CUNY Academic Commons

that sounds reasonable to me

Sounds ok to me too, if we think (maybe using documentation to be sure) that it won't result in confusion about what the OER tag means, either in the directory filter or when asking people to select it.

I wasn't sure about this part, though. Isn't the OER tag filter available on directories for Sites, Courses, and Groups already? "This would also mean we would need to extend the tag search/filter to the site directory."

Laurie is correct that the OER checkbox is only available for Teaching groups/sites. I looked back at the original ticket but I couldn't find a place where we explicitly discussed this. I must just have assumed it would be the case when I worked up my initial mockups. https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/14170#note-10

There's no technical reason why it has to work this way. The checkbox could be moved so that it appears regardless of Primary Purpose. I guess it's just a question of whether we want it to appear everywhere.

I follow the reasoning for showing the checkbox everywhere. We could move ahead with it, or potentially see if there's time to raise this with the group during next week's meeting if we'd like.

Is there any reason not to show it?

Is there any reason not to show it?

Just a general desire not to add more things to the interface. The OER checkbox will not be relevant for most groups/sites on the Commons, and for many users the meaning of the checkbox will be opaque. Moreover, if/when we introduce more types of miscellaneous "tags" for groups/sites, do we just want to tack another checkbox onto the bottom of the form?

We generally try to simplify and take away, so we should be thoughtful when adding new things.

Good points!

Just updating from our team meeting on Friday that we discussed implementing an OER checkbox for Groups and Sites in the creation flow and for current instances when we can, to start populating those results before displaying them. It should also help us determine HOW to display everything, as we see what's being created and tagged with OER.

We'll want to do some outreach and documentation, especially to get current admins to go back and add the OER tag. I'll defer to Laurie on ideas/planning for this, but I'm happy to help.

I'm not sure if an intermediate release or spring release makes sense for this. We might as well start collecting the info as soon as we can, but we need to have our process in place for explaining and promoting the new tag.

Hi All,

I can get started on writing up a documentation help pages on the OER tag. I will add to this page : https://help.commons.gc.cuny.edu/using-oer/

I can also plan to make another page specifically dedicated to the tag. However, I want to work with the OER working group to clarify how the tag will work before I finalize the documentation.

Thoughts on the release and outreach: Perhaps once we clarify the tag application/functionality/display we could do a "soft release" where I reach out to OER reps on each campus to let them know the tag is available and explain its application. I could ask that they tag relevant content to begin to populating the tag. Then we could do a more public release with the spring release to alert all users to the tag and its application. What do we think about that?

Great idea, Laurie!

Hi All,

A group of us met on march 1st to discuss the OER Tag. Some updates:

TAG FUNCTION
- Everyone agrees on expanding the tag to all sites and groups

- OER meta data can be collected during group/site creation, but also located in the backend of sites (settings) and groups (manage)

-For now it will remain a generalized, somewhat "fuzzy" tag for inital data collection and possible organization w/in the tag later.

- We plan to choose broadest language - "This site uses or contains open educational resources" or “This site/group uses, compiles, or is an Open Educational Resource” -- feedback on this language welcome!

TAG APPLICATION
- Tag will be applied by users to their own sites/groups but it will also require occasional monitoring to make sure people are not misusing this tag and misunderstanding "oer" for example someone thinking just because the site is public it is oer

- An open question about tag application: What do we do about blended materials - if not everything on the site is open? I think this can be mediated by the language for tag application "uses, compiles, or is" - but do we want to consider adding a warning somewhere like "not all content on all sites and groups tagged oer is open, please look for open licenses" or something?

TAG DOCUMENTATION
- We will want to create a tool tip at oer checkbox location with brief overview and link to more extensive HELP documentation, which I plan to write this week or next. I will update here when it is ready for feedback.

- We can also link to this HELP documentation to/from the OER showcase page to show off what is already tagged as an oer on the Commons.

Colin, or anyone else in the meeting, feel free to add anything I may have forgotten. thanks!

Cool, glad to hear we're moving forward.

Colin, as the team comes to a consensus about functionality, could you please have a look at the existing functionality and let me know what needs changing from a technical point of view? Is it merely turning on the toggle for all group types, during creation and edit?

Hi all,just trying to help move this forward...

look at the existing functionality and let me know what needs changing from a technical point of view?

Currently the OER checkbox appears in two places
- During site creation if the user selects the "teaching" purpose
- In the site dashboard if teaching was previously selected or if the user changes the site to the teaching purpose

In this update the OER checkbox (language TBD) should appear:
- During site creation below purpose drop down (therefore OER checkbox would be visible all of the time, for all purposes)
- During group creation, below purpose
- In the site dashboard General>settings
- In the group Manage>Details

Is it merely turning on the toggle for all group types, during creation and edit?

yes, i think so, and adding it to the settings/manage areas for all groups and sites.

