[LON-CAPA-users] Wipe out all discussions

[Lars Jensen]

Hi Guy,

Thanks for the answer - perhaps I just need to be a little more careful 
getting things right when cloning. And Ray seems to be extatic about 
cloning ;-) so I probably just need to look more careful.

Lars.

Guy Albertelli II wrote:
> 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.