Xerte EditingPt2

JISC Techdis 2011 1 www.jisctechdis.ac.
uk/xerte
JISC Techdis
Xerte Online Toolkits
Editing, managing and sharing
learning objects (Part 2)

Introduction
This tutorial continues from Part 1 and covers some additional
and more advanced steps and features including:

Using RSS Feeds
Adding Notes
Sharing LOs for collaborative development
Giving copies of LOs complete with content
Peer Review
Exporting LOs from Xerte Online Toolkits
Editing using the Xerte offline Windows application
Importing into Xerte Online Toolkits

Pre-requisites
You should already be familiar with the basic steps required
to create a learning object with Xerte Online Toolkits and the
steps and features involved in managing and sharing LOs
covered in part 1 before beginning this tutorial. (see relevant
tutorials if necessary)

Context
There are some powerful features built-in to Xerte Online
Toolkits to enable different ways to share and review LOs and
also to facilitate efficient workflow. You may wish to use this
as a reference guide to the specific features you would find
useful.

Key:
New sequence
Sequential steps with screenshots for reference
Repeated steps without screenshots

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JISC Techdis 2011 2 www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte
Using RSS feeds
Xerte Online Toolkits automatically provides a number of RSS
feeds. This includes a site wide RSS feed, a feed for each
individual workspace account, a unique feed for each folder in
each workspace and a site wide syndication feed. These are
described in more detail below.

To ensure an LO is part
of the site wide RSS or your
Personal Workspace RSS,
first select the LO and
click Properties.

Select
the RSS Tab.
If your LO is
not yet set to
public you
will see a
prompt to
change the
Access
settings.
As described in
part 1 of this series
simply select the
Access tab, tick the
Public checkbox and
click Save.

Now select the RSS Tab again. If the RSS settings
havent been changed previously you should see an empty
Description box and the Checkboxes to include the LO in
the RSS and Export feeds will be set to No which is the
default setting.
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Change the RSS feed checkbox to Yes.
Change the Export feed Checkbox to Yes. N.B.
Including content in the export feed allows other users to
download your project and make changes to it themselves.
Add a suitable description of your project to the
Description text box. The description will appear as part of
the RSS feed and should be a suitable summary of your
object. Remember to click Save to complete the changes.

People who subscribe to the feeds will see new content
automatically as it is added to the feeds.

The Main Feed link is the site wide feed for this
installation of Xerte Online Toolkits. The sitewide feed
includes LOs created and added to the feed by anyone using
the installation and in this case the link is
http://xerte4.techdis.palepurple.co.uk/rss.php

The link described as your own RSS Feed will only
include LOs that you yourself have created and added to the
feed e.g. not LOs created by others. In this example the link
is:
http://xerte4.techdis.palepurple.co.uk/rss.php?username=Ali
stair_McNaught

You can preview what the links contain by clicking the
links in the RSS Properties window or by copying and
pasting the links into an RSS Reader or VLE RSS Module etc.

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By organising youre LOs into
folders (covered in part 1 of this
series) you can also make use of
unique RSS feeds for each
folder. So for instance you might
organise your LOs into course or
group specific folders and then
add the specific feeds to relevant
VLE courses.

To obtain the RSS feed link
to a specific folder select the
folder in the My Projects panel
and click Properties.

Select the Tab labelled RSS feed for this folder and
Click the link to preview the folder specific feed. You can then
copy the link from the preview window or the properties panel
and paste the feed link into the relevant VLE course.

Any new LOs added to the folder
and set to be part of the RSS feeds will
be displayed automatically to anyone
who has subscribed to the specific feed
using their preferred RSS reader or to
anyone visiting the VLE course where
the feed has been added.

As an example Moodle provides an
RSS Feed Block which can be added
to any course and configured to display
the relevant feeds.
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Adding Notes
Xerte Online Toolkits makes it very quick and easy to build up
a large collection of learning objects some of which you may
duplicate and organise into different folders and amend for
different groups etc. To save time in the future its therefore
useful to keep notes about the content and purpose of each
LO using the notes property. You might choose to summarise
existing or planned changes or simply to make a note of the
content an LO contains or ideas for future reference.

To add notes about a
particular LO first select the
LO and click Properties.

Select the Notes
tab, add relevant
notes and click Save.

N.B. The notes
property has a
restricted length and
prohibits special
characters and
carriage returns so
keep your notes
concise.
A powerful and relatively unique feature of Xerte Online
Toolkits is the ability to easily enable a colleague or
colleagues to edit an LO you initially developed and then to
continue to develop the resource collaboratively.

Select the relevant LO and click Properties

Select the Shared settings tab and type the firstname,
lastname or even just 1
st
initial(s) of the colleagues you wish
to share with. N.B. Only existing users will appear e.g. those
who have accessed the installation at least once. This
example shows typing the letter s displays two users picking
up the s in Sewell and the s in Simon.

Click the link alongside each colleague to add them to the
list and enable them to edit or just read the LO. N.B. Editor is
the default option.

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If you have an installation of Xerte Online Toolkits in your
own organisation and search for a colleague without their
name appearing it may simply be that they have never
accessed the installation and therefore do not yet have an
account. Simply send them a link and once their account is
created you will be able to share LOs with them.

You can also revisit the Shared settings to see who has
shared access and if necessary to remove that access or
change to Read only. Once a colleague has shared access
they will see the LO in their own workspace and be able to
edit and add pages but not delete the whole LO or change
specific properties.

Giving LOs to other users
Another powerful feature built-in to Xerte Online Toolkits is
the option to give a copy of an LO to other users. You might
use this to develop an LO complete with content and activities
and then give it to colleagues or even learners to further
adapt. Indeed you might develop a sequence of pages with
prompts for students to then develop further by adding
relevant content and activity themselves. Alternatively you
might develop a successful format and sequence which
colleagues can then use and learn from when developing their
own LOs.

