Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Re: Next Internationalization update: 30/10/2009

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hi Daniel,

> Q&A - after hitting the the Next button nothing happens in the Preview mode on the translation server. If this is true
> for a student user, this is a serious bug

I can confirm this is happening. There's a new bug report for it:

http://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2459

> - all of DIMDIM

Yes, Dimdim labels aren't up for translations though. We'll add them after this release though.

> - some default entries in several tools (e.g. in the resource, forum, survey). E.g. for LAMS 2.4 you might want to
> include labels for example entries.

Can you send me a screenshot? I have checked the commits and they should all be committed though. We'll update the translations again on Friday though.


I'll address the rest of your points tomorrow. Sorry, struggling with multitasking now

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

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Ok I will try to make an inventory of not translated labels. No urgency. This can wait for LAMS 2.4 :)

There is no urgency either regarding all my other comments. I also post these rather with target LAMS 2.4. in mind.

I even suggest an extra deliverable for LAMS 2.4: "Surface Usability", e.g. be able to use/find tools with a minimum of reading manuals. Most of LAMS is fairly intuitive, but some tools/parts of tools are less.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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> "Surface Usability", e.g. be able to use/find tools with a minimum of reading manuals.

Any suggestions on usability are always very very welcome. Please add any suggestions!

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

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Addendum: regarding output conditions.

Shouldn't the English label "Create Output Conditions" in the popup window of the gate and branching tool rather be "Select Output Conditions for Input" or "Retrieve output conditions for input" or something like this ?

Conditions are created within tools as a kind of tool output and then used as input filters for branching or other. (Took me 10 minutes to figure this one out ...)

Also for LAMS 2.4 you might consider adding a help icon in the properties panel.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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> Shouldn't the English label "Create Output Conditions" in the popup window of the gate and branching tool rather be
> "Select Output Conditions for Input" or "Retrieve output conditions for input" or something like this ?

Excellent catch, Daniel. I have just changed it to "Select Output Conditions for Input"


> Also for LAMS 2.4 you might consider adding a help icon in the properties panel.

See http://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2465

Cheers,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Hi Daniel,

Continuing now...

> *** Suggestions:
>
> - Increase the size of the noticeboard editing window a bit (maybe 5 lines ?). I know that there is full screen
> button, but not always handy.

Added for 2.4: tp://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2464


> *** Questions about marks (lots of cultural issues involved too)
>
> - Is a mark always a score or can it be like a grade ? (I decided to use "scores" for MCQ's and Q/A) and grades for
> the others, but I am not too happy with this. Anyhow, you should know that in some countries double or triple scales
> like in the US are rarely used (see next item).
>
> - Marks (e.g. for the forum) are anglo-centric. E.g. in Germany or Switzerland you could get a grade like 5.5 or
> 1.5. There is IMHO no need to require integers. Also, how are go dealing with Americans. Those guys are used to a
> double system i.e a 50 to 100 scale that translates into letter grades. But typically students want to see letter
> grades (I believe).

We are doing some very interesting work on evaluations with our colleagues from Universidad de Cadiz in Spain as part of the implementation of Evalcomix project. Here's a paper on Evalcomix http://is.gd/4VUpZ and as soon as we can we'll show you a demo on how this works. But in short, this would allow teachers to create rubrics, scales and any type of assessment/evaluation instrument and use in to any LAMS activity.

As far as your suggestions on English and French translations: yes to all! Hopefully we can work together to improve the way we do translations as suggested on my email.

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

By: Daniel Schneider

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Excellent idea. Btw "grading rubrics" are the main thing that is better in Blackboard/Web CT (BB). It's really simple: A table with configurable criteria lines and performance columns :)

I attached a screendump of the tool so that people not familiar with BB can get an idea. (Btw be careful of not reproducing something that looks like this without talking to a lawyer first. BB is fairly aggressive. E.g. in the US they managed to copyright the 2500 year-old idea that actors can be both students and monitors...)

The paper in the link goes beyond just rubrics. I really like the idea of having students participate in the process ! That would be a really cool invention/addition.

Posted by Daniel Schneider

By: Ernie Ghiglione

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Daniel,

Evalcomix is really powerful stuff. Once fully implemented a teacher can:

* Create evaluation instruments (rubrics, lists, grading scales, etc)
* Select one of these instruments for each activity in the sequence
* At monitor time, the monitor user can use the selected instrument to do the evaluation

Also, teachers in Author will be able to select whether he/she wants the students to use an instrument to evaluate each other work as well.

We are finalizing the first stage now, so we'll be able to show more on this after 2.3.3.

Thanks,

ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione