Bug #14051
closedUpdating Instructor on Course Directory Listing
Added by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago. Updated about 3 years ago.
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Description
Hi All,
An OER Developer at Brooklyn College named Amy Wolfe helps faculty get thier sites up and running on the Commons. She noticed that she is often listed as the instructor because she made the site with the professor but should not be listed as instructor.
How do I change the "Instructor" for these sites so they show up as the actual professor instead of my work account name? When I went on the AC Courses Filter to see Brooklyn College courses I realized that my work name populates the "Instructor" field and I want to change that to the actual instructors name. Can you provide instructions on how to do change this?
I believe she cannot change it manually because the course meta does not automatically\y update in the directory when changed (recalling this from ticket #12448 https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/12448
Should I ask her for a list of courses to change and who the correct professor is so we can change manually?
I will also plan to advise her that, in the future, she should not be logged into her account but into the professor's commons account to make the sites.
Related issues
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago
- Subject changed from Updating Insturctor on Course Directory Listing to Updating Instructor on Course Directory Listing
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Status changed from New to Reporter Feedback
I will also plan to advise her that, in the future, she should not be logged into her account but into the professor's commons account to make the sites.
Yes, this is a good idea.
Should I ask her for a list of courses to change and who the correct professor is so we can change manually?
Yes, that sounds perfect.
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago
Thanks Boone. Will follow up with the list soon.
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago
From Amy Wolfe OER developer at Brookyln on Directory info to change...
6 courses and groups which need their “Instructor” fields to be updated.
They currently are associated with “Brooklyn College-OER Developer-Amy Wolfe Account”
They need to be changed and Professor Dan Shtob, who is already listed as the sites main administrator, needs to be listed as the Instructor.
Dan Shtob Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Sustainability http://cuny.is/danshtob [cuny.is]
1. SOCY 2112- Group: SOCY 2112 (Private Group)
- Site: SOCY 2112: Research Methods II (Public Site)
- Group: SUST 1001 Introduction to Urban Sustainability (Private Group)
- Site: SUST 1001 Introduction to Urban Sustainability (Public Site)
- Group: SUST 2001W Urban Sustainability Theory (Private Group)
- Site: SUST 2001W Urban Sustainability Theory (Public Site)
- Group: SOCY 2201 (Shtob) (Private Group)
- Site: Sociology of the Environment (Public Site)
- Group: SOCY 3202 (Shtob) (Private Group)
- Site: Race, Class, and Environmental Justice (Public Site)
Amy also asked:
Going forward what procedure should we follow to ensure a course’s instructor field is populated by the Instructor name and not the technologists? Brooklyn College has increased the use of the Academic Commons as an OER platform and at Brooklyn College most OER are created by the technologists and not the faculty members so this could be an ongoing issue.
I advised that having the faculty member make their own site or group would resolve this issue, or having the faculty member go through the process with the OER developer but making sure they are logged into the faculty member's account would best.
How difficult would it be to add a primary instructor field to the creation process? I can see this causing confusion but it would both avoid this issue and allow directory changes on the front end of the commons. I let Amy know that I am not sure we can make this change, but I wanted to be sure to ask.
thanks for helping to make these changes Boone.
Laurie
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Related to Bug #12448: Course metadata should update on site/group metadata update added
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Category name set to Courses
- Assignee set to Boone Gorges
- Target version set to Not tracked
I've made the changes. For reference, the IDs of the courses in question are:
1. 105142
2. 105115
3. 105116
4. 106165
5. 91135
6. 91378
In the few cases where there was ambiguity about the course name, I was able to verify by cross-referencing with the existing instructor-ids metadata. In each case, I switch 'instructor-ids' from '[24753]' to '[24854]'.
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How difficult would it be to add a primary instructor field to the creation process? I can see this causing confusion but it would both avoid this issue and allow directory changes on the front end of the commons. I let Amy know that I am not sure we can make this change, but I wanted to be sure to ask.
It's not that difficult technically, but it raises a bunch of UX questions.
1. In the (vast?) majority of cases, the "primary instructor" would be the one creating the site. So we'd be showing new options to all users, when the majority won't need them and may find them confusing.
2. Moreover, you probably don't want the ability for any member to arbitrarily list any other member as an instructor for a site. It feels like this is a vector for abuse.
