How to collaboratively author Course Handbooks Multiple authors often need to collaboratively produce a document such as a Course Handbook. Handbook A workflow can be created in SharePoint to control the flow of the document and approval of the final version. The approved Course Handbook can then be downloaded from SharePoint and uploaded into WebLearn for students to access. Step 1: How to customise the existing ‘Collect feedback’ workflow in SharePoint The standard ‘Collect feedback’ workflow allows either sequential or parallel review processes. We recommend the parallel process (the ‘All at once’ optionoption see Figure 2b), which sends the task to all recipients at the same time. This avoids delays caused by any one individual perhaps being slow to complete the task. Each individual is prompted to Check out the document so that only one person at a time can edit it, and then Check it back in to the document doc library. 1. The Document Owner creates a Library and uploads the document for review, e.g. ‘Course Handbook’. 2. Once the Library has been set up, select and customise the required workflow as follows: follows i. On the ribbon, click the Library tab. ii. Towards the extreme right, in the Settings group, click Workflow Settings. iii. iv. On the Workflow Settings page, select All for the content type and click Add a Workflow. Workflow On the first page of Add a Workflow (Figure 1) complete the details as illustrated and described overleaf: overleaf DOC-152 24 May 2012 This ‘How to’ guide is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by a b c d e f Figure 1 a) Select a workflow Template: Select the Collect Feedback – SharePoint 2010 template. To enable the workflow template (you need to be a Site Collection Administrator to do this): i. On the upper-left corner on your SharePoint site, click Site Actions, and then click Site Settings. ii. Under Site Collection Administration, click Site Collection Features. iii. Scroll down the page and, next to Workflows, click Activate. b) Type a unique name for this workflow: This example is called ‘Request for comments’. c) Task List: Keep the default Task List on the left hand side: Tasks. d) History List: Select Workflow History to store the workflow log in the default list (this list records the history of every workflow in your SharePoint site), or choose New history list to maintain the history of this particular workflow. e) Start Options: In order to enable all participants to review and edit the document when they are all ready, select the first option Allow this workflow to be manually started ... Leave all the other options unselected. f) Click Next. Page | 2 v. On the second page of Add a workflow (Error! Reference source not found.), complete the details as follows: a b c d e f Figure 2 a) Assigned to: Enter the e-mail addresses of the people to whom the workflow should assign tasks. b) In the Order column, select All at once (parallel) to allow the recipients to address the task at their convenience, without having to wait for others to complete their edits first. c) Add an optional message that will appear in the email sent out to each reviewer. d) Use the date picker to enter the due date by which the task must be completed by all recipients. e) Choose who you what to inform when the workflow start and ends, e.g. yourself, the head of department, the course director etc. f) Click Save. SharePoint has now stored your customised workflow. The next step demonstrates how the workflow works in practice. Step 2: How an individual to whom the task has been assigned responds The recipients to whom the task has been assigned receive an email message with an explanation of the request, a due date and a link to the document: Page | 3 Name of the document The document opens directly in MS Word, with a yellow bar at the top of the screen, prompting the user to check the document out: In MS Word the user should switch on Track Changes, make necessary edits to the document, and insert any electronic comments where appropriate. On clicking Save, the user is prompted to check the document back into the SharePoint library (see Figure 2). By default the version number allocated is the next logical minor version number, e.g. if the existing version number was v 0.1, the edited version will be identified as v 0.2. It is recommended that you leave the system-generated version number. When the Document Owner is satisfied with the document after all recipients have edited it, he or she will allocate the major version number (e.g. v 1.0) and publish the document. Page | 4 Figure 2 Note: The workflow can be re-activated after a major version of the document has been published, if a further round of reviewing and editing is required. At the end of the second round of minor versions (v 1.xx) the Document Owner will publish the updated document as v 2.0. In the comments box, the person who has completed the task should insert a relevant comment as to what was done. This is useful for tracking purposes. The same comment can be copied and pasted into both the Document Check-in