using a hierarchy of sites to help decentralise administration

Using a Hierarchy of Sites to Help Using a Hierarchy of Sites to Help Decentralise AdministrationDecentralise 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

March 2010 2European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Oxford UniversityFirst of all, some gratuitous photos of …

March 2010 European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain.. 3

The Oxford IT ModelI will now talk about …


The lay of the land

There are 704 IT support staff:• 38 colleges • 6 permanent private halls• 7 Divisions (4 academic)• 193 departments• 20,000 students• 18,000 staff


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 sites• First line of support


ChallengesNow it’s time to hear about …


Requirements

• A hierarchy of sites• Access for ‘large groups’• Local coordinators have ‘admin’ rights• Local coordinators can delegate rights


Local Coordinators Must

• Be able to create new & copy existing sites• Place and move sites in the hierarchy• Grant create rights to others• Have access to all a unit’s sites• Assign visit rights to:

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

• Not do anything too dangerous!


ApproachTime to explain our …


What we did

• Project sites only• Arranged in hierarchy• Administration Sites (Cf Admin Workspace)

• One per unit• Participants have reduced ‘admin’ rights• Different roles

• Improved ‘Manage Access’ page


HierarchyThis is a hard word to spell …


Oxford Hierarchy


Welcome Page

Division

Department

Module

Implementation

• Used hierarchy service from Evaluations• Overlay hierarchy over pool of sites• No inheritance• Only 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’


Welcome Page

Navigation


Welcome Page Division Department

Breadcrumb trail

Tools

• Create site• Bring site (a site can be in > 1 place)• Arrange (remove, swap)• Need:

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


Issues

• My Workspace is sidelined• Users expect inheritance (like our old VLE)• Users want ‘Search under here’• ‘Active sites’ list has no context• Navigation if parent site is not visible• Can’t actually delete sites

• Since no record is kept: too dangerous!


Supplementary Tools• Find sites with ‘and visit’ patch• ‘Search all my sites’ option• Grey-out unpublished sites• Improved access management (see later)• Administration sites plus tools (see later)


Find Sites Tool


Managing AccessNow some information about …


Requirements• Easy 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)


Site Info: Manage Access


Site Info: Add Participants


Administration SitesThe moment you’ve all been waiting for …


Requirements

• Administrator powers but,• Simpler• Safer• Constrained

• Create sites• Manage hierarchy• ‘Administrator’ access to unit’s hierarchy• A second level with less rights• ‘Auditor’ access

How Admin Sites Work• Are said to manage other sites• Have three roles:

• Admin (Local WebLearn Coordinators)• Create sites in unit’s area • Visit admin site & add others• Automatically 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


Welcome Page

Division

Department

Module

= Admin site

= Project site

Site List and Roles

Admin Site Roles


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

IssuesAnd finally …


Common Problems

• Users don’t read guidelines/documentation• Misunderstandings

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

• Departments don’t formulate a policy• No coherent approach – confused students• Too many sub-sites• Too few sub-sites!

In Summary

• Users like what we’ve done• But old VLE (Bodington) had same features• Seems to work well

• Lots of user education needed• Need more tools• Merging process is very difficult (use Git)

• Sakai 3 – arrgghh!!

Future initiativesLet us now gaze into our crystal ball …


What’s Next? (1)

• Smartphone interface• Uses JSON / SDATA & oAuth• Information summary• Tutorial sign-up (Yale)

• Oxford podcasts• News tool with media player & feed browser


What’s Next? (2)

• Groups store integration• Centrally stored ad-hoc groups • Will replace internal groups

• Evaluations tool• Extend Turnitin support• Sharepoint & Exchange interoperability!


using a hierarchy of sites to help decentralise administration

Documents

evaluationsoverlay hierarchy

hierarchy boxmarch

sites onlyarranged

topicsoverview of oxford

oxford hierarchymarch

oxford universityfirst

admin rightslocal coordinators

support staff itsseach