3. What about cases where there's more than one instructor? Do we want to allow for this during creation?
Perhaps it's better to pursue an automatic method, where the 'instructor-ids' metadata is synced from the list of site and group Administrators associated with the course. This eliminates the new UI, and it reduces the potential for abuse. I don't know why I didn't pursue this in #12448 - maybe because it's marginally more complex, since two different lists of administrators need to be collated. I guess the main issue here would be if instructors occasionally promoted non-instructors to Administrator status, which would result in them being shown erroneously on the Courses directory, but this is an edge case that I think we can explain away in the documentation ("use the Moderator or Editor roles to promote non-instructors, not Administrator").
What do others think? If it's reasonable, let's open a separate Feature ticket for it.
Updated by Colin McDonald about 3 years ago
Summing up our conversation about this during today's dev call, we decided it would be good to have a backend way to change or assign an instructor (or potentially multiple instructors), but that this wouldn't be required or integrated as part of the course site creation flow.
It can be important for non-teachers to be admins of a course site for extended periods. An OER developer, for example, may assist a teacher with admin-only tasks over several semesters, or that developer may want to clone that site as an admin later. So we can't tie admins to the Instructor display directly, or we'd surface these non-teacher admins.
If we go with the backend management option, OER developers and other power Commons users who'd be aware and capable of using that option would be better able to handle these edge-case but important management/creation projects, and the normal flow of users/creators wouldn't be bothered or confused by it. The majority of new course sites will show as an instructor the person who created it by default, and that will be ok.
Related questions -- If I assign a Commons user as an Instructor for a course site, do they necessarily need to be an admin of that site? Or will the two be separate. And if I assign a user, and then for some reason that user account is deleted (or removed from Admin status), will that Instructor field just be blank?
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago
Thank you Boone for making these updates, and Colin for documenting the follow up conversation.
OER developers and other power Commons users who'd be aware and capable of using that option would be better able to handle these edge-case but important management/creation projects, and the normal flow of users/creators wouldn't be bothered or confused by it. The majority of new course sites will show as an instructor the person who created it by default, and that will be ok.
I like the idea of a back end management option as a middle ground for active management but not adding confusion during the site/group creation process.
If I assign a Commons user as an Instructor for a course site, do they necessarily need to be an admin of that site? Or will the two be separate.
I do think it would be better if the assigned instructor had to be a user on the site to avoid confusion and/or someone getting assigned instructor incorrectly.
And if I assign a user, and then for some reason that user account is deleted (or removed from Admin status), will that Instructor field just be blank?
I think this would be okay? Or another admin could be listed instead?
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Status changed from Reporter Feedback to Resolved
Thanks all for the summary.
It can be important for non-teachers to be admins of a course site for extended periods. An OER developer, for example, may assist a teacher with admin-only tasks over several semesters, or that developer may want to clone that site as an admin later. So we can't tie admins to the Instructor display directly, or we'd surface these non-teacher admins.
This approach would have the downside that, in certain cases, a user would be listed as an "instructor" who is not actually an instructor. IMO this doesn't necessarily mean we "can't" go this route. It would just be a trade-off.
I'll start a new ticket to track this feature request.
Updated by Colin McDonald about 3 years ago
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but what would be an example of one of those cases where a user would be listed as instructor who isn't one? If we set it up so the instructor is editable, couldn't an OER developer (or any other non-instructor) make sure they aren't listed there, and that only instructor(s) are?
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Related to Feature #14096: Improvements to the way that Course "Instructor" field is populated and managed added
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but what would be an example of one of those cases where a user would be listed as instructor who isn't one?
The example is: An OER developer is a site Administrator, but is not an instructor.
If we set it up so the instructor is editable, couldn't an OER developer (or any other non-instructor) make sure they aren't listed there, and that only instructor(s) are?
Yes, that's what I'm proposing in #14096.
Maybe I wasn't clear in my comment in #9. I was responding to your comment in #7 that "we can't tie admins to the Instructor display directly". What I meant was that we currently have a sub-optimal setup, where OER developers are sometimes listed as the sole instructor for Courses. If we changed it so that the admin-instructor list is synced, then we have another sub-optimal setup, where OER developers are sometimes listed as a supplemental instructor for Courses. IMHO the second situation is more acceptable than the first, and we could reasonably decide as a team that it's good enough, if we didn't want to invest in #14096.
Updated by Colin McDonald about 3 years ago
Thanks Boone, that all makes sense, and I think we're far enough along that #14096 would be a good investment providing that you and Jeremy don't hit big snags there putting it together. That ticket's looking good to me so far.
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 3 years ago
Thanks Boone and Colin for figuring this out. I think the ability to set instructor manually will be helpful, esp. in cases with OER developers helping out faculty. The #14096 ticket for this looks great.