

Are said to manage other sitesHave three roles:

Admin (Local WebLearn Coordinators)Create sites in unit’s area Visit admin site & add othersAutomatically have ‘maintain’ rights is all managed sites

Member (Lecturers / Administration staff)Create sites where maintainer

Audit (Internal / External auditors)Visit and read rights

Admin Sites have dedicated tool: Site List

CREATING A SITE

ADMIN SITES MANAGING PROJECT SITES

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Welcome Page

Division

Department

Module

= Admin site

= Project site

SITE LIST AND ROLES

ADMIN SITE ROLES

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Division

Department

Module

= Admin site

= Project siteMember

Admin

Audit

Barbie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34281632@N03/4060738088/

Mr Potato Head: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinker-tailor/4264780554/

Action man: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinker-tailor/4264099802/in/set-72157623183566430/

Maintain

Can ‘maintain’ all sitesCan create new sites

Can create sites

where maintainer

Can browse all sites

MANAGEMENT

We have drafted guidelinesUsers must request ‘Admin Site’ Sign to say “guidelines have been read”We keep public list of Local Coordinators

ISSUESAnd finally …

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/escapevelocity/2939147834

USERS CAUSE MOST PROBLEMS!

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COMMON PROBLEMSUsers don’t read guidelines/documentationMisunderstandings

A user gave .anon access to admin site. This made all managed sites .anon too. Whoops!

Departments don’t formulate a policyNo coherent approach – confused studentsToo many sub-sitesToo few sub-sites!

IN SUMMARY

Users like what we’ve doneBut old VLE (Bodington) had same featuresSeems to work well

Lots of user education neededNeed more toolsMerging process is very difficult (use Git)

Sakai 3 – arrgghh!!

FUTURE INITIATIVESLet us now gaze into our crystal ball …

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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/circulating/2238715683/

WHAT’S NEXT? (1)

Smartphone interfaceUses JSON / SDATA & oAuthInformation summaryTutorial sign-up (Yale)

Oxford podcastsNews tool with media player & feed browser

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WHAT’S NEXT? (2)

Groups store integrationCentrally stored ad-hoc groups Will replace internal groups

Evaluations toolExtend Turnitin supportSharepoint & Exchange interoperability!

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