The basic model of Tutors
Tutors is a collection of open source components and services supporting the creation of transformative learning experiences using open web standards. It consists of two key components:
Generator: transforms a folder of learning content into a Tutors course
Reader: presents a Tutors course as an intuitive, discoverable and attractive Web experience
These components are developed in the open by an active and friendly community, based on a clear set of values.
Visit this course to become familiar with the general structure of the learning experience. Download the source for the course and unzip to a local folder. Spend a few minutes exploring the content of the folder using a good editor, for example Sublime Text.
Install the LTS version Node.js on your computer and create a free account on the Netlify service.
Open a command prompt/terminal at the course folder you created above and enter the following command:
npx tutors-publish
This should generate a response like this (shortened here):
tutors-publish: 3.3.1
: tutors-starter : Tutors Starter
--: topic-01 : Simple Units
----: unit-1 : Main Lesson
------: book-a : Objectives
------: talk-1-intro : Lecture 1
------: talk-2-explore : Lecture 2
----: unit-2 : Supporting Resources
------: archive : Resource 1
------: note-1 : Note 1
------: web-1 : Web Site 1
...
----: unit-2 : Unit 6 Title
------: talk-1 : Lecture 10
------: web-1 : Zoom Morning Room
------: web-2 : Podcast
tutors-publish: 3.3.1
A new folder called json will be generated by the above command. Drag & Drop this json folder to Netlify using this drop target site (assuming you are logged in to Netlify) . This will publish the course on the web, generating a unique url which you can verify almost immediately. You can customise the free domain name directly on Netlify.
If you make any changes to the course source folder, then you must proceed through the generation (npx tutors-publish) and publishing (drag & drop) to redeploy the course. Be sure to overwrite the existing course on Netlify, unless you want a new course. In this case, locate the deployment panel for the newly created project on Netlify and drag & drop the json folder there.
There is secondary publication mechanism, which is invoked as above, but with a different command:
npx tutors-publish-html
This will also generate a folder of content in the course folder - this time in a html subfolder. You can open this folder and load the index.html therein in a browser (generally just double click). This will open a local version of the course offline (on your workstation only). This does not provide the complete tutors experience, but can be a useful as a backup, an alternative UX and also perhaps as the basis for an archive of the course that can be distributed as a zip file (compress and distribute the html folder only) when a course concludes. The archive can be opened by the students independently, with all course assets held locally, except for videos. The html folder can also be published to any web server, including Netlify using the same process as outlined above.
The first course example above is a typicaly tutors course, with a basic structure. This example:
… incorporates different layouts + nesting of learning objects in various confurations. Download the source here
This example is a complete reference course illustrating all Tutors features:
Download the source here