Xerte_EditingPt1

© JISC Techdis 2011 1 www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte

JISC Techdis

Xerte Online Toolkits

Editing, managing and sharing

learning objects (Part 1)

Introduction

This particular tutorial covers the basics of editing, managing

and sharing existing learning objects using the Xerte Online Toolkits workspace. This includes: editing an LO, previewing

and publishing changes, how to make LO’s public, creating folders and organising LO’s into folders, renaming files and folders, duplicating LO’s, deleting files and folders and

restoring deleted LO’s.

Pre-requisites

You should already be familiar with the basic steps required to create a learning object with Xerte Online Toolkits before

beginning this tutorial. (see relevant tutorials if necessary)

Context

There are a few basic steps involved in editing, previewing, saving, publishing and sharing any LO. This tutorial will cover the basic and essential steps and most commonly needed

features, with Part 2 covering some additional or more advanced functionality. Xerte Online Toolkits makes it very

easy to manage and share learning objects in a number of different ways. This tutorial includes the simple step of

making an LO public and copying the link to add to a VLE or email etc.

Key:

New sequence

Sequential steps with screenshots for reference

Repeated steps without screenshots

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Editing an existing LO

To edit an existing learning object simply select the object

in the My Projects panel and click Edit.

The Editor window appears where you can edit or re-

organise existing pages or add new pages.

Preview v Publish

When you edit an LO there are two ways to save the changes you have made. To see how this works make a change, or add a new page, to one of your existing LO’s.

In this example we’re adding a new Plain Text page.

Having made a change or added a page, if we click Play

to Preview our changes the changes are automatically saved

in a preview file. However it is important to understand the difference between this and Publishing the changes…

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If we Close the Preview Window…

and then Close the Editor Window without clicking

publish...

we will be prompted to Confirm whether to Publish the

changes. If we click Cancel at this point our changes are still available to us when we continue to edit and preview the

learning object, but will not be shown in the published or

exported version until we choose to publish the changes. So we can make, preview and effectively save changes in our

own preview copy without publishing those changes to the public version. This is an important concept and

explained further below.

Publishing changes

There are 3 slightly different ways to Publish our changes...

The first method is to click the Publish button in the Editor Window. The changes will be Saved and Published

immediately.

The second

method is to select the LO in the My Projects Panel and

click Publish

A confirmation

prompt will appear

If the LO is already

set to public this will be followed by a confirmation.

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However if the LO wasn’t already set to Public you will see a

prompt asking if you wish to make the LO Public. This is covered in the explanation of the third method below.

The third method appears when you close the Editor

Window after previewing changes without first Publishing

those changes. Warning: If you make a change and then close the editor without Previewing or Publishing, those changes will be lost.

If you click OK to

confirm that you wish to

Publish your changes without having set the LO to Public, you will be

reminded that the LO is still Private and asked if you

which to change the Access settings.

and reminded to click

the Access tab.

The Project

Properties Window will

open with the Project tab selected.

Select the Access

tab and set the Access level to Public then click

Save.

If you then re-select

the Project tab you can

test the Access setting by clicking the unique link

for this specific LO.

If the LO is still Private this message will be seen

explaining that the LO has yet to be made public.

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If the Access properties have been set to Public, the

first page of the learning object will be shown.

The Link found in the

Project tab can now be

copied and pasted into a VLE course, or simply in

an email, to direct learners or colleagues to your learning object.

Alternatively the embed

code can also be copied and pasted into a VLE or web page.

N.B. An advantage of sharing your LO’s as a link in a VLE in this way, rather than exporting and importing, is that you can

add the same link to multiple courses without taking up more space and more importantly any changes will be included automatically without having to re-export/import.

There are also additional ways to share learning objects (e.g.

RSS) which will be covered in Part 2 of this series.

Saving/Publishing making LO’s public

In most cases as you make changes to existing or new LO’s you may simply wish to click the Publish button(s) to save and publish your changes and for learners or colleagues to

see those changes immediately. It’s therefore an important part of the workflow to ensure that you check and change the

Access settings of your LO’s to Public.

Simply select any LO and click Properties

then select the Access tab, change the property to

Public and Save. N.B. You can of

course reverse this process and

make an LO Private after previously

setting it to Public.

The other Access settings will be covered in part

2 of this series.

