Course template for A-plus learning environment

This course template contains the necessary files and configurations to start authoring a new course for the A+ e-learning system. This template can be freely modified and adapted to your needs.

Requirements

This course templated has been tested in Ubuntu Linux environment. Nevertheless, this course should also work on any Unix / Linux / Mac environment. In order to run the course locally, you should install the following software.

• git
• docker
• docker-compose

All other software runs inside Docker containers.

Download

There are two options for downloading the course template. Either way, the result is the same. Therefore, you can decide wich of the following two approaches to take.

Option A: Clone the repository and all the submodules

You can download this template recursively (that means including the A-plus-rst-tools

git clone --recursive https://github.com/apluslms/aplus-course-template.git <name of your course>

Option B: Clone the repository and the submodules manually

You can download the main repository and initialise the A-plus-rst-tools submodule manually.

git clone https://github.com/apluslms/aplus-course-template.git <name of your course>
git submodule init && git submodule update

Run

1. Open the terminal, go to the course directory and type the following command.

   ./docker-compile.sh

   This command will compile the course, and store the compiled files inside the _build directory. The _build directory will contain all the HTML and YAML files that are generated from the RST source files. The _build directory will also include all the static files such as images, CSS, JS and downloadable files.

2. Open the terminal, go to the course director and type the next command.

   ./docker-up.sh

   If the ./docker-up.sh command run successfully, you should be able to access your course in any web browser in the following URL http://localhost:8000

3. Once in the http://localhost:8000 you can use the following users to login. Different users have different privileges.

   User	Password
   root	root
   teacher	teacher
   assistant	assistant
   student	student
   unenrolled	unenrolled

Save your work

In order to save your work and publish the course in A+ e-learning system, you need to store the course project in the university's GitLab server <version.aalto.fi>.

❗️ Important

We STRONGLY recommend storing the course under the course group. If you do not have privileges to do so, you can send an email to [email protected] (We will set up the repository for you). You may also do this in the new course instance request form: https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/EDIT/Requests+for+course+instances

If you do not want to store your course repository under the course group in <version.aalto.fi>, you can create a private repository. You need to add the service account "apluslms" with the Reporter role to the course project so that the A+ servers can clone the course. (In the version.aalto.fi project, open Settings -> Members from the left sidebar.)

Additional information

A+ has a wide variety of tools and configurations. The information and instructions are scattered in many locations.

• A+ webpage
• A+ Manual
• A+ manual git repo
• A+ GitHub organization
• EDIT Wiki
• A-plus-rst-tools README - custom RST directives
• MOOC-Grader YAML configurations

Teacher support channels are listed in the EDIT wiki: https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/EDIT/Instructions+and+support+for+teachers+on+CS+department+own+tools+provided+for+teaching