Final Consulting Report

Submitted to theCook Islands Ministry of Education

ByLindsey Bleimes

Carnegie Mellon UniversityOctober, 2004

ABOUT THE COOK ISLANDS

The Cook Islands are a group of 15 islands in the South Pacific, 12 of which are permanently inhabited. Rarotonga is the largest and most populated of the islands. They are divided into two groups: the Southern Group, which are all within 250 kilometers of Rarotonga, and the Northern Group, which are all within 1000 kilometers of Rarotonga. Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens, although the Cooks are a self-governing body.

About the Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education is the official Cook Islands Ministry in charge of national education, located on the island of Rarotonga. The Ministry aims to build the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values of its people to ensure the sustainability of the economic growth, language and culture of the Cook Islands and to enable Cook Islanders to put their capabilities to best use in all areas of their lives.

The Ministry of Education's Mission:“To provide equitable access to relevant, high quality learning programs for all students up to secondary level through a fair, responsive, and cost-effective education system in cooperative partnership with the community”

The functions of the Ministry are to (1) Maintain educational institutions from preschool to secondary level to meet the development needs of the Cook Islands, (2) Provide and implement curricula appropriate to the needs and resources of the Cook Islands, (3) Ensure the provision of sufficient qualified teachers required to meet educational needs, (4) Enlist the cooperation and participation of the community in the provision of education, and (5) Promote and co-ordinate the development of non-formal education programs. These five functions lead to the three primary objectives for the Ministry: Relevant Curriculum, Equitable Access, and Quality Standards.

Facilities

The Ministry is located in the village of Nikao on the island of Rarotonga - close to the national secondary school Tereora College and the Cook Islands Teachers Training College. There are a total of 23 government-run schools, 8 of which are on Rarotonga and 15 of which are spread out among the 9 outer islands of Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia, Manihiki, Mauke, Mitiaro, Nassau, Penrhyn, and Pukapuka. Some outer islands have only primary education while a few do have limited secondary level courses. There are 7 directorates and divisions within the Ministry:

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Administration, Audit and Quality Assurance, the Cook Islands Teachers Training College, EduNet, Finance, Operations, and Secretariat. The basic facilities at the Rarotonga schools and the Ministry are sufficient for the current staff and students.

The Ministry employs roughly 45 people in all its directorates/divisions and 241 teachers plus 28 ancillary staff in the schools. They have an annual recurrent income/expenditure of just over $7.6 million (NZD) per year. Funding comes from the government, and an additional $2.26 million in aid also comes from the European Union, UNESCO, and NZAID projects. There were approximately 4612 students enrolled for the 2003 year.

The Technology Situation

Due to the remote location, size, and budget of the Cook Islands, advancements in technology can be slow going compared to more developed nations, however the Cook Islands are doing well for their region. The Ministry of Education has taken some important steps to move forward in this field, however technology and communications are still very much limiting factors when it comes to serving their mission and getting the highest quality education to all their students.

The Ministry has three technical employees who are in the EduNet Center running the building local area network. Dan Munro runs the EduNet Center, assisted by Tau Estall and Tekura Turitoa. Dan has an IT degree, and all three of them take training courses in New Zealand to keep up with current systems and technologies. There are no programmers or Database Administrators on permanent staff. Technology management is limited to the EduNet employees, who do hardware repair, software installation, software upgrades, virus upgrades, and regular backup. For the size of the Ministry this technical staff seems to be sufficient however software level knowledge and interest is low. The Ministry network has a file server, mail server, and now a web server. Internet access is managed through the EduNet Center. Communication within the department is reasonable and done via email or shared resources over the file server. Communications with Rarotonga schools are handled mostly via fax, and outer islands get both fax and delivery by post for most information. Delivery can take anywhere between a few days and a few weeks to arrive.

The environment of the rest of the Ministry consists largely of employees with limited knowledge of technology, especially outside the scope of their daily tasks. Ministry Employees all have computers at their desks and are familiar with the basic Microsoft Office suite, and some do use a DOS-based database management system, but few technologies are familiar to Ministry employees as a whole. New software is easily available, which makes keeping up with technologies like the Office suite, web development, and database management software simple and current. Data management is used mostly for school audit information, and staffing information. Student records and evaluation data are also managed with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, as is employee data and salary information.

There are also computers in each of the schools in the Cook Islands. Each school is now (some only very recently) equipped with at least a phone, fax machine, and a computer which is connected to the Internet via a modem. This computer is for the administration, and either the Principal or secretary uses it. Modems are the only means of connecting to the Internet, and for outer islands the connection both to Rarotonga (to communicate with the Ministry) and to the rest of the world (for the World Wide Web) are quite slow – 56K at best on some islands with up to 128K on Rarotonga. The primary schools generally have at least three or four computers per school. Specific technologies vary because purchases were made at different times, usually with money raised by the communities. Each secondary school has a networked computer lab not

Lindsey Bleimes - 2 - Cook IslandsCarnegie Mellon University Ministry of Education

connected to the Internet, and Tereora College on Rarotonga has a fiber optic connection to the Ministry building. The technology skill level of school principals, administrators, and teachers vary widely and no baseline skill can be assumed. On the outer islands, bandwidth is very costly and limited. Also on select islands, electrical power is only available for 12 hours during each day – from 6:00 am until noon, then from 6:00pm until midnight. This clearly limits Internet access and computer use to scheduled power usage times.

The technology planning for the Ministry of Education is a good first step. Their EduNet plan, created with Telecom Cook Islands, is a well-developed plan for expanding the technology in the Ministry and in the schools. The focus is on getting information to both teachers and students on Rarotonga and outer island schools as well as sharing information within the Ministry. The plan has been slow to implement due to limitations of funds, remoteness, bandwidth, and size. Having the technology plan as a backbone to guide development is a key step. Specifically, the EduNet plan calls for (1) establishing a Rarotonga intranet for the schools and Ministry (2) connecting the outer islands to the inter- and intranet (3) online education programs and video conferencing. So far, only the first step has been accomplished in that all schools have the hardware and are able to dial up to the Internet. The ministry and Rarotonga schools have been connected, and the basic hardware has been sent to all schools. The next step in the plan is to connect Aitutaki schools to the system, but this has not happened yet.

Finally, the key issues facing the development of technology for the Ministry of Education are (1) funding and (2) communications. Funding is a universal issue, and the Secretary of Education states that with current budget constraints, there must be a tradeoff between basic learning materials and new technologies. Communication is a problem because even if new computers and programs could be brought in, bandwidth is slow and costly to the Ministry. In fact, supplying the outer island schools with brand new high-end computers is hardly justifiable considering their lack of available and reasonable data communications.

Consulting

Lindsey Bleimes, the consultant, has worked with numerous people within the Ministry including Ken Matheson, the Secretary of Education for the Cook Islands. Together they worked to assess the current state of technology in the Ministry and its schools to develop a plan for advancement in the future, specifically including a plan for developing a website and moving all Ministry data management to a database structure during the consulting period.

SCOPE OF WORK

Project #1: A Ministry of Education Website

The Problem: The Ministry of Education spends a lot of time and resources getting information to its schools, especially those on the outer islands. Providing equitable education to students who are so spread out and some so isolated is understandably difficult. The possibility exists for the Ministry to do much more in the way of communication and education with the same level of funding. Resources and Ministry goals are things that the Ministry would like to be able to share with employees, school teachers and students, and the public. Distance education programs such as the New Zealand Correspondence School are available but not easily or regularly accessible to outer island schools due to physical transportation schedules (the correspondence school does not as yet have an online system). Bringing teachers to Rarotonga to the Cook Islands Teachers Training College is also costly and time consuming.

Lindsey Bleimes - 3 - Cook IslandsCarnegie Mellon University Ministry of Education

The Task: The consulting task was to help the Ministry develop a website which it will be able to use to share information and more specifically run distance education programs for both teachers and students. The website must have levels of accessibility for different users, and be simple to maintain for future maintenance and updates. It should also be simple enough so that the outer islands will be able to access it as quickly as possible through their limited bandwidth, and extensible for future expansion and growth both in size and technology.

The Approach: The consultant was to speak with both Ministry employees and teachers in schools to understand what is needed from a website and how it will be used. Then an analysis of several education content management software packages would be done, helping the Ministry to make a decision about how to proceed. Upon selecting a package and gathering content from Ministry employees, the consultant would begin building the website with the help of Ministry employees. By teaching employees while working, sustainability would be built in to this task.

Expected Outcome: At the end of the consulting period a Ministry website should be firmly established. A web server should be implemented through the EduNet center. Content management software should be set up and at least two Ministry employees will be comfortable using it to maintain and update the site. Significant content should be posted and accessible, although training teachers and planning courses may mean that distance learning programs may take longer to be in effect.

Serving the Mission: This task directly serves the mission of the Ministry in two ways: it will help provide equitable access to information and programs for all Cook Islands students, and it will help improve the skills and qualifications of its teachers. Students on the outer islands are clearly at a disadvantage as far as information access goes, so a website will allow the Ministry to get information to those schools much more quickly and easily. Providing distance education is an important step in giving isolated students the opportunities that students on Rarotonga or New Zealand already have.

Project #2: Databases for Data Management

The Problem: The Ministry of Education uses lots of time to manage all their education data, a small portion of which is organized in a DOS database, and the rest managed in Microsoft Excel. Data is gathered in an organized manner, however managing it and making it presentable in reports is currently not done in the most efficient way. Excel especially is not capable of handling the amount of data processed by the Ministry. Excess time is used in these tasks, and some data must be lost due to space constraints of the current programs. Having complete and accurate data available to administrators is key in identifying problem areas and helping the education of the students in the Cook Islands.

The Task: The consulting task was to move the Ministry of Education towards using Microsoft Access to manage the data in all of the directorates/divisions. Gathering data into Access, manipulating it, sharing it, and publishing it could all be accomplished using Access to speed up the processes.

The Approach: The consultant was to speak with all directorates/divisions to ascertain what data is currently being gathered and specifically how it is used. Now that Microsoft Access is available to all Ministry employees, the consultant would work with each directorate/division to transfer their data and learn to use Access for their purposes. Normalization and organization of data would be involved in the transfer so that Access can be used in the most efficient manner, while still being understandable for Ministry employees to use and sustain.

Lindsey Bleimes - 4 - Cook IslandsCarnegie Mellon University Ministry of Education

Expected Outcome: At the end of the consulting period, most if not all directorates and divisions in the Ministry of Education should be using Microsoft Access to manage their data, as opposed to Excel or DOS-based systems. Several Ministry employees will have been using Access for a while with the consultant being available for help, so the new methods will be sustainable. Employees will be able to enter data, generate reports, and update information. Information management will be faster and easier for the Ministry as a whole.

Serving the Mission: By improving the organization of the vast amounts of data tracked by the Ministry, it will be easier and faster to produce the required reports and generate new and useful statistics. This will speed up the time it takes to analyze information and will allow the Ministry to have whatever information they need more readily available. This directly serves the mission of the Ministry in that better range and availability of data will help to work towards a higher standard of education, and improve Ministry staff effectiveness.

OUTCOMES

A Ministry of Education Website

After evaluating several software packages and several web hosting solutions, the Secretary helped in the decision to use Moodle (www.moodle.org) software to build the website and to host it at the Ministry, in the EduNet room. The EduNet staff, specifically Tekura who will be the official Webmaster after the consulting period is over, has done the following:

Added user accounts to the website, and updated them Given permissions to users to see restricted sections of the website Made HTML pages, using basic HTML, to display the Ministry newsletter on the website Used the basic functionality of Macromedia Dreamweaver to edit HTML documents

Another development option was to talk to myInternet, an education web-software company in Australia who would do the administration for the Ministry. While the long term vision for this project looked appealing due to it’s South-Pacific wide plans and centralized professional administration, the cost involved was too high. The decision to go with Moodle was based on its affordability (it’s a free open-source package). Moodle has all the necessary functionality and will serve the Ministry’s goals well. It will also be a means to develop the skills of the EduNet staff to include website administration and development. Moodle functionality includes: simple resource-sharing, online classes, quizzes, surveys, discussion boards, chat rooms, data security and privacy, and it can be fully customized. There are many other features of Moodle that may be used later on, but these are the current necessary features.

New Technical Capacity in the Ministry of Education

After the website was set up, all Ministry staff (and eventually Tereora College staff) were given accounts and asked to gather content for the site. Ministry staff have done the following:

Logged onto the site – about 20 users Started discussion topics and responded to other’s topics – about six or seven topics from

three people, with approximately 25 responses so far, and a couple discussions have been used to help make Ministry decisions about logos and their Vision Statement

Particiapted in online chats – only two people so far, but this feature is key once the schools are connected and users will no longer be down the hall from each other

Posted new files and resources to the site – hundreds of resources posted by about 20 users

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Viewed resources posted on the site

Tereora staff were not in session after the website deployment and as such have not yet used the site extenisvely. Two Tereora staff members were shown the site at the Ministry. Several staff members have a folder set up on their computer to administer files, and others have editing permissions on the site. A manual has been created for users, editors, and administrators so that future questions should be easy to answer – see appendix A. There is a core of staff members who are excited about the site and have used it regularly.

Recommendations:

Train EduNet staff

I recommend that the Ministry give further training to its EduNet staff so that they may better administrate the website. Training sessions are available in Auckland for both administering web servers and website development. Specifically, Auldhouse has classes in both web development and web hosting that would be helpful. Training in these areas will help them to solve network-related problems and also give them the ability to expand the website if so desired.

Martin’s Moodle Helpdesk

I recommend that the Ministry use the helpdesk offered by the creator of the Moodle package whenever problems arise with the Moodle package which cannot be solved by the EduNet staff. Martin’s services can be contracted for a few months at a time, and he should be able to solve any Moodle-related problems. Martin can be contacted at martin@moodle.com and his website is http://martin.moodle.com. The website details how to contract his services.

Daily Use by Staff

In order for the new Ministry website to realize its full potential, it must become an everyday resource. Eventually, the web site will likely be the simpliest and most effective means for Ministry staff to communicate and share resources. But until enough staff become comfortable enough with using it, I recommend that Ministry staff establish deliberate strategies to use it as an interactive resource and integrate it into their daily or weekly activities. In particular, I recommend:

Staff be reminded regularly to check the web site. This could be accomplished by distributign post-it notes with reminders to put on their computers, or by regular emails sent out from the Webmaster highlighting what is new on the site.

Maureen Hilyard and Teremoana Hodges have been instrumental in motiviating other staff members to use the site. Their chats and discussions have been very productive. They and the other program directors should continue to motivate the staff regularly and deliberately look for new opportunities for using the chat and other features of the website.

Network Rarotonga Schools

I recommend that the Ministry investigates creating an intranet for all the schools on Rarotonga. Telecom Cook Islands is able to run cables connecting the different schools, and in the long run this project will be very cost-effective. By connecting all the schools to the Ministry, they will all have access to the website without having to pay for regular internet access. This means schools

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will be able to use the website as much as they like – viewing resources, participating in discussions, and communicating and sharing with all the other schools. This will be helpful for teachers, students, and administrators. A Rarotonga school’s network will allow teachers to share information and ideas with themselves and the Teachers Training College. It will help students share ideas and do projects with groups in different schools. It will help administrators insure that their standards are up to date and that they are on track with the Ministry and other schools.

Another option would be to investigate WiFi technology, which is relatively low-cost and easy to set up. If a wired network cannot be set up by Telecom Cook Islands, a wireless network would be a viable alternative.

Teach Technology

Another benefit of the Ministry website is its use as a tool for teaching technology. Using computers promotes learning computers. If the network is implemented and students do not have to pay for access to the website, they can use it to learn about the internet and computers. In addition there is space on the Ministry web server for individual schools to create websites of their own, so teachers and students both can get involved in development and use the Ministry site as a tool for their own education. Creating and updating websites are great educational opportunities for students, and they could also be involved in developing resources for the site, such as information on the Cook Islands history or language. This way the website can be used for education on multiple fronts.

In addition, Moodle is designed to create online courses. These could be used for students on Rarotonga or eventually students on the outer islands who could take classes organized on Rarotonga. Distance education is a big opportunity provided by the Ministry website. As the need for opportunities on the Outer Islands grows, the website will be an important factor in sharing resources and communicating.

B. PROJECT #2: DATABASES FOR DATA MANAGEMENT

Organizing the Data

No large database projects could be completed during the consulting period, but planning for future data management solutions has begun. The Secretary and other Directors understand the benefits of a database-driven system and steps have been taken to start this transition. During the consulting period one of the Ministry data systems was converted to Microsoft Access by another consultant, and this consultant has been contracted for further development.

Recommendation:

I recommed hiring a full time staff member for software-level technology support. The Ministry manages a very large amount of data through several database systems. When problems arise, there should be someone on staff who can solve these problems. Also this person would be able to help other staff when they have questions about how to use their database, or to train new employees on how to use the Ministry systems. Having this person on staff will mean new systems can be created, old systems can be updated, and questions can be answered all without having to call in an outside consultant.

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If someone could be found who works with databases and has some knowledge of PHP (the language used to write Moodle) they would be invaluable to the Ministry.

ABOUT THE CONSULTANT

Lindsey Bleimes is a 2004 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics. She is from Columbus, Ohio, USA and will be working near Washington, DC in August 2004. She is interested in information management and web design.

Lindsey Bleimes - 8 - Cook IslandsCarnegie Mellon University Ministry of Education

Cook Islands Ministry of EducationWebsite Manual

http://www.education.gov.ckwebsite powered by moodle

August, 2004Written by Lindsey Bleimes

User Manual … pg 2Editor Manual … pg 14

Administrator Manual … pg 25

1

Section 1

User Manual

The Homepage … pg 3Logging In … pg 4Your Homepage … pg 5Your Sections – Restricted Sites … pg 6Your Sections – Directorates/Divisions … pg 7Your Sections – Schools … pg 8Viewing Other Sections … pg 9Navigating the Site … pg 9Discussion Boards … pg 10Calendar … pg 12Edit Your Profile … pg 13Change Your Password … pg 13

2

The Homepage:

To begin, open your browser. If you have a network password, you will have to type it as usual. If the Ministry Homepage does not show up automatically, typehttp://www.education.gov.ckinto the address bar. You should now see a page that looks similar to the one above.

You may access the help files (middle right) or the school websites (middle left) without logging in. You may also go straight to the Google web search. Access to the section categories and discussions will require you to log in (see next page).

Note:The links to ‘Rarotonga Schools’ and ‘Outer Island Schools’ are restricted sites for the staff members of those schools only. For information about specific schools, please click the links under ‘School Websites’.

3

Logging In:

Log in to the MoE website.

To log in, click on the ‘Login’ link in the upper right corner of the homepage. Then on the log in page, enter your username and password.

You should have been given a username and password by the Ministry. If not (or if you’ve forgotten it) please ask the Ministry Webmaster to give you one or reset the one you forgot. You may log in as a guest, but you will not be able to see many of the resources on the website. This manual is suited for logged in users.

After you’ve entered your username and password, click the enter key or click the ‘Login’ button. You will be taken back to the homepage, and your name should appear in the upper right corner.

4

Your Homepage:

Now, under ‘My Sections’ in the upper left, there will be a list of sections you have been signed up for. These are sections that should be of particular interest to you. If you would like to participate in other sections, you can ask permission from the Ministry or the Webmaster.

Also on the homepage (on the middle right) are help files for outside or first-time users, as well as (on the middle left) individual school websites and the Google search bar.

The discussion board in the middle is for official public announcements only, and no one except the Webmaster is allowed to post there. If you have a front-page announcement, please clear it with the appropriate manager, then submit/email your post to the Webmaster for publishing.

5

Your Sections – Restricted Sites:

If you are signed up for a restricted page, you will see a page similar to this when you click on that section. Only people who are signed up for these pages can access them – they are hidden to everyone else.

The most important features of these sites are(a) Resources (upper right): you can click on these to see the files

or links that may be useful. These may be Ministry or web resources. There are also chat rooms set up for each section.

(b) Upcoming events (lower left): this is a list of upcoming global or section events. Holidays, meetings, etc can all be posted here. Any user can post an event for him/herself that only s/he can see. Users with appropriate permissions can post events that the entire section or the entire site can see.

6

Your Sections – Directorates/Divisions:

If you are signed up for a directorate page, you will see a page like this when you click on that section. Everyone can access these pages, but only users who are signed up can post to the discussion board or make changes.

The most important features of these sites are the same as the restricted sites. Note that if you are signed up for these pages, you will see that ‘Social Forum’ is in grey letters under Resources in the upper right. The grey lettering means that others cannot see this link, and cannot post to the discussion board.

7

Your Sections – Schools:

If you are signed up for a school page, you will see a page like this when you click on that section. Only individual school staff can access them – they are hidden to everyone else.

The most important features of these sites are(a) Resources (upper right): you can click on these to see the files

or links that may be useful. These include past Audit reports and other school-specific information.

(b) Recent activity (lower left): these are all the changes that have been made to the section since you last logged in. This is the easiest way to check and see what’s new for your school.

8

Viewing Other Sections:

Inside the ‘My Sections’ box on the left, under your listed courses, there is a link titled ‘All Courses’. This link will take you to a list of the section categories. Choose the category you want, or search for the section you’re looking for. All sections under ‘Directorates/Divisions’ are open to anyone. The other three categories are restricted to those who are signed up. If these sections do not appear inside your ‘My Sections’ box, then you do not have access to them.

Navigating the Site:

Near the top of every page except the home page (the third line down from the top), there is a navigation bar that always starts with MoE. This is the easiest way to go back and forth between pages. The MoE link will take you to the homepage, and any other links should be self-explanatory.

9

Discussion Boards:

To use a discussion board in one of your sections, you have three options. From that section page, you can click the following:

(1) Social Forum, in the Resources box in the upper right (this will take you to a page like the one above)

(2) Add a new discussion topic, at the center top (page where you can write a new question or post, see next page)

(3) Discuss this topic, under any one of the posts (this will take you to the topic you clicked on)

Any of the sections listed in ‘My Sections’ will allow you to post to their discussion boards. Other sections will not allow you to post messages or replies, even if you can read the discussion board. So for example Ministry-wide discussions should go on the Ministry page, not on a directorate page, so that the whole Ministry can access them.

