Sousa: Content Authoringand Delivery in Sakai

Mark J. Norton

Nolaria Consulting

July 2008

Sousa

• Sousa is a toolkit that allows content authoring and delivery tools to be developed in Sakai.

• It has a plug-in architecture that makes it easy to add new media objects.

• Enables different approaches to page layout and sequencing to be explored and used.

Existing Sakai Content Tools

• Resources Tool– Repository support– Custom ordering in collections– Reveal and Conceal dates– Custom actions

• Melete– Authoring and Delivery– Module based for blended learning

• SCORM– Delivery only

Choices area bit limited.

• LAMS

Why Create a New Tool?

• Sequencing of content is simplistic.• Limited page authoring support.• Hard to add new media types• Difficult to experiment with new concepts like

web mash-ups.• Difficult to capture pedagogical styles.• (Mark has too much spare time)

Introducing Sousa

• Sousa is a set of tools designed to make it simple to create and deliver structured content.

• Multiple delivery styles - single page, self paced (more planned).

• An experimental platform to explore new approaches to content delivery.

• Written in Java using RSF.

Sousa Tools

• Sousa Page Tool– Create structured pages– Create new media elements– Control over media elements

• Sousa Sequencer Tool– Create and edit sequences.– Self paced viewing of pages or media elements.

Sousa Page Tool

• Currently supports the creation and editing of one kind of page layout: grids.

• Has support for creating and editing other kinds of layout such as free form.

Page Layout – Grid Tiles

Simple layout controls allow full page, two column, two section, and quadrant grid.

Tile-0

Objects

Tile-1

Objects

Tile-2

Objects

Tile-3

Objects

Editing a Tile

Each tile can have one or more media elements in it. The ordering of these elements can be changed using the control buttons at the left.

Adding New Content Objects

• While content can be uploaded or created in the Resource tool (and visible in Sousa), the Sousa Page tool also supports creation.

• Sousa specific objects can be created.• Two kinds of creation:

– File upload– Cut and paste of text

• Content object attributes can be assigned.– Height, width, autoplay, etc.

Media Elements Supported

• Plain Text• Structured Text• Headings (H1, H2, etc.)• Video and SMIL• Audio and MIDI• Flash• Images and Animation

Planned Media Support

• MathML, ChemML, MusicML• VRML and other 3D visualizers• CSV tables and charts using SVG• Google Earth, Maps, etc.• MIT’s Timeline applet• Virtual Labs• Web Mashups• Questions

There dozens, perhaps hundreds of interesting media object types on the internet. These are only a few of them.

Sousa Media Engine

• Sousa has three application services that provide support for dealing with media objects:– Sequence service

• Content objects and sequences

– Edit service• Abstract editing support

– Content Elements service• UI editing and display support

Sequence Service

• A Sequence is a collection of content items that can include pages.

• A Layout is a Sousa page.

Edit Chain Service

• The Edit Chain service provides support for keeping track of editing including undo.

• This allows a series of edits to be made and then commit all of them at the end (or cancel).

Content Element Service

• ContentElement is the interface that all elements implement.

• Elements extend a base object and are managed by the CE Handler

Adding New Content Elements

• Implement the ContentElement interface.• Register it in the ContentElementHandler.

• Currently relies on RSF template id naming conventions.

ContentElementpublic interface ContentElement { public static String PARAM_HEIGHT = "sousa.parameter.height"; public static String PARAM_WIDTH = "sousa.parameter.width"; public static String PARAM_BORDER = "sousa.parameter.border"; public static String PARAM_AUTOSTART = "sousa.parameter.autostart"; public static String PARAM_SIZE = "sousa.parameter.size";

public String getType(); public String getName();

public void displayContent(UIContainer tofill, String templateId, String suffix, Item contentItem); public void displayThumbnail(UIContainer tofill, String templateId, Item contentItem); public void displayIcon(UIContainer tofill, String templateId); public void editParameters(UIContainer tofill, String templateIdBase, EditItem contentItem); public void saveParameters(EditItem item); public void editContent(UIContainer tofill, String templateIdBase, EditItem contentItem); public void saveContent(EditItem item);

public boolean isSimple(); public boolean isParametersEditable(); public boolean isContentEditable();}

User Interface Support

• The ContentElement interface provides support for the following UI interactions:– Create / Edit Content Element– Add / Edit Attributes– Display a Content Element

Sousa Sequence Tool

• The Sousa Sequence tool allows sequences to be created and edited using either Sousa pages or “raw” content objects (text, images, video, audio, etc.).

• Currently supports a linear delivery style but others are possible, such as branching, remediated, indexed, etc.

Editing a Sequence

Note the similarity between ordering sequence pages and media elements in a tile.

Teaching and Learning

• Sousa is a general purpose media authoring application.

• It can be used for presentation of supplemental course material, blended learning, etc.

• Most of the material is passive at this stage, but interactive content, such as questions, are planned.

Demonstration

Sousa Status

• Over one year of development• Linear sequencing is complete• Basic page editing complete.• New media elements with attributes can be

created.• Support for Sakai 2.4.x with support for 2.5.x

coming soon.

In the Future

• Template creation from existing pages.• Other sequence types like branching.• Improved media editing (cropping, etc.)• Interactive media• Synchronized presentation (slide show)• Assignment and Gradebook integration• Interoperability (SCORM, IMS-CC)

Resources

• Sousa is currently a contributed tool in source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/mnorton/sousa

• Documentation atconfluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/SOUSA/Home

• It is still an experimental application.• If you are interested in participating in this

project contact:– Mark Norton– markjnorton@earthlink.net

Any Questions?