box (shown in Figure 2) and the Workflow feedback box (see Figure 3). To complete the task, the reviewer should click on the File > Info > Open this Task button (in MS Word 2010) and fill in the feedback form that follows. The document has been checked in (see Figure 2) Figure 3 Page | 5 Step 3: How the document owner finalises the workflow The Document Owner receives an email message (see Figure 4) to indicate when all the named recipients have completed the task: a) The email message provides a summary of the workflow history. b) Clicking on the link View the workflow history takes the Document Owner to the detailed history of the workflow (see Figure 5). The Document Owner peruses the edited document and makes a decision: • If the document is acceptable, the owner can check out the document, accept/reject any track changes as necessary, then check in the document as a published version (e.g. v 1.0). • If another round is required, it is necessary to accept the changes and then start the workflow again with the updated version of the document (v 1.0). a b Figure 4 Page | 6 Figure 5 Page | 7 Step 4: Upload the course handbook into WebLearn If the document is a Course Handbook, then the Document Owner will need to make it available to students in their respective WebLearn areas. Currently there is no automated facility to import the final document directly into a WebLearn site. The Document Owner should Check Out the final version of the Course Handbook (so that no-one else continues working on it in the SharePoint library), Download it and Save it on their own computer – by default it is saved into My Documents > Sharepoint Drafts. Log into WebLearn (https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk) using your Oxford Single Sign-on credentials. Under M y A c t i v e S i t e s , access the WebLearn site into which you wish to upload the Course Handbook. Click on R e s o u r c e s on the left hand menu bar (to add the R e s o u r c e s tool, use S i t e I n f o > E d i t T o o l s ). The size limit for uploading a single file into WebLearn is 60 Mb. If your Course Handbook is larger than that, you will need to use WebDAV. Full instructions are provided within the Resources tool. Navigate to the folder in which you want to upload the Course Handbook. Click here for instructions on using WebDAV … from the A d d menu, click U p l o a d Files. Page | 8 Click B r o w s e to find the appropriate file on your computer or network, and then click U p l o a d F i l e s Now. Add details such as a description and copyright information. Upload more than one file if you wish. Type in a D i s p l a y N a m e you want displayed in R e s o u r c e s ; this should be a user-friendly name. If you don't add a display name, the filename will be used. Optionally send an email to all site members to notify them of the addition to R e s o u r c e s . To add a description or any other details, such as who can access the file or when it should be visible, click A d d d e t a i l s f o r t h i s i t e m , which will allow you to do the following: 1. Type a description of the resource in the text box provided. This will be displayed if R e s o u r c e s is viewed through a W e b C o n t e n t access view. 2. Choose the resource's copyright status, add copyright information, and display a copyright alert: i. If you select U s e c o p y r i g h t b e l o w , a text box will appear in which you can add information about the copyright. ii. For information about copyright and fair use, click m o r e i n f o . Be aware that all components of a file, such as images in PowerPoint presentations, must be used within the terms of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. See http://copyrighttoolkit.com/podintro.html for a useful summary of copyright issues in an electronic environment. iii. If you would like to display the terms to users when they access your resource, select Display copyright alert and require acknowledgment when accessed by others. This option will require users to agree to the copyright terms to view the resource. To see the alert, click w h a t ' s t h i s ? You cannot edit this alert. 3. Under A v a i l a b i l i t y a n d A c c e s s , control who can access the file and when it is available. Click U p d a t e to save the details for your Course Handbook. The Course Handbook is now saved in your WebLearn site. You will need to decide how to make it available to students, e.g. from the site H o m e P a g e , from a different HTML page, or via the student A c c e s s V i e w . Create a student A c c e s s V i e w by using the A c t i o n s menu > M a k e W e b C o n t e n t L i n k , which will create a user friendly link to R e s o u r c e s on the left hand menu bar. In this case, you might like to hide the usual Resources tool (S i t e I n f o > P a g e O r d e r > click on the light bulb to dim it). In the WebLearn Guidance site (http://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/info) there are separate step-by-step guides on handling files in Resources and using WebDAV in WebLearn. Page | 9