Re: Too many default groups in Skolelinux' LDAP schema?

[Knut Yrvin <knuty@skolelinux.no>]

onsdag 17. mars 2004, 13:35, skrev Petter Reinholdtsen:
> The problem is not the pupils, but their teachers.  If each teacher
> should have access to the files for each class he teaches, he might
> need to be a member of quite a lot of groups in larger schools.

This is exactly what the Learning Management System (LMS) should 
handle :-).  A lot of schools will not pay for a LMS or maintain such a 
service. Then they probably want access to a class-directory with 
reading/writing rights. But i think more access than that will be 
difficult to follow and over-complex to maintain. The user-interface to 
the file-system is to complicated - where LMS is put together to 
handling that kind of complexity (work-flows, project-folder, deadlines 
etc. :-)

Today a lot of teachers conected to a NT-file server have a own class 
directory with no restrictions. Every pupil and teachers can save or 
delete everybody else's files. One school that uses Skolelinux does not 
even have user accounts. They login as user 1-30. Thats it. They 
sometimes wonder where their files goes ;-), and want the Windows 95 
single PC-functionality back. Just giving the school a system with 
handling users in a proper way is hard. When giving them classes, it's 
even harder. To give them 30-40 different groups, it's overkill in real 
life. 

Teachers have asked for is a common folder for their classes to 
efficient share files with pupils in their class. We should provide 
this. I can see that this functionaliy will make more demands in the 
future. "Ah, I can do it for one class, why not for every class", 
teachers will say. Yes, thats possible. The easy way is to make a 
account for every class the teacher teach, or just tell them that a LMS 
does a much better job because of funcitonality and the governmental 
plans for Digital Competence. 

If you give the teacher one class-directory with class-permissions for 
every class they are teaching, there is a limit at around 5-10 classes 
in a week.  It's no more time left serve more people. A lot of the 
schools curriculum is not about computers either. That limits the need 
for a large bundle of group-memberships. 

A work-around could be that a teacher would be a member of their own 
class and have a new account for every course they teach. You could 
also give the teachers accounts for every class they teach. It's 
possible to give them identical password for every account. Then the 
teacher get the real responsibility for handeling a Learning Management 
System-issue at file and directory level. 

Thanks

- Knut