Future editing of POCKET units
Now that POCKET is starting to work with more external partners, I have been thinking more about the content editing process. Working with content authors at Derby, the various stages of editing have so far been discussed in face-to-face meetings. However this will not always possible and it would benefit the project and also address sustainability of the materials if we could find another solution.
One possible solution could be for academic content authors to use the ‘User Revision’ option on OpenLearn.
Instructions for using the User Revision option:
- First you have to login or register on OpenLearn, then go to the unit you want to edit.
- Then look down the right hand menu and you will see a tab labeled ‘Versions’
- Under this tab click on the ‘Make a copy for revising’ option
- It may take a few minutes but when the page refreshes it will show the revision copy of the unit (you’ll also see under the ‘Versions’ tab that there is now a version labeled ‘User Revision’)
- You’ll see a tab in the right hand top corner of the screen labeled ‘Turn editing on’
- If you select this tab your page will change to show the various editing features.
- If you just want to amend typos, you can go into each section (by clicking on the headings) and you’ll see three tabs at the top of the screen: ‘View’ ‘Edit’ and ‘Revisions’
- Select the ‘Edit’ tab and you will be able to directly edit into the text. You have to write a short description of the changes you’ve made before you can click the ‘Save’ button.
I plan to add these instructions to the POCKET content development kit and make this editing facility an option for the content authors involved in POCKET. The ability to edit directly onto OpenLearn means the authors will still be able to edit the units when the project has finished.
Another factor to note at this stage is that when you re-upload a unit tags that you applied to the original unit are not saved. For example I’ve tagged the POCKET units under the tag ‘POCKET‘, but I have to re-tag them every time I edit and re-upload the unit, even if it is just a minor change. It would be useful if there was an option on OpenLearn to save the tags on a unit when you re-upload it.