Hi Boone,

(a) move the checkbox interface so that it's no longer listed under the Teaching-only fields

yes, separating the "oer" tag from the purpose field designation

(b) make sure it is enabled for all groups.

yes

And, I would add: make sure the oer tag checkbox is editable in the back end of all sites and groups, regardless of purpose metadata.

Yes, from a technical point of view, the changes made for creation will apply automatically for editing. But it's good to be explicit :-D

Thanks for jumping on the clarifications, Laurie! The only remaining to-do that I see here is finding the best way to feature/integrate the documentation when it's ready, so people are as aware of it as possible when deciding whether to apply the tag.

Regarding this from an earlier update...

- An open question about tag application: What do we do about blended materials - if not everything on the site is open? I think this can be mediated by the language for tag application "uses, compiles, or is" - but do we want to consider adding a warning somewhere like "not all content on all sites and groups tagged oer is open, please look for open licenses" or something?

...It seems to me that the tag application language does make it clear that the tag is ok with blending. But on the warning part in the second question, are you talking more about a warning that would appear on the directory side, when people filter using the OER tag? I could see that being useful, and right now we do have some room in that Tags dropdown because OER is the only tag.

- An open question about tag application: What do we do about blended materials - if not everything on the site is open? I think this can be mediated by the language for tag application "uses, compiles, or is" - but do we want to consider adding a warning somewhere like "not all content on all sites and groups tagged oer is open, please look for open licenses" or something?

Can we add a tool tip that has some kind of clarification with the language Colin suggested, "Not all content on all sites and groups tagged OER is open, please look for open licenses to determine which content is openly licensed. To learn more see our documentation on XYZ" and link to documentation about the OER tag? Can we use links in tool tips? Not sure I have seen this before.

...It seems to me that the tag application language does make it clear that the tag is ok with blending. But on the warning part in the second question, are you talking more about a warning that would appear on the directory side, when people filter using the OER tag? I could see that being useful, and right now we do have some room in that Tags dropdown because OER is the only tag.

Not sure if this info would make sense within the drip down box but maybe, in addition to the tool tip above which would appear during site/group creation or settings, if you filter by OER in a directory search, a box appears at the top of the search results with this clarification? Not sure if that is technically possible.

Working on the documentation in this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XVhgj2PqeN7retm40UCzjlpEpqX36sVZKwKs_Rcm2Z8/edit?usp=sharing

I have identified the HELP and other pages that likely need to be updated to include new info about the tag. I will work on some new language and we can refine in the doc and updates the pages when the tag updates go live. Does this sound like a reasonable workflow for updating this documentation?

Adding a couple of watchers here, and perhaps we can touch on a couple of the technical questions in the meeting(s) today.

Following up on this after Friday's call to finalize and address a few outstanding questions

OER Tag Language: This site/group uses, compiles, or is an open educational resource.

OER Tag Clarification language: "Please be aware: not all content on sites and groups tagged as OER is openly licensed. Please look for open licenses to determine which content can be shared, reused, and remixed. To learn more about open content and this OER tag, please see our documentation on OER.”

1. Can this clarification language appear:
-- 1. in a tool tip in the creation process,
-- 2. as a part of the message in the group/site backend. It would come after the line "If checked, Commons users will be able to discover your site in directories by using the Open Educational Resources filter."
-- 3. At the top of the search results if you have searched using the filter? Maybe it ony needs to appear once and the suer can "dismiss".

Hi Boone,

Clarifying the language below...

a. During Creation (tool tip): "This site/group will use, compile, or function as an open educational resource. If checked, Commons users will be able to discover your site/group in directories using the Open Educational Resources filter."

b. Site/group back end (gray description): "This site/group uses, compiles, or is an open educational resource. If checked, Commons users can discover your site/group in directories by using the Open Educational Resources filter. To learn more about open content and this OER tag, please see our documentation on OER [link]."

c. Notice in site/groups directories if OER tag is searched: "Please be aware: not all content on sites and groups tagged as OER is openly licensed. Please look for open licenses to determine which content can be shared, reused, and remixed. To learn more about open content and this OER tag, please see our documentation on OER [link].”

Not sure if this is refined or use-specific enough -- I am open to feedback.

Thanks!

Thanks, Laurie. I think this is much clearer.

I'll wait for some initial feedback from Sara on design for the proposed directory notice before working on implementation.

@boone I think that Dircetory notice design is great! Maybe just un-italicize and make it the same size font as the filters?

