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 March 20102European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Oxford University First of all, some gratuitous photos of … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..3

The Oxford IT Model I will now talk about … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..4

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 March 20105European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

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 March 20106European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Challenges Now it’s time to hear about … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..7

Requirements A hierarchy of sites Access for ‘large groups’ Local coordinators have ‘admin’ rights Local coordinators can delegate rights March 20108European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

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! March 20109European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Approach Time to explain our … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..10

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 March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Hierarchy This is a hard word to spell … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..12

Oxford Hierarchy March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain.. 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’ March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Welcome Page

Navigation March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain.. Welcome Page DivisionDepartment 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 March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

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! March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

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) March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Find Sites Tool March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Managing Access Now some information about … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..21

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) March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Site Info: Manage Access March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Site Info: Add Participants March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

Administration Sites The moment you’ve all been waiting for … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..25

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 March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain.. Welcome Page Division Department Module = Admin site = Project site

Site List and Roles

Admin Site Roles March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain.. Division Department Module = Admin site = Project site Member Admin Audit Barbie: Mr Potato Head: Action man: Maintain Can ‘maintain’ all sites Can 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

Issues And finally … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..33

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 initiatives Let us now gaze into our crystal ball … March 2010European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..36

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 March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..

What’s Next? (2) Groups store integration Centrally stored ad-hoc groups Will replace internal groups Evaluations tool Extend Turnitin support Sharepoint & Exchange interoperability! March European Sakai Conference – Valencia - Spain..