Questions and Answers Tool for Sakai
Notes from 8/10/2007
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PROJECT SUMMARY
Project description
Unisa and UCT have agreed to partner with each other to design a new Questions and
Answers tool for their respective installations of Sakai. A commercial company will be
contracted to undertake the development, but will work in close association with the teams at
both institutions. The new tool should meet a common set of needs, ultimately replacing the
current FAQ tool in My Unisa and providing similar functionality to UCT’s DFAQ tool in Vula.
Project Aims
- Design a new Q and A tool that meets needs for UNISA and UCT
- Contribute tool to Sakai
- Improved integration with Sakai community
- Mentor a local company, with a view to them supporting other SA-based Sakai
projects in the long term
Roles and responsibilities
- Contracted company
o Development
- Unisa
o Project management (Magdaleen)
o Spec / UI requirements ( Francette)
o Mentoring / co-learning through parallel development of another tool (2
developers)
o Tender
o Payment
- UCT
o Tool design, UI and spec (Stephen, Dick and Andrea)
o Technical and architectural review, mentoring (David)
o QA and testing (Greg)
Criteria for commercial partner
- commitment to investigate and participate in Sakai community
- willingness to place resources on-site to work alongside in-house developers
- agreement to fully document process
- experience in the tertiary sector
- competitive pricing
- solid business profile, track record, financial stability
- sakai toolset expertise (pref)
Timeframes
- Complete spec by end Aug 2007
- Tender awarded by end Sept 2007
- Contracted development over 2 to 4 months (Oct 2007 to Jan 2008)
- First version passes QA and goes into production during Feb 2008 (in time for the
first semester at UCT)
- Ongoing feedback, user testing, refinement, further development (3 to 5 year process
overall)
TOOL OVERVIEW
Tool name: Questions and Answers
Menu name: Q and A
Tool description
The Questions and Answers tool will enable staff and students (with configurable
permissions) to create a categorised list of questions and answers within their worksites. Staff
can choose to use the tool for standard FAQ purposes - both posing and answering questions
themselves to address common issues – or allow students to share their questions with the
class and respond to each other.
Optional email notifications will alert users to new postings, a search facility will allow users to
quickly find answers related to their query, and a comprehensive set of editing tools will be
available (to those with appropriate rights) to categorise and reorder material as needed.
The tool’s settings will be flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of educational and
administrative needs, including the ability to switch to a fully anonymous mode. It will also be
suitable for administrators to drop into Gateway and My Workspace to address institutional or
systems-related queries.
Planned features for Phase 2 include user-defined tagging, sms integration, extended
management tools and integration with other Sakai tools.
Possible Applications
- Teaching and Learning (e.g. ‘Why…?’, ‘Explain…’)
- Support services / communities that rely on anonymity (e.g. ‘I need help with my
life…’)
- Administrative (e.g. ‘How do I…?’, ‘When is the…?’)
- Institutional (e.g. ‘Where do I go for…’, ‘How do I apply for …?)
- System-related (e.g. ‘How do I change my password?’)
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Questions
-
add / edit / delete / reorder questions
can include attachments and hyperlinks
attachments can be renamed
published questions indicate date, number of hits, number of answers
Categories
- add / edit / delete / reorder categories
- must be able to create a new category on the fly, while adding a question
Answers
-
add / edit / delete / reorder answers
can include attachments and hyperlinks
attachments can be renamed
published answers indicate date, role of responder
Permissions
- students can / can’t post questions
- students can / can’t answer questions
- add / edit / delete / reorder categories
- add / edit / delete / reorder questions and answers
Anonymity
- students asking questions can be known or anonymous to lecturer (properties AND
permissions setting)
- published questions and answers are always anonymous
Authority
- published answers indicate role of responder via an icon
- if students are permitted to answer questions, lecturers can mark an answer as
correct, also indicated via an icon
Email notification options
- lecturers can choose to be notified of new questions / answers
- students can choose to be notified of answers to their questions
Additional features
- quick-search box
- printer friendly version
Placement
- can be added to Gateway, My Workspace and all worksites
Phase 2
-
tagging (in addition to categories)
moderation (student questions / answers get queued for acceptance before being
published)
copy / import from one site to the next
opening and closing dates for timed Q and A sessions
sms and mms integration
optional inclusion of default categories
optional inclusion of generic Help / system-related Q and A’s
integration with other Sakai tools