Hi All,

I am still pulling together the screenshots but the OER Tag Help page that we can link to will be here:

https://help.commons.gc.cuny.edu/oer-tag-for-groups-sites/

I watched the GIFs and I agree with leaving the check box at the bottom.

However, can we give this field during the creation phase ( Peek 2022-04-19 14-59.gif) a title -- perhaps "Open Educational Resources" -- to distinguish it from "Disciplinary cluster" which it is below currently? It appears to have a title in the site dashboard already. (Peek 2022-04-19 14-57.gif)

I am not opposed to header and checkbox, especially since other fields just have a header and the content selection. But if others agree this doesn't make sense we can nix the header.

I agree. I dont think a bare checkbox is a good idea.

In the first image you sent (Screenshot_2022-04-25_15-26-58.png) it had "Open Educational Resources" as the header and the checkbox had the information next to it, "This site/group will use, compile, or function as an open educational resource".

I think "Open Educational Resources" header text or "Additional Site (or group) information" as header text would be fine. My goal is to use a header to differentiate and call out this area.

What if we just include the entire "tool tip" text right next to the checkbox? "This site/group will use, compile, or function as an open educational resource. If checked, Commons users will be able to discover your site/group in directories using the Open Educational Resources filter."

Then there's no redundancy, no extra step for the user to know/accept the terms, etc.

I should clarify that this is if we go ahead with Open Educational Resources already as the header.

Colin, I'd had a similar idea, but I was concerned that this strategy goes against our broader goals of taking text off the screen and moving it into tooltips.

Circling back to the discussion about header and text for OER tag during site/group creation:

Header: Additional [Site/Group] Information

Checkbox: [] "This site/group will use, compile, or function as an open educational resource.

tool tip text: "If checked, Commons users will be able to discover your site/group in directories using the Open Educational Resources filter."

Does this work?

Thanks for laying this out, Laurie. I've implemented it as you've specified in https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/a675f9f88b37ee3a94b20e9409ac1b4845d7dfa7 and it's ready to test on cdev.

A couple notes about it:

- I had to introduce distinctions between "create" and "edit" language ("this group will use" vs "this group uses", etc) that didn't previously exist
- When creating a group or site, there's no documentation URL in the tooltip. When editing a group, there is a documentation URL in the tooltip.
- To support URLs in tooltips, I had to make some styling changes (for visibility, and also to ensure that it was possible to move the mouse from the question-mark to the tooltip without it disappearing)
- Laurie's "create" tooltip has the phrase "search directories" while the group/site edit text does not.

Have a look and let me know if you'd like changes.

Two quick testing notes from me:

- I can't seem to find an OER checkbox/text for the Site part of the Group + Site creation flow. I thought maybe we were carrying it over automatically from when you check it first for the Group, but the created site right now isn't checked OER when checking in the admin settings.

- When cloning an OER-checked site, the OER checkbox isn't automatically checked/populated for the clone like it is for the campus and purpose. Shouldn't it be?

- I had to introduce distinctions between "create" and "edit" language ("this group will use" vs "this group uses", etc) that didn't previously exist

Thanks this seems fine.

- When creating a group or site, there's no documentation URL in the tooltip. When editing a group, there is a documentation URL in the tooltip.

I think we dont need to link to documentation during creation because we dont want to interrupt the creation flow? I figured if you were editing your group, you are more likely to click into documentation since your editing demonstrates interest in better defining, building out your group... I am open to changing any of this.

- To support URLs in tooltips, I had to make some styling changes (for visibility, and also to ensure that it was possible to move the mouse from the question-mark to the tooltip without it disappearing)

This looks good thank you

- Laurie's "create" tooltip has the phrase "search directories" while the group/site edit text does not.

Let change text in group/site edit to "search directories"

More edits:
- the header "additional group information" needs padding and to be bold in group>manage area, and all creation flows (group, site, group/site)

I went back to the cloning and Group+Site issues that I flagged, and the tests look good now. Laurie, when the last points here seem ready from your side, I think that we can close this up.

Apologies for this last minute request/add...

Would it possible to set up a process where i get an email every time someone assigns this tag. The email would contain:

- when tag was assign
- group / site link
- admin name of person who assigned tag

If this is not possible or is a lot of list, please just let me know.

However I think moving forward this would be important info for me to have. We got a question from a librarian that raised concerns about users being able to tag their own content as OER...which we may have talked through in the past. I think a notification where i can check out what's being tagged would be really helpful here.

I've added the email tool in https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/d200ec4abd4db40e83c649e2792f34173696990f and it's ready to test on cdev.