As usual select the relevant LO and click Properties.

Select the Give
this project tab
and as with sharing
simply type the first
name, last name or
1
st
initial of the
colleagues or
learners to whom
you wish to give a
copy. N.B. You will
see a confirmation
that the LO was
successfully gifted
but not a list to
review at a later
date. Those
receiving the LO will
have full control
over what becomes
their own copy of your LO complete with content.
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Enabling and using Peer Review
This feature enables peer review of your LOs. However the
feature only works with installations where certain settings
have been added during installation. Contact your system
administrator if you find the following steps do not work in
your installation.


Select the Peer review tab, tick the On checkbox to
turn Peer review On, enter a suitable password and click
Save. N.B. You will be sharing this password with those you
invite to review your LO.

Once you have saved the settings you can test the peer
review link and then share the link and password with
colleagues.

You will be prompted to
enter the password and click
Sign In.

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Your colleagues will be able to interact with your LO and
make comments in the review text box before clicking Save
to submit their comments. N.B. You might think its just as
easy to send them a link to your LO and ask for feedback by
email instead of using the peer review system. However that
would mean making your LO public whereas the peer review
system provides access without having to make your LO
public which can be useful during development and testing
etc.

Exporting LOs
Xerte Online Toolkits enables the export and import of LOs
between Xerte Online Toolkits installations as well as export
and import into VLEs such as Moodle. Or you may simply
wish to export for offline use from a USB stick, CD/DVD or
network drive. Its also possible to export as a Scorm package
and import into a VLE in that way or even to export and
continue editing with the separate locally installed Xerte
authoring tool.


Select the Export tab and choose one of the two export
options zip or Scorm. Choose zip export to use or edit
locally or to import into another toolkits installation.
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You should be prompted to open or save the zip file.
Choose Save and select a location of your choice.

To view or edit the LO locally extract the contents of the
zip usually by right clicking the file and selecting the
relevant option.

To view the LO double click index.htm

The LO will launch in the default web browser and work in
the same way as it would online.

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To export as a Scorm package select the Scorm export
link and Save the zip to a location of your choice. Choose this
option if you wish to import into a VLE/LMS as a Scorm
object. N.B. The current page templates do not send quiz
data via Scorm calls. Also if you view scormRLO.htm locally
you will see error messages as the package tries to
communicate with an LMS.

Editing with the Xerte Windows application
If you have the Xerte Windows application installed (available
from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/ ) you can also
continue to edit your exported LOs offline. This provides a
useful workflow whereby you can create an LO with Xerte
Online Toolkits online, export as a zip and continue to edit
with the Windows application or indeed by importing into a
local installation of Xerte Online Toolkits. You could also
actually begin the process with the Windows application using
the same Xerte Templates Wizard as with Xerte Online
Toolkits and then import the packaged LO into a Xerte Online
Toolkits installation.

Depending on your version of Xerte Online Toolkits you
may see either learningobject.rlo, learningobject.rlt or
indeed both within the extracted folder. Double clicking either
of these files will launch the Windows application (if installed).

If you opened learningobject.rlo be careful not to change
anything in the more specialised authoring environment.
Instead simply double click the Xerte Online Toolkit icon
top left of the icon panel to launch the much easier Xerte
Templates Wizard

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The Xerte Template Wizard looks and works in much
the same way as it does within the online version in Xerte
Online Toolkits. Double clicking learningobject.rlt should
launch this directly but if you find yourself back in the native
application simply double click the Xerte Online Toolkit icon as
described in the previous step.

If you edit or
create an LO
using the
Windows
application you
can then Publish
the LO as a zip
Package ready
for importing back into a Xerte Online Toolkits installation.
Select Publish then Package. This prompts you to save a
Scorm zip package which can be imported as described in the
following steps
Any LO created with Xerte Online Toolkits and exported as
either a zip or Scorm package can be imported back into the
same Xerte Online Toolkits installation or imported into
another installation. Likewise an LO created with the Xerte
Template Wizard from within the Windows application and
Published as a zip Package can be imported in the same way.
This facilitates the sharing of objects between installations
and indeed between organisations where staff are willing to
share development.

To import a zip or Scorm
package first select the
Workspace icon and then
select Properties.

Then select the Import
tab and Browse to find your
exported or packaged zip.

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Select the relevant zip file and click Open.

Enter a New
project name and
click Upload.

Watch the
progress
indicator bottom
left of the
Workspace
Properties
window.
A confirmation window
should appear confirming
that the package was
imported successfully.

Select the imported
LO and click Preview to
further check that the
import has worked...

Recap
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Notes
Make notes here to remind yourself and reflect on any ideas you had, or
features you discovered, whilst working through this guide.

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This guide covered a range of powerful but slightly more
complex features than covered in part 1. Awareness of these
features and options should help you become more efficient
when working with Xerte Online Toolkits and able to decide
when and how to use some of these more advanced features.
As in part 1 you may wish to use the following checklist to
track that you have reviewed each section and make further
notes in the panel opposite.

Using RSS Feeds
Adding Notes
Giving copies of LOs complete with content
Peer Review
Exporting LOs from Xerte Online Toolkits
Editing using the Xerte offline Windows application

View an interactive version of this tutorial and others at
www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte

Notes
Make notes here to remind yourself and reflect on any ideas you had, or
features you discovered, whilst working through this guide.

Tutorial created by Ron Mitchell mitchellmedia.co.uk for JISC Techdis service JISC Techdis 2011

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