From the page above (if you clicked on Social Forum) you can do either of steps (2) or (3) – to discuss a particular topic, just click on the name.

10

When you go to post to a discussion, you will see a page like this:

If you are replying to a post, that post will be displayed at the top so you can refer back to it as you are typing.

First, fill in the subject – this will be the title of your post, so make sure others can understand what your post is about when they read the subject.

Now you can use the main box just like you would Microsoft Word – this is where you write the content of your post. Posts can be as long as you like, but really long posts will be abbreviated on the homepage (you will be able to click on them to display the entire thing).

After you’re done writing, you may attach a file to your post, at the bottom of the page. Do this just as you would in an email. Don’t worry about getting email copies of the posts, you can just check the board on the website.

Finally, hit the ‘Save Changes’ button. Your post is now published! You will be taken back to the section page and you have 30 minutes to edit it if you need to. To do this, just click on ‘Edit’ underneath your new post.

11

Calendar:

On the left side of each section (except the school sections) there is a box labeled ‘Upcoming Events.’ Listed here are events posted by users that are coming within the next 2 weeks.

Each user can post events for themselves, and managers can post events for an entire section, or for everyone using the website.

To view events, you can click on the event name, or at the bottom of the box you can click on ‘Go to Calendar’ which will take you to a page like this one. The dropdown box at the top will allow you to view all public events, or all events from any of your sections.

The calendar on the right highlights the days with events, color-coded to show which ones are personal, section-based, or public.

Any user may add a new event for his or herself. To add an event for multiple people, see the Editor section of this manual.

12

Editing Your Profile:

If there is anything wrong with your profile, such as an incorrect spelling or email address, you can edit this information to best fit your needs (such as if you prefer a nickname, or a non-Ministry email).

In each section, the box in the upper left is called ‘Participants’ and the second link says ‘Edit Profile.’ If you click on this link, you will be taken to your user profile as set up by the Ministry. It is recommended that you not change any settings other than:Given Name; Surname; Email; DescriptionWhen you are finished, click on ‘Update Profile’ and then you’re done.

Changing Your Password:

To change your password, there is a link in the same box which says ‘Change Password.’ Click that, and then type your old password and your new password (twice). Click ‘Change Password’ and you’re done. If you don’t remember your old password, contact the webmaster and they can change your password for you.

13

Section 2

Editor Manual

Being an Editor … pg 15Participants … pg 15Administration Block … pg 16Calendar Events … pg 17Discussion boards … pg 18‘Turn Editing On’ … pg 19Adding New Resources … pg 20File/Weblink Titles … pg 21Files vs. Folders … pg 22Naming Your Files … pg 24Creating PDF files … pg 24

14

Being an Editor:

This manual only deals with editors of directorate/division sections. At this time only the webmaster can edit the other sections, but if that changes the webmaster should amend this manual.

If you have been designated an editor of a particular section of the website, this part of the manual will explain the additional abilities and procedures for managing your website section.

Being an editor means that you have the ability to manage a section: to add resources, to change the look of your section, to view logs of visitors, to add events, or to remove old or improper material.

To become an editor for a section, either the webmaster or another editor of that section must give you the permissions.

Participants:

As an editor, you have the ability to add users to your section. For the directorate sections you must add a user to your participants list in order for them to use the discussion boards.

In each section, the block in the upper left corner has a link for ‘Participants’ where you can view your users. There are 2 levels of users, Staff and Visitors. Only staff who are given the editor designation are editors.

The participants for each directorate are structured as such:

*All directorate staff are listed under staff.*Only those chosen by the Director are designated as editors – not all staff are editors.*There are no visitors – this is because these sections are open to anyone for viewing, so there is no need to register anyone as a visitor.

15

Administration Block:

At the bottom left of your section, there will be a block called ‘Administration.’ This block appears to all staff for your section, but without all the options.

Regular staff can see the following: Grades, Logs, Help, Teacher Forum. Outside users cannot see this block at all.

The only options that will be used are: Settings, Staff, Visitors, Logs, and Files.

Settings: This is the general information about your section. It is not recommended that you change this information without consulting the webmaster.

Staff: This is where you can add users to your list of staff. Adding users will allow them to participate in your discussions, and it is recommended that you keep this list restricted to actual directorate staff. To participate in wider Ministry discussions the Ministry section should be used. Also to give a staff editor permissions (or take them away) click here, and change the ‘Edit’ status to yes or no. You may also rank staff although this has no practical effect.

Visitors: This is where you can add users to your visitor list. This would only be appropriate for temporary staff or interns – it would allow them to participate in discussions without listing them as regular staff.

Logs: Clicking on logs will allow you to view a list of everyone who has accessed your section and what they have looked at. For instance you can check to see who has read a discussion, or opened a particular resource.

Files: You may use the files link to upload files into your website directory. However the webmaster should have already put a website folder on your computer, so you should not need to use this. If you do not have a folder on your computer, just ask the webmaster to set it up.

16

Calendar Events:

As an editor you can add a section-wide calendar event. If you click on ‘New Event’ at the bottom of the ‘Upcoming Events’ block, you can choose ‘Course Event’ which will post an event for everyone participating in your section.

You may also choose ‘User Event’ which will only show up on your calendar. Or from the main page you can choose ‘Go to Calendar’ to view the entire calendar of events at once – and then click the ‘New Event’ button.

After choosing course or user event you will see the above screen where you can fill in the title and description. Then pick the date and time, tell it to repeat or not, and click on ‘Save changes.’ The date on the calendar to the right should now be highlighted with the color indicating the type of event.

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Discussion Boards:

Discussion boards are used as described earlier. The only difference is that an editor has the ability to delete anyone’s posts. So if any posts are inappropriate or irrelevant, they may be removed. If a message has already gotten replies, it cannot be deleted without deleting all the replies. To do this click on ‘Discuss this topic’ and then, from the bottom up, click the delete links on each response.

To view all the discussions on each board, click on that board’s link inside the Resources box. You can click on the ‘Update this Forum’ button on the upper right if you would like to change the format or description of the forum.

The only things you should change here are the name, description, and whether or not to allow replies. Announcement boards, for instance, do not necessarily need replies. You can also restrict uploaded files (or not allow them). It is not recommended to force participants to be subscribed, and ratings can be ignored.

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‘Turn Editing On’:

As an editor, you will see a button on the upper right that says ‘Turn Editing On.’ This button allows you to move the blocks in your section and edit the resources on the right side.

When you press this button, lots of new symbols will appear in each block. To delete a block, click the X. To move a block, click the appropriate arrow. To hide a box from public view without deleting it (you and other editors will still see the title, but no one else will) click the eye.

To edit the resources which are already listed on the right, click the little writing hand. For details on the resources, see the ‘Adding New Resources’ section. To move a resource up or down in the list, click on the up/down arrows. White boxes will appear in each spot, so click in the white box where you want the resource to go. To delete a resource click the X. This will not delete the file, it will only remove the link from the website.

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Adding New Resources:

Adding new resources to the Resources box is a more complicated part of being an editor. If you like you can simply email the webmaster and ask that a certain file, folder, discussion board, etc be added to your section.

This manual assumes you have a website folder set up on your computer by the webmaster. If you do not have one, just ask the webmaster to make one for you. Also if you want other staff members to update their online files regularly, the webmaster can set up a special folder for them also – this will not make them an editor and they will not have to worry about the instructions below (see the ‘Files vs. Folders’ section).

There are 4 main categories of resources: files, folders, links, and other. To add any of these you must first click the ‘Turn Editing On’ button described above. From there you will be using the drop-down box inside the Resources block that says ‘Add…’

Other Resources: Resources like discussion boards, labels, or chat can be added by choosing them from the drop-down menu, then following the given instructions. For specific questions, ask the webmaster.

For files, folders or links, choose ‘Resource’ from the drop-down menu. To make online files and folders, first make sure you have put the files or folders inside your website folder on your computer.

On the next page, give your file/folder/link a title that will show up on your section page. Choose the type: file = Uploaded File, folder = Directory, link = Weblink (see the ‘File/Weblink Titles’ section for title help). Finally give it a description and click ‘Next.’

Folders: simply choose the folder you want to publish from the list and click ‘Finished.’Links: simply type the URL (address) of the web page you want to publish.Files: first click the ‘Choose or Upload File’ then when the list of files appears, click the ‘choose’ link to the right of the file.

Then click ‘Save’ and you’re done.

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File/Weblink Titles

An important thing to note is that published files and weblinks only show the title you give them, not the file name or URL. Thus, if you publish a PDF file or a presentation (PPT) or other non-web-page, you should note this in the title. This is so that users are aware of what they are clicking on. For example

Primary_schools_budget.pdf should be Primary Schools’ Budget (PDF)

This is for any file type which is not .htm or .html such asPresentation Name (PPT)Image or Picture Name (JPG)Word Document Name (DOC)Excel File Name (XLS)

In addition, for any published weblinks that are not ministry website links, you should alert the user that they will be navigating away from the MoE site. Many users are on the intranet and may not want to dial out, or may not be able to dial out. So for example

a link to http://www.howthingswork.com/websites/moodle.htm should be titledHow Moodle Works (www)

Here the (www) signifies that you will be leaving the MoE website.

Helpful titles like this make it much easier for your users and can save them a lot of time, so remember to title your resources appropriately!

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Files vs. Folders

The difference between publishing files and folders is important to understand. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Files

When you publish a file in your resources section, there are a few advantages. First of all it shows up inside the Resources box, so you can see it without clicking around to find it. During the publishing process, you will have the opportunity to give it a title (see previous section). You can give the file a description, and once it is up you can publish a ‘label’ beneath it to explain to users what your file is.

There are also downsides. You will not be able to see what type of file it is, so you should title it appropriately – see previous section. Also too many individual files on the front page can be confusing – users don’t want to search through a long list to find what they want. Also updating published files is more complicated than updating files in folders.

In addition to delete the file, you have to first delete the resource (see ‘Turn Editing On’ section) and then delete the actual file in your website folder.

Folders

When you publish a folder in your resources section, the biggest advantages are updating and organization. Once a folder is published, you can use that folder just like a normal computer folder, and everything will update automatically. Added files, deleted files, sub-directories, and changed files will all happen on the website immediately. Also if you have many files that can be grouped together (for example most Secretariat files are in either the Plans folder or the Policies folder) then it will make it much easier for the user to find what he or she is looking for.

The downside is that you cannot give any files a title – the file name is what shows up on the website (i.e. primary_schools_budget.pdf) but with proper file-naming techniques (see next page) this shouldn’t be a problem. Also you cannot post label descriptions of the files, but again naming them well should help this.

But which one should I use?

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If you are unsure whether you should use a file or a folder, ask yourself the following questions:

(1) Can this file be grouped with other files on the website?If so, put the related files in a folder and publish the whole folder. This will make it easier for users.

(2) How important is this document?If it’s very important, like the MoE budget for example, then it should be right on the front page for everyone to see right away. You should publish very important documents as files.

