[LON-CAPA-users] Student-selectable slots

[Stuart Raeburn]

Bjorn,

To use slots in the way you propose you would probably want to create  
a resource for each tutorial time for which you want students to make  
a reservation.

One reason is that in LON-CAPA 2.8 limited information is available to  
the student about their current reservations.  Currently that  
information is restricted to display of a message when the student  
accesses the resource (for which access is controlled by slots).

After a student has reserved a slot (for a future start date), the  
message displayed for the corresponding resource is:

You are not currently signed up to work at this time and/or place.

Will be next available: <Name of earliest future reservation>

<Change reservation> button.

In LON-CAPA 2.9, more information will be available to the student  
about reservations (in the future), as well as reservation history  
(for both instructors and students) -see  
http://bugs.loncapa.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5822

For now the strategy would be:

(a) Create a resource for each tutorial.
(b) Use Modify parameter settings (due dates, etc) for resources and  
the course -> Manage Course Slots -> Create a new slot to create a  
slot for each tutorial.
1. Set the start time and end time appropriate for the duration of the  
tutorial meeting time.
2. Set as student selectable
3. Provide a description (I recommend one which includes Location,  
Purpose and Start and End dates/times
4. Set a time students can start reserving (make this now, or any time).
5. Set the maximum number of students allowed in the tutorial
6. If multiple tutorials are to be offered in a given time frame  
(e.g., one week, and you only want students to be able to sign up for  
one, you could set the start and end for "Period of time when this  
slot can only be uniquely chosen" for the start and end of that week  
for all tutorials available during the week, otherwise just leave as  
the default start = end = current date/time
7. Proctors? - set to "no" (not relevant to your case).
8. Proctor passphrase - leave blank (not relevant to your case).
9. Slot is: usable for any resource or restricted to a specific resource.
    You could restrict use of a particular slot for a particular  
resource (tutorial sign-up) by selecting the "restricted to a specific  
resource" and selecting the appropriate resource on the next page.
9. Restrict availability - select any specific sections and/or users  
to whom the slot applies. (By default all can use).
10. Finish to store the slot.

(c) As regards parameter setting for each of the resource.
1. Navigate to the resource
2. Click "Modify parameter settings for this resource"
3. Set the parameter: 	"Use slot based access controls [Part: 0]  
(useslots)" for resource in Course to
"Yes, and the scope of student selected slot is a single resource."
4. Leave "Slots of availability [Part: 0] (available)" unset - this is  
for instructor assigned slots.
5. Leave "Slots of availability selected by student [Part: 0]  
(availablestudent)" unset - this parameter only makes sense when set  
for an individual username.

Stuart Raeburn
MSU LON-CAPA group

> hey,
>
> I'm stuck. I try to set up a slot-based system to let the students
> inscribe themselves to tutorials (several of which will be offered).
>
> I (think I) figured out that slots can be used only in connection with a
> resource, and in particular only with a problem. Is that correct?
>
> Now, my plan was to create a 'dummy'-problem whose only purpose it is to
> provide an interface for the students to select a slot. But the message
> I get is "Not open to be viewed".
>
> In the parameter section for this resource, those are the "parameters in
> effect":
> "Problem Opening date": Wed Apr 15 01:58:00 pm 2009 (CEST)
> "Problem Due Date": Sun Apr 26 12:00:00 am 2009 (CEST)
> "Problem Answer Date": Tue Apr 21 12:00:00 am 2009 (CEST)
> "Use slot based access controls": resource
>
> For "Slots of availability", I could not find any documentation on how
> to add multiple slots. I did try with a comma-seperated list:
> slot1,slot2,... and with semicolons: slot1;slot2;...
>
> In the "Managing slot" sheet, I find the only dates for slots set being
> Start time: I tried dates in past & future
> End time: Way in the future (july, actually).
>
> When coming as a student or as course coordinator, I get the error
> message stated above. When there is only one slot in "Slots of
> availability" and the start time for the slot is in the future, I can
> see the resource, but not choose to be added to the slot (and I remain
> slotless).
>
> Is using slots (or using them this way) completely futile or am I making
> a trivial mistake? I'd appreciate any help.
>
> Oh, btw: I'm using 2.8.0-2009011523 with the bugfix for
> http://bugs.loncapa.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5888 .