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2025-10-20 Educators WG: Libraries

2025-10-20 Educators WG: Libraries

Recording:

Video: Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing
Passcode: 3uTR=$g?

Minutes:

(AI Generated and Human Reviewed)

Meeting Overview

  • Facilitator: John Swope

  • Topics Covered:

    • Updates on Projects Previously Discussed (Jenna Makowski)

    • Libraries (Sam Daitzman)

    • Proposal for Advanced Settings (Santiago Suarez)

Notifications and RBAC Launch Updates (02:07)

Link: Educators Working Group Roadmap

Jenna provided updates on two key initiatives: notifications and RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). The first phase of notifications will launch in Ulmo, offering basic parity with edX notifications for learner updates, with plans to expand to ORA notifications in Phase 2. RBAC's MVP will also launch in Ulmo, introducing a new administrative console in Libraries for configuring roles and permissions, with testing to begin immediately after code cut. Both features will be tested in the sandbox environment, with tests already written for roles and permissions.

Content Library Feature Updates (05:35)

Call to Action: Watch the video demo and provide feedback in the survey: https://forms.gle/SsceoFRsatFx1hWQ7

Sam demonstrated new features of content libraries, including support for section, subsection, and unit levels, allowing authors to reuse and compose content more easily. He showcased tools for previewing and publishing content, as well as visualizing changes across multiple courses. Sam also highlighted the ability to override local changes while preserving updates in the library, and introduced new sync tools for managing content updates. The demo included a refresher subsection example and a course integration, with Sam inviting questions and feedback from the audience.

The team discussed a significant new feature for managing course content libraries, focusing on how changes are synchronized between libraries and courses. Sam explained that content can be published from libraries to courses but not vice versa, and described how override rules work, with course-specific changes taking priority until manually removed. John raised concerns about maintenance workflows for existing courses, particularly for departments with hundreds of courses, and Mary highlighted the challenge of transitioning from the current workflow to the new library-based system.

Sam explained that future import workflows will support course import, allowing content to be brought into libraries in one go, though syncing back to courses is currently limited due to potential conflicts with overrides. The team discussed the need for partial imports and the ability to delete specific content after import.

Proposal to Improve Advanced Settings Page (35:27)

Link to Proposal: https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AwAjOAE

Santiago presented a proposal to reorganize configurations in the advanced settings page, suggesting moving some features to other parts of the platform and potentially redesigning the page itself.