(3) Does this file need a description?If you need an explanation of your document, publish it as a file and then publish a label underneath it, decribing what it is.

(4) Will I be publishing lots of files?If so, it will be much easier and faster to just publish one folder and then copy all your files into it.

If you are still unsure, you can always make one “general files” folder and publish it. That way you can just use that folder as you would a regular computer folder and you don’t have to worry about any of these things.

If you would like other MoE employees to have a folder they manage on their own (for example the Maths Advisor has a Maths Resouces folder, but is not an editor and cannot edit anything else on the site), tell the webmaster and they can set it up.

Updating Files vs. Folders

To update a published file, just save the new one over the old one. To change the title or file name, first ‘Turn Editing On’ and then click the writing hand below the file. This will take you through the same steps as publishing.

To update anything inside a published folder, just use the folder normally. To change the title of the folder, first ‘Turn Editing On’ and then click the writing hang below the folder. This will take you through the same steps as publishing.

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Naming Your Files:

When saving files or folders in your website folder, it is important to name them in the correct fashion.

Files, especially web page files, should not have any spaces or punctuation in the name otherwise they may not open correctly. They should also be understandable so someone looking at them knows what they are. For example, if you have the Primary Schools’ budget in a PDF file, it should be named Primary_Schools_budget.pdf

Bad examples would be: Primary Schools budget.pdf, Primary_school’s_budget.pdf, or bud0405prim.pdf

The only acceptable symbols for file names are underscores (_) or dashes (-) in addition to letters and numbers. Slashes, spaces, parentheses, quotes, or any other punctuation could cause problems on the web.

Creating PDF Files:

The best type of file to put on the web (other than web pages) is a PDF file. PDF files cannot be altered by other users of the website, but anyone can read, save, and print a PDF file.

If you do not have Adobe Acrobat on your computer, please ask the EduNet staff to install it for you.

Now, to create a PDf file from a Microsoft Word file, start by opening the file in Word. If Word asks you about ‘Enabling Macros’ say yes, enable macros.

Now you may or may not have the PDF button – if you do, it will be in the upper left, under the File menu. There will be 2 PDF icons; you want the one on the left. If the button is there, just click on it and save your document as a PDF file. If not, go to the Tools menu. From Tools, click on Macro, then Macros, then in the box that shows up choose ‘ConvertToPDF.’ Then click the Run button, and save as usual.

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Section 3

Administrator Manual

Adding/Updating Users … pg 26Setting Permissions/Access … pg 27Adding a New Section/Category … 28Map Network Drive … 30MySQL and the moodle Database … 31Adding Uploaded Files … 32Adding a Weblink … 32Editing Source Code … 33Backup / Reinstallation … 34

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Adding/Updating Users

From the homepage, first click on ‘Users’ in the administration block. To edit an account (to reset a password or change an email address for example) click on ‘Edit User Accounts’ and then click on the account you’re looking for.

To create a new user, click on ‘Add new user’ and you will see the screen above.

Set an easy username and password (the user can change them later). Fill in Given Name, Surname, and email. For Email display, change it to ‘Hide my email address.’ Change Forum auto-subscribe to ‘no.’ Fill in the City/location, and make up a description (usually the occupation of the user). All items below that are optional, so you can fill them in or click on ‘Submit.’

The only other options you will use under ‘Users’ are ‘assign admin’ and ‘assign creator.’ These are explained in the next section.

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Setting Permissions/Access

Each user has his or her individual set of permissions. Any user may be an editor or a participant in any section, some can create new sections, and some users are admins (meaning they are editors for all courses and can also create new sections in addition to managing all accounts).

Keep in mind that every section a user participates in will show up in their ‘My Sections’ block, so too many sections will make it useless. Only Directorate/Division staff should be involved in those sections. Only those who really need to see the restricted sites should be able to.

To allow a user access to a restriced section or school section, first go to that section. Then in the admin block, click on the fourth link – for the Ministry this is ‘Staff’ for CITTC this is ‘Users’ and for each school this is ‘School Staff.’ (The titles for users of a section are set when the section is made – see ‘adding new sections.’) From here there will be a list of current users on the left, and a search button on the right. Fill in all or part of the name you want to add, and click ‘search.’ Then click the arrow to move that name over to the user list.

There is no need to add users to a directorate/division section as they are open to the public. Staff should be added as staff (see below).

To allow a user to edit a section, the steps are similar except after you go into the section, you click on the third link in the admin block. The rest of the steps are similar.

For directorate/division staff, you can add them as staff without giving them editing power. After you’ve clicked the arrow to move their name up, change the ‘Edit’ field to ‘No.’

To allow someone to create their own sections, they must be designated a creator. From the homepage first click on ‘Users’ in the admin block, then ‘assign creators.’ Search for the user you’re looking for and click the arrow to move them over.

The same goes for administrators, just click on ‘assign admins’ instead of ‘assign creators.’ Be careful, admins have unlimited ability, even to delete other admins!

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Adding a New Section/Category

At any time it may become necessary to add a new section, such as a new Directorate, new school, or an online course. You can also add a whole new category of sections (this would be useful for online courses).

To add a new category or section, click on ‘Sections’ in the admin box on the homepage.

From here, type the name of the new category (such as Online Courses) and click ‘Add New Category.’ If you want to add a new section within a category, click on “Add a new page.’

Then to set up the new section, you must first choose the category, then give the section an Official Name (such as Directorate of Operations) and a short name (such as Operations). The short name is what will appear in the navigation bar near the top.

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Then write up a short description of the section. For most sections you will want to choose ‘Social Format’ although for online courses ‘Weekly’ or ‘Topics’ may be useful. This manual only deals with Social Format. With the social format you may skip the start date and the number of weeks/topics.

