Skip to content
This repository has been archived by the owner on Jul 13, 2022. It is now read-only.

google/coursebuilder_xblock_module

XBlock Module for Course Builder

An add-on module for Course Builder which enables it to use edX XBlocks in course content.

Requirements

You will need a Bash environment to run the installation scripts. The scripts use standard developments tools, including Python 2.7, git, and zip/unzip. In addition you must have the following Python packages installed: setuptools 2.1.2, lxml 2.3.2, numpy 1.6.1.

Running the example application locally

To get started, the XBlock module can be run inside Course Builder on a local development server. To set up and run the application, execute:

sh ./scripts/run_example.sh

This will set up a copy of Course Builder in examples/ with the XBlock module installed, and will start the App Engine development server. The script accepts dev_appserver.py flags.

Running the example application on production App Engine

To install on production App Engine, first follow the steps in Running the example application locally, to set up a copy of Course Builder in examples/ with the module installed.

Next, create a new application on App Engine (https://appengine.google.com/) with a name that matches the application name in examples/coursebuilder/app.yaml (e.g. 'mycourse')

Deploy with the command:

./examples/google_appengine/appcfg.py update examples/coursebuilder

Using XBlocks in Course Builder

You can add XBlock content in XML form to the body of Course Builder lessons. The following example describes the steps to add a snippet of HTML text and a video XBlock to a lesson:

  1. Log on to Course Builder as an administrator.
  2. Create a new course using the admin tab.
  3. Go to the new course's Dashboard, and select Assets.
  4. Observe the list of assets includes a new XBlocks section.
  5. Click Add XBlock.
  6. Paste the following XML into the XBlock definition box:
<sequential>
  <html>Some text</html>
  <video youtube_id_1_0="Kdg2drcUjYI"/>
</sequential>
  1. Enter a description, such as "Sample XBlock content" and click Save, then Close.
  2. Next go to the course Outline tab and add a new unit and then a new lesson.
  3. Edit the lesson and use the Rich Text Editor for the lesson body.
  4. Click on the toolbox icon to embed a course component. Select "Embedded XBlocks" as the component type, and choose the description of the XBlock content you just added.
  5. Save your lesson and click Close to return to the dashboard.
  6. Click on your lesson name to view the content as a student.

Importing Courses from edX Studio

You can import course content created in edX Studio. Not all content that can be authored in Studio runs in Course Builder, but basic content including HTML, videos, and multiple choice questions is supported. The following steps show the process for importing a course from Studio:

  1. Create your course in Studio.
  2. In your Studio course, select Tools > Export and save a copy of your course as a .tar.gz file.
  3. Log on to Course Builder as an administrator.
  4. Create a new course using the admin tab.
  5. Go to the new course's Dashboard, and select Assets.
  6. Click the Import button in the XBlocks section.
  7. Click Choose File and open the .tar.gz file which you downloaded from Studio.
  8. If you only want to confirm that this content can be imported to Course Builder, without actually loading it, click the Dry Run box.
  9. Click Import.

After the import, Studio sections will correspond to Course Builder units, and Studio subsections will correspond to Course Builder lessons. Resources such as embedded images will be imported. There are also sample exported files which you can try in tests/resources/.

Adding new XBlocks

The following steps describe how to add new XBlocks so that they will be recognized by the XBlock module. They assume that you have packaged the XBlocks in a folder called my_xblocks which contains a setup.py file (similar to the thumbs XBlock that is included with the standard XBlock library).

  1. Copy the my_xblocks folder into the lib/ folder of your Course Builder installation, so that you have a lib/my_xblocks folder that contains a setup.py file.

  2. In a terminal, execute the commands

    cd my_xblocks
    python setup.py egg_info
    
  3. In Course Builder, edit appengine_config.py and locate the definition of the THIRD_PARTY_LIBS list (near line 63). Add the following line at the end of the list:

    _Library('my_xblocks')
    
  4. In Course Builder, edit src/modules/xblock_module/xblock_module.py and locate the XBLOCK_WHITELIST list (new line 86). Add the line for your XBlock from your XBlock's setup.py file. E.g.,

    myblock = my_package.my_module:MyBlockClass
    
  5. You can now use the added XBlock in your Course Builder installation.

If you are developing an XBlock then the above steps need only be performed once. Subsequent edits to your XBlock's code will be immediately available.

Running the tests

To run the tests, execute:

sh ./scripts/tests.sh

About

No description, website, or topics provided.

Resources

License

Code of conduct

Security policy

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published

Contributors 4

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •