[LON-CAPA-users] LON-CAPA: Share your joy, share your grief ...

Gerd Kortemeyer lon-capa-users@mail.lon-capa.org
Fri, 15 Mar 2002 16:20:57 -0500


Hi,

I wanted to point out a new site we just opened for LON-CAPA
documentation,

 http://help.loncapa.org/

As you all know, LON-CAPA is seriously lacking user documentation. In
the past, Felicia and Scott have done miracles answering your individual
questions and concerns, but as our user community grows, that approach
is not scalable.

Given the resources we have here at MSU, the only way to get
documentation online anytime soon is a community effort. So the above
system works as a community Frequently-Asked-Questions-O-Matic.

While we are trying to fill the shelfs ourselves (see under "Course
Management - Communication" and "Course Management - Grading" for some
examples), I am asking you to also contribute Questions and Answers to
the system.

Basically, whenever you have painfully figured out something in
LON-CAPA, and while you are still on endorphins, simply add another Q&A.

You can basically go to the correct category in the tree and hit "New
Answer in ...", and enter the question and the answer. You can also add
new sub categories if you click on "Appearance" and check "Show - Expert
Editing Command".

When doing the above for the first time, the system will ask you to sign
on. There is some activation energy, but you will never have to do this
again.

Of course, eventually you can simply go to the system for answers.

In parallel, we are preparing serious written documentation and workshop
curricula - that effort that will also profit from the information in
the FAQ-O-Matic, but probably take a while.

I also wanted to again point out

 http://bugs.loncapa.org/

This is a Bugzilla system which we use for bug- and
enhancement-request-tracking. When you submit a bug or request there,
the system will keep you in the loop about what actions are taken.

- Gerd.