[LON-CAPA-users] Wipe out all discussions

[Guy Albertelli II]

Hi Lars,

> >>Is there a quick way to wipe out all discussions in a course. (This is 
> >>useful when re-cycling a course for next semester.).
> > 
> > 
> > We generally suggest that one use the 'clone course' feature to create
> > a new course that is setup like an old course. (Clone copies over all
> > of the included materials, and parameters etc.)
> > 
> > 
> > Overall this is a significantly better idea then trying to 'clean ut'
> > and exisiting course and trying to use it again.
> 
> I see the advantages of setting up a clone, but there are also 
> advantages in using the same course: For example I post the same 
> messages (with minor modification) each semester, and I set the same 
> parameters in PARM. If I re-use the same course, it is very easy to 
> re-post the same messages since they are easily accessible,

What kind of messages do you mean? (Broadcast email? Calandar
announcements? Discussion messages?) What makes it easier to get to
them?


> and it is easy to remember which PARM settings to set.

Cloned courses start with all of the same parameter settings as the
original course. Date parameters are warped forward in time to
hopefully be somewhere near correct...

And in fact there is a screen in PARM specifcally meant for quickly
modifying the parameters of a cloned course. This is the 'Course
Assessment Parameters - Overview Mode' button.


> Also from the admin point 
> of view, there is less support needed if instructors can re-use: 
> Instructors can handle editing changes, but are uncomfortable with "new 
> entries" in the PARM area.

Aye that is why we clone the parameters.

> For this reason, it would be nice tyo have a button to wipe out all 
> prior discussion.

The main problem I have is I really really really don't like deleting data.
-- 
guy@albertelli.com  LON-CAPA Developer  0-7-2-6-