Importing, Exporting

Importing/Exporting

In a recent Faculty-Mentoring-Faculty meeting, one of the topics that got the most play was how frustrating it was that each time a new system came in, the faculty lost all the work they'd done in the previous system, and there was some concern about whether it would be possible to get this same data out of SmartSite, when and if it's retired in favor of the next system. It's not surprising then that the biggest issue UC Davis is currently confronting in this space is introducing the ability to bring existing quizzes and tests built using MyUCDavis Quizbuilder into SmartSite, and then to take SmartSite tests and quizzes and export them in some kind of standard format. This is the work that Lisa's been doing.

Currently, it's possible to import assessments from MyUCDavis, with some limitations. It's also possible to export Samigo assessments and pass them around between individuals then later to import them back into Samigo, to facilitate sharing of quiz materials within departments.

Because of the awkwardness of authoring assessments within Samigo, we expect there to be significant faculty interest in ways to import simple text documents and/or existing tests and quizzes authored in richer tools like Respondus. Other institutions have brought up similar requests, but it doesn't seem like this is a priority for the Stanford folks yet.

Another big win in the importing/exporting space would be to find ways to bring outside content from textbook publishers into Samigo, so faculty could make use of prewritten assessments and problem sets. There are several different threads going on in this area, probably the most extensive work is being done by the Sakai Foundation Working Group on Content Management, in particular with Sakai's implementation of the Common Cartridge standard, but all this stuff is probably several releases out into the future. The advantage of the Common Cartridge standard is also clear on the exporting side, because it provides a content package format into which SmartSite tests & quizzes could be output for later migration into other systems.

Limitations:

1. Can't export question pools yet, except with workaround – create a quiz that pulls a random selection from a pool, when exported it exports all questions. Bug fix may make that no longer work.
2. Calculated questions can't be imported from MyUCDavis
3. Also, some functionality that's currently available in MyUCDavis will be lost in Samigo, as documented in this gap analysis
   • e.g. Matching questions in other systems have distractors
4. There seems to be an upper limit on the number of questions that can be viewed in a question pool (around 900) SAK-61 – this may be an authoring limitation as well
5. Need ability to import simpler text formats SAK-2965

Some things that are ahead in the import/export space:

On the horizon:

• First thing: import question pools, which will take exported quizzes from Samigo. Key thing is that you can export a quiz and hand it to somebody else (share with other faculty), import to pool. Main thing, initially.
• Second thing: export question pools and collections from MyUCDavis (new feature for MyUCDavis).

Futuristic:

• In design phase: importing Respondus quizzes or question pools – the advantage of R. is that it's a nice authoring environment - desktop app, less than $100 a copy.
• QTI: Interoperability standard. Predecessor to Common Cartridge. Distinct from Zach's effort to implement CC. Part of Sakai's committment to IMS standards for compatibility.
• Consider expanding QTI import/export to look at IMS Content Packaging – includes capability to import/export media with a quiz, possibly importing/exporting subpools. Still gathering use cases from the community for this.
• Common Cartridge: Still unclear when this will be incorporated into Sakai Foundation core. Prob. sign. work to draw into our world. But, it could make it possible to bring in various outside data...
  Outside tool from Sakai Foundation, does migration via SiteInfo, long-term effort to bring in textbook publisher data, etc.