Thread:Notes on the draft Module 1 (2)

Thanks Irwin,

Very constructive questions -- thanks for posting and sharing these with the group.

I anticipated these types of questions, and that was the intention of setting up a Style guide for OERu course development. In true open source tradition - -I prefer starting from a blank slate so we can build this collectively (of course, we're more than happy to share our experiences gained from WikiEducator course development :-)). Clearly we are now at the point where we can collectively start collaborating on the style guide.
 * Agreed it will be necessary to break down the resources into sub-pages. This is why developing a draft table of contents is useful -- because it helps to take decisions on the structure of the wiki pages.
 * External links will copy over to the final destination in the wiki without problems. However, internal wiki links are usually absolute, so you need to consider this when setting up the pages. It's advisable to have the course structure in the wiki sorted before assigning internal wiki links especially where these are dependent on the prefix of urls for sub-pages.
 * You're doing a good job of the images so far. You've figured out that if the source image is available on the Wikimedia commons -- its easy to integrate in WikiEducator using the identical file name and this automatically inserts all the metadata.
 * Uploading the materials with the intent for reuse in different contexts is smart -- so I like the minimalist approach. Neutral wording without referring to specific delivery technologies will enhance flexibility and use of the course by different OERu partners. There are a few tricks we can use (transclution) which will facilitate maintenance and reuse for different purposes. You will learn more about this as we progress.
 * You will see that I've already edited your page by adding pedagogical templates for objectives and activities which improves the layout. This needs basic knowledge of wiki-text (rather than rich editing) - but easy to master and we have good tutorials. This would be a good topic to join one of Jim's regular office hours sessions. Feel free to contact us to give you a few pointers.

There are a few suggestions for optimal placement of the wiki pages and how best to structure these. However. for the benefit of all prototype developments, I'll include these in the Style guide as we progress.

It is useful to develop wiki pages in a Sandbox area -- the convention in WikiEducator is to do this as a sub-page of your own Userpage before copying them over to the final destination page for the OERu courses. However, there are a few issues we should discuss on how best to deal with the copyright attributions within a wiki environment. I'll add these to the style pages.

Good post and excited to see the progress :-).