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Managing Files and Folders

Keeping your files and folders organised is just as important in Xerte Online Toolkits as it is anywhere else. Xerte Online Toolkits makes it very easy to rename LO’s or move LO’s into

folders and importantly without breaking links etc.

To create a new folder in the root of a Workspace first

make sure Workspace is selected in the My Projects panel

Folders can also contain

sub folders so to demonstrate this we’ll create a Parent folder called Group1 with two

sub folders called Term1 and Term2.

To add a sub folder to

the new Group1 folder simply select the Group1 folder, Click New Folder and name the

sub folder. E.g. Term1

With the new Term1

folder created, if we

accidently create the Term2 folder in the root

or as a sub folder of Term1 rather than as a sub folder of Group1 we

can simply move it

Drag and drop the Term2

folder into the Group1 folder and let go. N.B. You can do the same

to drag LO’s into or out of folders

Obviously you can name your

folders in whatever way you wish, however currently folder names can only

contain letters and numbers, so for instance if

you try to use an underscore (e.g. Term_3) you will see an error

message.

Double click a folder to collapse or expand the

list of folders and files it contains.

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Renaming files and folders

To rename files and folders simply use the Properties panel.

Select the folder you

wish to rename and

select Properties

Edit/Change the name

of the folder and click

Save. N.B. Renaming the LO will not break the link

to the LO.

The process for

renaming LO’s is the same. Select the relevant

LO and click Properties

Edit/Change the name

of the LO and click Save.

N.B. Renaming the LO will not break the link to the LO.

Duplicating LO’s

It’s quick and easy to make a copy of an existing LO, to keep a copy prior to changes to the original, or perhaps to rename it and then edit it for a different purpose e.g. a different

group/level. You can also use this technique to save time by creating an LO with common pages and elements (e.g. a

sequence/mix of static and interactive pages proven to be effective) and then duplicating that for any new learning

objects.

To duplicate an

existing LO simply select

the LO and click Duplicate

Then select

Properties and rename the LO as described

previously.

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Deleting LO’s and Folders

Deleting files and folders is also very easy but warning prompts are also displayed to help avoid mistakes.

To delete an LO

simply select the LO and click Delete. A

prompt will appear asking if you are sure you wish to

delete the file.

If you try to

delete a folder

containing LO’s or sub folders even if the sub folders

are empty you will also be asked

if you are sure, however you will

then see a warning that you are unable to delete folders

which contain other folders or files.

Restoring or permanently deleting LO’s

It’s not actually obvious until we double click the Recycle Bin that deleted LO’s are not permanently deleted until

selected and deleted from within the Recycle Bin itself.

Double click the

Recycle Bin to display a

list of deleted LO’s. N.B. Folders are permanently

deleted instantly and therefore not stored in the Recycle Bin

The usual ‘are you sure’ dialogue appears followed by a

similar dialogue asking if you are sure you wish to permanently delete the LO

To restore a previously

deleted LO simply drag it back to the Workspace.

N.B. If you see multiple LO’s

with the same name you can also click Preview to check which LO you wish to restore

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Recap

This guide covers some fundamental concepts regarding editing, managing and sharing learning objects. e.g. by default each LO you create is initially private but it is also the

best option to adding a link to your LO’s in a VLE or web page rather than exporting and importing so it’s important to know

how to change this access setting to public. The steps and different options covered in this guide may seem complex at

first, but in fact a little practice and exploration of these options will demonstrate how easy and yet powerful these simple steps and features can be. Working through this guide

and becoming familiar with these steps and features will help make your use of Xerte Online Toolkits more efficient and

effective. You might wish to use the following checklist to confirm your familiarity with each step/feature and perhaps make additional notes opposite:

editing an LO

previewing and publishing changes make LO’s public creating folders and organising LO’s into folders

renaming files and folders duplicating LO’s

deleting files and folders restoring deleted LO’s

Part 2 covers some additional options and features some of which are more advanced.

View an interactive version of this tutorial and others at www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/xerte

Notes Make notes here to remind yourself and reflect on any ideas you had, or features you discovered, whilst working through this guide.

Tutorial created by Ron Mitchell mitchellmedia.co.uk for JISC Techdis service – © JISC Techdis 2011

http://www.techdis.ac.uk/getxerte

http://mitchellmedia.co.uk/

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