VT-Rachel Updates

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T Gillett

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May 7, 2019, 11:55:12 PM5/7/19
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Hi All

I have posted some updates to the VT-Rachel USB/SD to include additional content modules and some tidy up of the home page.

You can download a demo home page .zip file here:
Download and unpack the .zip into a working directory, file then click on the .html file to open it in your browser (up to date Firefox or Chrome recommended).

You can download the 'code' to create the USB/SD here:



This 'code' will give you a working skeleton digital library on your memory device. You can then download and add content modules as required.
The content modules are mostly downloadable via rsync (recommended for reliable/restartable downloads) or HTTP from the Open Education Resources OER2GO web site here:
Modules not available from this site are available from the respective source organisation's web site.

The total VT-Rachel content now occupies some 44GB of storage space on a USB or SD card, so a 64GB memory device is required. You can of course load just the modules you want to reduce the space required.

Please note that USB and SD memories of 32GB and above are now typically formatted with EXFAT with a block size of 128kB.
This means that if you attempt to install all the modules on such a device, they will not fit due to the large number of small size files in the HTML content which makes the file storage inefficient with a large block size.
You need to reformat the memory device and make the block size 4kB.
The EXT2 format will do this by default; for EXFAT and similar you will need to select the block size.

As always, comments and feedback welcome.

Regards
Terry



Steve Song

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May 9, 2019, 10:19:48 AM5/9/19
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Thanks for this Terry!  Have you come across anyone working on Lusophone content for the RACHEL distribution.  I have tried writing to them directly about this but haven't had a response.

Cheers... Steve

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T Gillett

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May 9, 2019, 9:24:55 PM5/9/19
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Hi Steve

No I am not aware of any sites that specifically deal with Lusophone content.

There may be some Portuguese and Brazilian sites that have some open resources that could be packaged up for use.
The technical requirements for the content are very simple - just collections of static documents (eg PDF), audio (eg MP3), video (eg MP4) or HTML will work fine, as long as the content will play in a browser.
So if you find any sites with suitable material it would be straightforward to add a module to VT-Rachel.

Some of the sites on the OER2Go site have a component of Portuguese language material.
These are some that I found:

African Storybooks - select Read and filter on Portuguese language for 100+ titles 

Hesperian Health Guides

Regards
Terry

Joe Bunefa

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May 9, 2019, 9:30:15 PM5/9/19
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Hi Terry,

Thank you so much for your input. 

Cheers


Chima Kalu

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May 10, 2019, 7:05:14 PM5/10/19
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Hello Terry,

After reading through your post, I decided to learn further about Rachel, Which I find quite interesting.

Am interested in trying out this, But am not sure I understand how to use the Codes in GITHUB, several lines  of files or codes with different dates of update.

It will be nice to  get more under standing how I can use contents from GITHUB,

Thanks  for a reply.

Chima

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T Gillett

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May 11, 2019, 4:22:45 AM5/11/19
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Hi Chima

Rather than download the source files from GitHub, you can also download the framework for the USB/SD memory as a .zip file from here:

Download the .zip file and expand it in the top level directory of your memory device, or in a working directory on your PC.
Then if you click on the index.html file you will get the VT-Rachel home page with links to each of the content modules.

If you look in the 'modules' directory you will see a directory for each module of content, but they will not have the actual content files in them.

You can download the content modules that you want from the OER2G0.org web site (http://oer2go.org/) and place the contents into the respective directory.

For example you might decide to download the "Cat and Dog Books" module (http://oer2go.org/viewmod/en-catdogbooks).

The OER2Go site offers several different download options. The rsync option is recommended if you are running a Linux style operating system like Ubuntu on your PC as it is a robust download mechanism that can be easily resumed if something breaks along the way.
Other alternatives are Zip file over FTP or Zip file via Web.

Once you download the content files, unpack the zip file and copy the files into the "en-catdogbooks" directory.

Then you should be able to link to the content from the VT-Rachel home page.

Repeat the process for other content modules that you want to get.

Be aware that the content downloads are quite large eg the Khan Academy on a Stick (KAOS) is 16GB.
Downloads of this size can be problematic, hence the recommendation to use rsync.

I hope this helps.

Regards
Terry


Chima Kalu

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May 11, 2019, 4:20:45 PM5/11/19
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Thanks Terry. It sure makes great sense to me now. You will make a great teacher,

Thanks
Chima


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