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Getting started with

Xerte at UCT

A guide for UCT lecturers and students

This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY)

by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, University of Cape Town (UCT)

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Overview

What is Xerte
Why Xerte
How could you use Xerte
What should you be aware of
Steps to getting started
Creating an UCT Xerte account and login
Create a new project with a template
How to add content in a project
Bootstrap template
Xerte Online Toolkit template
How to publish and share your project
How to embed content across Xerte
How to embed or link to from Vula
Showcase and examples from UCT

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What is Xerte?

An online content authoring environment available for UCT lecturers or students*, that allows you to digital learning resources through embedded images, videos, presentations, quizzes, etc.

Alternative content authoring platforms may be Vula Lessons Tool, Google sites, Wordpress, Drupal, Articulate Storyline etc.

* Note: Xerte is in its pilot phase at UCT and is hosted by the Learning Technologies Team at CILT. Xerte is part of the Apereo Foundation which supports international open source tools used in higher education.

Keywords: Digital content, Quizzes and interactivity, Decision trees and learning pathways, Open-source software, Offline access

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Why Xerte?

Create templates and collaborate with lecturers and/or students.
Opportunities for interactivity through different page types and layouts

Interactive elements such as quizzes, hotspot and annotated images, connectors (for different pathways), media lessons, model answers, drag and drop quizzes.
Incorporate feedback for quick self-assessment.
Decision trees templates and branching where you can use connectors to link to different content. Opportunities for adaptive learning.

Multiple access and sharing options

Share a public link for access outside of Vula
Link or embed on a specific Vula site as part of a course
Password-protected link for peer review
Export and share content offline for increased accessibility

Mobile-friendly (with bootstrap template) so can access from anywhere
Cost effective - no license costs involved
Form-based input allows for easier creation process - no technical skills required

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How could you use Xerte?

Student-driven content e.g. ePortfolios
Adaptive learning paths e.g. Decision trees and connectors
Content delivery and self-paced learning resources
Self-assessment
Collections of online guides and documentation
Students with limited internet connectivity - export to zip for offline use
Content can be shared across platforms e.g. public link
Peer review or evaluate materials before publishing

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What should you be aware of?

Currently a pilot at UCT (2016-2017)
The interface can be easy to advanced, depending on how you use it

More complex interface than Vula Lessons pages.
Possibly too many options and interactions (page types)
Advanced options could allow developers to add custom javascript on top of the template

Statistics of assessment does not seem possible to integrate with Vula yet (need to look into SCORM)

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Xerte versus Vula Lessons tool

	Xerte	Lessons
Content delivery	☑	☑
Share publically (outside of Vula) e.g. OER	☑	o
Track student access	o	☑
Integration with tools in Vula	o	☑
Offline access	☑	☒
Adaptive learning paths and decision trees	☑	o
Interactive assessment tools	☑	o
Template styles and layouts provided	☑	o
Co-create including student content	☑	☑
Ease of use	o	☑

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Steps to Getting Started

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Create an account and login

Go to https://xerte.uct.ac.za and login with your UCT staff or student details.
You now have a Xerte account linked to your UCT details.

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2. Create a new project with a template

Which template should you use:

Need a simple and clean layout?

Use the Bootstrap project template
Works best if you have a specific structure (e.g. headings and subheadings) in mind
This template is also responsive (works on mobile devices)
You can later embed interactive content

Would like to build interactive content?

Use the Xerte Online Toolkit project template
For a list of page types click here, or view this demo.

Have a flowchart or adaptive learning path?

Consider the Decision Tree Template project template or Xerte Online Toolkit with decision tree or connector pages.
You should also be able to embed interactive content.

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3. How to add content to a project

Ensure you have created a Project
(Project Templates > Name of your project > Create)
Select the project from your Workspace navigation tree
Click the pencil icon to edit

Instructions for Bootstrap and

Toolkit templates follow.

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Template 1: Bootstrap project

In the Bootstrap template, update the Project, Page & Section titles
Navigate on the tree (left sidebar) and click the plus icon to add new content

Pages appear horizontally across the top of the project site
Sections appear as menu items within a page

Pages →

Sections →

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See the Xerte Bootstrap template example and view how navigators, embedded content, and other bootstrap components display:

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Template 2: Toolkit project

See this guide to page types and example of page types. Page types below are well-designed and likely to be useful in HE:

Text - Plain text option (allows for rich-text and embedded content)
Media - Media Lesson or Multiple perspectives (carousel of MP4 videos or audio clips)
Interactivity - categories (sort), annotated diagram, decision tree, drag & drop labelling, model answer and results, quiz etc
Navigators
Connectors - hotspot image, menus,multiple choice

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For the Toolkit template, update the learning object title and click the plus icon to add content. Start with Text > Plain Text to get started.
To preview updates to your content, click the “Play” option. To save changes, click the “Publish” option.

All items (incl. Plain Text) contains the full rich-text editor for embedding images/video,formatting text and adding hyperlinks > click Show Toolbar or the drop-down arrow icon (see image)

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4. How to publish and share your project

Select the project from your Workspace
Click the info icon for project properties
To add collaborators or viewers, go to Shared settings and type in name. Note: the collaborator/viewer must have first created a UCT Xerte account before you can share.
Under Access choose how you would like the published content available as:

Public (link will be Project details)
Password protected
Other (restrict to site URL e.g. Vula site URL)
Private (default)

Export options: Get deployment or archive zip file (use HTML5, Javascript engine)

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5. How to embed content across Xerte

Xerte should allow you to embed other Xerte objects, e.g. use the Bootstrap template and then embed from interactive elements from another of your Xerte projects.
Ensure your Xerte project contains the part you want to embed:

Set the access as public.
Obtain the embed code under Project details.

Go to your project/site that you would like to embed it, add a text element, choose Source view and add the embed code.

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6. How to embed or link to from Vula

Use the Web Content tool in Vula.
To embed into Lessons

First create a new HTML page in Vula Resources for your site
Add embed code, see previous slide
In Lesson, choose Embed content on page, and select existing file from Resources