In June 2019, several new features have been released on Graasp Authoring and Learning Platform, to assist you in preparing your inquiry-based classroom activities. In this blog post, we present the new design of ILSs, the export-feature to create eBooks out of ILSs, as well as the Activity Spaces supporting various learning scenarios!
The ILSs got a new design!
When you open an ILS’ student (standalone) view, you will notice that the different tabs now appear on the left side of the screen and it is more intuitive for students to navigate across the ILS. If any problem emerges with this new presentation mode, you can still refer to the “old view” by using the “Show legacy view” link, which appears on the right side of the sharing page.
View your ILS without generating a standalone user
To share the ILS with your students, you can use the “show standalone view” button as usual; the QR code and export to Google classroom are available as well. But for teachers, there is one more access option available through the new "page view" button (at the bottom of the sharing tab). Using this button, you will be logged in to the ILS with your Graasp ID and avoid introducing fake standalone users (students) during the authoring process. A dedicated QR code is also available for this view.
Export your ILS as an EPUB eBook
The former export menu in the standalone view has been replaced with a cloud icon (located on the top right corner of the standalone view) to generate images or pdf files, as well as static, read-only, or interactive EPUB eBooks.
The various types of eBooks that you can choose to save, are now supporting various offline or online modalities. The tables below give an overview of the available export modes (Table 1) and formats, supported by each export mode (Table 2)
Table 1: EPUB Export Mode
| Mode | Description | Internet Connection | Interactivity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static | The whole content is static and can be read offline | No | No |
| Read-only | Some components are interactive even offline | No | Limited |
| Interactive | Elements are interactive and need internet connection to work | Yes | Yes |
Table 2: Supported content export modes
| Static | Read-only | Interactive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| .graasp document | text | text | text |
| .txt, .html document | screenshot | screenshot | object |
| Image | image | image | image |
| Video, audio | screenshot | screenshot | video, audio |
| App, lab, embedded element | screenshot | screenshot | iframe |
| App, lab (offline support) | screenshot | iframe[srdoc] | iframe[srdoc] |
| Unsupported element | screenshot | screenshot | screenshot |
Creating Activity Spaces
As you might already know, there is a possibility to create Activity Spaces. Such spaces are similar to Inquiry Learning Spaces, but they enforce alternative learning scenarios like design thinking, self-regulated learning, or MOOCs.
Create Discussions with SpeakUp
The “Create a discussion” button is now adding the more advanced SpeakUp app allowing to create chat rooms. Once inside the chat, users can interact in it by writing and rating messages. It is also possible to create multiple-choice questions to poll the audience. You can find more information about the SpeakUp here: https://www.golabz.eu/app/speakup
When creating a SpeakUp room, you can assign a room name and decide if posts are anonymous or associated with the nickname of the students. The discussions can also be accessed from mobile devices using the direct speakup.graasp.eu link and by adding the room ID.
