Author Roundtable June 05, 2007

Sebastian Thomas
(with edits by Kathi Fletcher)

Opening Remarks

The authors that participated in the roundtable all seemed to be fairly experienced users either with Conexions or with the technologies that Connexions is built on All authors, with the exception of one, seemed to have used Connexions for multiple years. One author displayed a high level of enthusiasm for using the site, but reported having done very little because of how difficult it was to use. Another commented that prolific authors used students to enter their content. Relying on students to enter content was not seen as ideal since students will develop an expertise but then take that expertise with them when they eventually leave. One author stated that a background in XML helped with understanding the model adopted by the Connexions site.

Attending: Rice Authors: Sidney Burrus, Corky Cartwright, Stephen Wong, Zung Nguyen, Don Johnson, Lisa Spiro

Connexions: Manpreet Kaur, Sebastian Thomas, Ray Wagner

Things to improve

Most of the discussion regarding possible improvements to the site, centered on the editing environment.

Writing content

There was a general sense that it took much longer to produce content in Connexions than with other methods (e.g. Word or html). One author commented that it took 5 times longer to publish in Connexions than it did for him to post content in html. Several authors reported that they just gave up entirely after several hours of trying to get their content up. (KEF: Afterwards I asked what the biggest impediments were in getting the CS content into Connexions and was told importing tables and getting figures into the tables, handling links, and uploading and referencing applets.)

Taking too long to figure out what is impossible

One author spent a considerable amount of time trying to get multiple paragraphs into a note (which is actually not allowed in this version of cnxml). (KEF: Certain very irksome restrictions in CNXML like this one are being removed in the upgrade to CNXML that is in late design stages right now).

Implicit ID generation

One of the more time consuming activities in generating content according to the authors, is having to explicitly generate the various ID's for each tag. The recommendation was to automate this process more. Corky discussed using an XML path based method of ID generation.

Awkward sectioning system

One author felt that sectioning in the current system included all the necessary functionality but was too cumbersome to implement. Another author pointed out the inability to have sub-sections, which seems to be a critical functionality. (KEF: I am pretty sure the discussion here was about the inability to add sections and subsections in edit-in-place.)

Roles should be inheritable

Authors felt that having to repeatedly assign roles to individual modules was too much of a limitation. Making roles inheritable, for instance being able to assign a role for a specific workspace was suggested as a solution for this.

Handling mathematics

This was a major talking point for the authors that were present. Most felt that the code (content mathml) for equations was too verbose. Trying to enter Mathematics content was seen as a bottleneck for the system. Formulator was suggested as a possible solution to this problem.

Automating ID referencing

Since all paragraphs in a module have to be given an ID, it was suggested that this process be automated and not left to the author.

Uploading multiple images/files

One author pointed out how time consuming it is to have to upload images individually into a module. This author desired a feature that would allow the uploading of a folder of images.

The role of super author

It was suggested that in a situation where the primary author makes a change to a module that this change would not have to be approved by every other author. It might be sufficient to just send a notification to other collaborators that a change has been made. Adding the ability of refining an author’s role within Connexions, could solve this problem.

Full source context view

When viewing the full source for a particular section of content, it would be nice to make the editor open at the section of the source file for which full source view was requested.

Ability to refresh preview

A refresh capability on the preview screen would be helpful. This would facilitate constant checking between editing and seeing the resulting changes.

No satisfactory alternatives to Connexions

Authors indicated that there were several better ways to create content than the tools offered by Connexions, but that there was really no alternative method that offered the combination of content creation and distribution that Connexions did.

Constructing tables

One author pointed out having difficulty constructing tables. It was not clear whether or not this had now become easier in Connexions.

Full source formatting

It would be easier to read the full source version of cnxml if the viewer did a better job of formatting and indenting the code. Also, authors would like to be able to switch into full-source mode from edit-in-place and have

Focus on Word as the editor

Connexions should continue to work on supporting Word as an editor for Connexions content since this is what most of the world uses and is familiar with. There are issues with version and support for legacy systems however. Authors wanted the ability to round-trip -- edit in word, import to Connexions, export to Word, edit and reimport.

The ability to enter content within collections/courses

When combining modules into a course, it is sometimes necessary to include text or other content that facilitates moving from one module to the next. It is not possible to do this in the current system without first creating and publishing modules for this purpose. This is awkward and forces authors to create modules in the system that make no sense on their own. (KEF: The computer science authors really wanted modules that could be inside modules -- they basically found the collection structure to be cumbersome.)

Publicize the tools that Connexions supports well

In trying to make it easier to create content, Connexions should focus on a specific set of tools that it supports well and then make sure to publicize these tools and wherever possible make them available.

Strengthen prerequisite functionality

Although it is possible to specify prerequisite modules with links, this functionality should be strengthened in some way. (KEF: Authors were really not aware of the ability to add author links (which can be prereq, supplemental, etc) I don't think any of these authors were -- maybe one was.)

Glossaries that apply to multiple modules

It is too difficult to have to redo glossaries that every module. It should be possible to define one central glossary.

The ability to have demonstrations in Modules

One author desired to be able to show demonstrations in Connexions using programs like Mathematica.

Import & export issues

The process of importing and exporting files was seen as too complex as presently constituted. It was suggested that a share point server model be adopted where an application such as word could save directly to and open from. This would get rid of some of the limitations that are associated with the pure web-based interface.

Things that work well

In general Authors seemed very enthusiastic about using Connexions and getting it to work right. One Author requested a tutorial with Connexions staff in order to learn the most efficient ways of getting content published.

Preview ability works well

One author expressed satisfaction with the ability to preview a module while working on it.

Code tag

This was a welcomed addition to the tag group because it solved the problem of making each line of code into a new paragraph.

Content presentation

Authors indicated that once content had been entered as a module or course, that the presentation of that content was well done.

Distribution of content

One author said that whenever he published content that he would receive numerous emails about it. This was an indication that Connexions content was being seen.