PeBL Questions from Clark!

#1

Hi, y’all! @Quinnovator sent me some questions a while and was kind enough to allow me to post the answers here, in case anyone else had the same ones. If anyone needs more clarification or has additional questions, feel free to respond below.

Do your MCQs have different feedback for every wrong answer?

  • Yes

Can I have folks upload a file, that I can then send individual feedback on?

  • Yes

Can it be so that you can see other’s uploads?

  • Yes

Can they comment on each other’s uploads?

  • Kinda — this question type is not threaded currently, but that’s a pretty easy improvement. No promises as to when, but I like the suggestion.

Can that be gated that you can’t see others’ uploads until you’ve done your own?

  • Yes, that’s the current functionality.

Can they be gated: can’t do a later one until you’ve done the prior one?

  • Yes

Can you have a timed break between sections?

  • Possibly — this falls into the features that may be slated for v 1.0 but we’re not 100% sure yet. If it’s not v 1.0, it will be shortly after.

Can you manage access to a Zoom room or other synchronous meeting?

  • I’m not entirely sure how this works other than you placing a zoom (or other meeting) link in the book, which is certainly something you can do. You will be able to place links and web objects. Is there anything else that would be needed?

Is there an ecommerce solution?

  • At v 1.0, no… not a turnkey one. It will be one of the first upgrades, so I’d estimate for sure in 2021. Here’s what you would come with the authoring tool at v 1.0, though: a bookshelf that you can host books on, that you can manage people’s access to, but it will come with certain limitations. Upgrades will be available. So if someone makes a purchase or you want to give someone access, you can do that — there just won’t be an automatic connection between the bookshelf user management and an e-commerce solution at v 1.0.

Can you sell different versions: just the book, book w/ discussions, book with a live session access?

  • Yes

Do they go somewhere else, or can they buy from my site?

  • You can set up your bookshelf on a subdomain of your site using the free, open source ereader software, or you can use the bookshelf that comes with your subscription to the authoring tool, which would have an address of yourchosensubdomainname.ourpeblsite.com. Your bookshelf would have your logo in the top left, and people would buy from your site — like I indicated above, we don’t even have a way for them to buy through us at this point. You’d just have to grant someone access to your bookshelf when they completed an order on your site.

So, basically, yes to all of the above except the things that are coming soon.

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#2

Thanks for sharing these Q&As!

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#3

cool, thanks for sharing! :grin:

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#4

A further question from Clark! I’ve got the following structure, not sure how to do sections, any suggestions?
Introduction
Section 1: Principles
o Chapter 1. Learning
o Chapter 2. Hook ‘Em
o Chapter 3. Land ‘Em
o Chapter 4. Elements of Style
Section 2: Practice
o Chapter 5. Elements of Learning
o Chapter 6. A Design Process
Closing

There’s prose attached to Intro and Closing, they’re both really chapters. The sections have basically just bullet points about the chapters. It’s not necessary, I can flatten it, but that’s how it fell out structurally.

#5

Ooh, great question, @Quinnovator!

Presently there’s only one level of structural hierarchy in PeBL: the chapter. Chapters get automatically placed in the TOC, like this:

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And there are very rare instances where we have to limit some functionality by chapter (for example, all of the questions in an assessment have to be in the same chapter as the assessment – I think that’s the only limitation at this time). Those functionality limitations may crop up from time to time because in the published .epub, chapters are each in their own .xhtml file. But we will work to have as few limitations as possible.

So, if any of the above applies, that may tell you how you want to break things down.

If you decide that only the Sections will get that TOC functionality, you can do the following things to make your chapters look/feel like a PeBL chapter, even if it’s technically not:

  • Use column breaks to force content to start where you want it to
  • Use headings to make it look like a new chapter/section is starting
  • Place a list of links at the beginning of each chapter to build an in-book TOC to the places within that chapter (link functionality is there, but anchor functionality, which you would also need, is coming soon)

Alternately, you could decide that all of your sections and chapters will the chapters (in the PeBL sense), and then you probably want to just make a visual distinction in your chapter names, like…

SECTION 1: PRINCIPLES
Chapter 1. Learning
Chapter 2. Hook ‘Em
Chapter 3. Land ‘Em
Chapter 4. Elements of Style
SECTION 2: PRACTICE
Chapter 5. Elements of Learning
Chapter 6. A Design Process
Closing

I’m taking a few possible feature requests from this:

  • Allow the built-in TOC to reflect a hierarchy, not just a flat structure
  • Allow the TOC to include markers that aren’t navigable (for example, perhaps you wouldn’t want the section headings above to actually link to a chapter; you just want them as a visual separation)

Anything else?

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#6

Helpful, thanks! I’m also collecting notes of what I experience…

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#7

Fantastic! There is a place in the authoring app to send feedback as well as bug reports now… but you know you can always catch me live, as well. :smiley:

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