May 28, 2009, Sunnyvale, CA - A number of new features and enhancements in Jforum's Private Messages tool were deployed onto Etudes this morning (Thursday, May 28, 2009) at 4:00 am.
Additionally, support for QTI 1.2 import of test banks from .xml files has been implemented and deployed onto Etudes. This is now available under Question Pools >> Import in Tasks, Tests and Surveys (a.k.a. Mneme). This functionality is based on the Respondus implementation of QTI 1.2 which is widely used by faculty to author tests offline with the Respondus software and by publishers.
In the next stage of the QTI work for TT&S, we will develop support for QTI 1.2 import / content packaging format (.zip), which supports import of tests with embedded media and attachments in questions. The longer-term goal is to see if we can generalize this code and support other QTI implementations, such as ExamView. And, finally, we will develop 'export' of tests in .xml or .zip format.
For an overview of the new Private Messaging features, with screen shots,
see: http://etudes.org/release/discussion/2.6.4/
Here is a summary of the enhancements and fixes:
* Added ability to flag private messages for follow-up, as well as to clear the flags.
* Added the ability to see clearly if messages have been replied to.
* Change folder icon of Private Messages menu to orange if there is new activity.
* Actual text of forum new topic or new reply is now included in email notification.
* Actual text of PM is now included in new private message email notification.
* Attachments are included in private message email notification, if any were attached. (We will do the same for new topics and reply notifications - coming next week)
* We now preserve the start / stop forum dates with import from site.
Fixes:
* Topics from "Deny access" forums should not be listed in the gradebook. Fixed
* Quotes in forum titles get stripped out along with title upon edit / save. Fixed.
* Data truncation error in private messages, if the message was too long. Fixed.
* Strip out offending MS Word comments prior to posting Word text with the "W" icon. Done.
Credits:
Many thanks to our Jforum technical lead, Murthy Tanniru, for his great work on the private messages tool and the QTI 1.2 import work.
Also, many thanks go to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office for their generous funding support for the Jforum development work.
We are also grateful to the Mellon Foundation for the funding support for the QTI work (use of the Mellon Technology Award ($50K) that we received for TT&S last December).
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