Availability is important. If the course is not open to students, then the only people who can view it are the managers (i.e. the Ministry Only section). If the course does allow students, and you fill in a key, then only those with the key can gain access. Also the administrator may add anyone to the list of “students” for this section later. If no key is entered, the page is open to the whole world. There is no need to add anyone to the list of students – only the managers must be added to the manager list. This is the only case where guests should be allowed in. If there is a key or students are not allowed, then guests should not be allowed.

Change ‘Show Grades’ to ‘No’ and then click on ‘Save changes.’ Your new section has been added. You may now go to that section and edit the blocks or content.

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Map Network Drive

When a new section is added (or when a new staff member wants to be able to edit online files) the easiest way to help them manage this is to map a website network drive to their computer.

There are 2 ways to do this. For example, let’s use the Operations Section.

(1) If the staff member is the main editor of the section:The Director of Operations should be able to edit all the files on the Operations section. If you go to the Operations section, you will see in the URL that the id=10. This means the file folder for Operations is\\punanga\moodledata\10so this drive should be mapped to the Director’s computer and be named ‘website folder.’ All editors should be given a copy of the Editor’s manual.

(2) If the staff member is not the main editor:In Operations, several staff members wanted to edit files for their subject. To do this without giving them full editing power, you can give them access to a subfolder. For example, within the operations folder is a Maths folder. Create a folder like this for whatever staff would like one, and then map that folder to their computer and again call it ‘website folder.’ Make sure to add this folder as a resource of the correct section. Explain that they may edit this folder just like they would any normal computer folder and the website will update automatically.

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MySQL and the moodle Database

The moodle website is based on a database called mySQL which is installed on the web server.

All the data for moodle is stored in the folderC:\mysql\data\moodleand should only be updated by using moodle or mySQL commands.

In addition, moodle must have permission to access these files. Whenever the web server is logged off or restarted, you must give these permissions again.

To do this, go to Run and typecmdthen when the command line comes up, typecd c:\mysql\binwhich will take you to the admin program folder.

From here you must shutdown and restart the mySQL service. To do this, typemysqlshutdownThen hit return and typemysqld –skip-grant-tables

After this the website should be able to view the database.

If you would like to log in to mySQL (only if you know how to administer a database!) you can login to the moodle database by typingmysql –u root –p moodle

And when asked for your password, type12345678

From here you can query the moodle database. Type exit to leave this prompt.

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Adding Uploaded Files

If you are asked to add a file to a resource directory, there are two ways to go about this. The first step can be done either through moodle or on the webserver directly.

Each section in moodle has a link called ‘Files’ in the administration box in the lower left. Clicking on it will show you all the uploaded files for a section. From here you can upload a new file as well, by clicking on ‘Upload File.’ This does not make the file available to anyone on the site, it only puts it in the correct folder so that any editor can see it and add it to the section later.

Alternatively, each section has an ID number. This can be seen in the URL when you view the section. This ID number corresponds to a folder name on the webserver, in the folder ‘moodledata.’ For example, the Directorate of Operations is section number 10, and in c:\moodledata\10 you will find all the uploaded files for the Directorate of Operations. Saving a file here is the same as uploading it through moodle.

Once the file is uploaded, then you must add it as a resource. See the Editor Manual for details.

Adding a Weblink

To add a regular link to a website, see the Editor Manual. You may also add a link to another resource within moodle, either a file or directory.

There is a file in the moodledata directory called ‘resource’ which is a sample of a file link. When you go to add a weblink to a section, it will ask you for a URL. Copy this URL, and change the number directory to the number of the section where the resource is actually located. Then change the path at the end of the URL to the path within the number directory which leads to the file you are trying to link.

To add a link to a directory resource, the best thing to do is go to that resource, and copy the URL. Then paste the URL into the space where you would put the weblink.

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Changing Source Code

If something special needs to be changed (as in the CITTC page where the logo was added) or if the homepage needs to be altered, then the source code must be edited.

moodle’s source code is written in PHP, a language designed for database and web programming. Altering it will be difficult without knowledge of PHP, but certain things can be explained.

To edit any PHP, the correct page must be opened in Dreamweaver. If the page is blank, you are in design mode and should switch to code mode.

The homepage is the index.php file in the main moodle directory. Reading the comments (text in orange) in the code should be helpful in understanding what different lines mean.

To change a section page, you must edit the view.php file in the courses directory. Again, reading the comments is crucial.

To add a new school website to the homepage, the files must first be put in the directory c:\moodledata\1 on the webserver in a folder with the school name. Then open index.php in Dreamweaver and copy the line of code for one of the pre-existing school websites and change the names and links to the appropriate school.

Any problems or questions with this can be directed back to the consultant (lbleimes@andrew.cmu.edu) or the creator of moodle can be contracted to consult from Australia. His name is Martin and his website is http://martin.moodle.com. Specific information on his contracts can be found at http://martin.moodle.com/support/contract. His email is martin@moodle.com.

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Backup / Reinstallation

To back up the website, all files on the webserver in the c:\moodle and c:\moodledata directories must be saved. In addition, the files in c:\mysql\data\moodle must also be saved – these are the configurations for the website and also include lots of the data and all of the discussion information. These files should be backed up regularly.

If the webserver should go down and need to be completely remade, there are three programs that should be reinstalled. First are mySQL and PHP, install normally by following the prompts. Then after those two are running, reinstall Apache (the webserver). All three executables are saved in c:\apache on the webserver, and can either be backed up or downloaded from the internet.

Installing mySQL and Apache requires some configuration, it is recommended that someone with webserver (and preferably database) training be contacted for reinstallation.

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