LUWS Lesson Schedules

So, the new version of LUWS has been progressing quite nicely. We've got the Calendar with Resource Scheduling (still being improved, but already worlds better). We've got the Ward/Stake/Leadership Directory (Hooray! Again, superb.) Both have some messaging capabilities that will be improved as time goes on. That leaves two major portions of LUWS still to be updated and replaced:

1. Lesson Schedules
2. News and Information Pages

I have no idea if any of that has been developed already, though I suspect not. When it will be developed, I haven't a clue. I am not a church employee. I am not in any position of authority (priesthood or otherwise). But, here's a couple of thoughts to see how much interest can be generated in completing these things.

Perhaps the Lesson Schedules part of the website could be integrated with these pages:
http://lds.org/manual/relief-society?lang=eng
http://lds.org/manual/melchizedek-priesthood?lang=eng

If someone's logged in, they won't just see where to study, they can see (if the Bishop/Stake President has chosen to post it, or delegated a counselor, clerk, or the Website Administrator to post it):

• The EQ/HP/RS President's study recommendations for the 1st Sunday (if they got around to posting it, or having their secretary post it)
• Which lesson should be taught from the Gospel Principles Manual on the 2nd/3rd Sundays (remember it changes from stake to stake due to stake conference)
• Which talk(s) will be discussed on the 4th Sunday
• Whether there will be a combined meeting and how to prepare for the lesson on the fifth Sunday.

Everything should include links to the source talk or the lesson in the manual.

Perhaps, when an Elder or High Priest is logged in, a spot on the home page could say:

Next week's lesson in Priesthood (1/8/2010) will be on Fasting (Chapter 25 of the Gospel Principles manual)

Or, in for a Relief Society sister:

Next week's lesson in Relief Society (1/8/2010) will be on Fasting (Chapter 25 of the Gospel Principles manual)

Do something similar for the Sunday School lessons.

Another good place to put the lesson schedule as well as the meeting schedule would be a special calendar in the new calendar app that could:

• automatically pull in the meeting schedule from the MLS submitted info
• Provide the framework for local leaders to update the lesson schedule (eg the events/lessons are there by default but can be modified by local leaders)

Where else could the lesson schedule integrate well with lds.org? Where would it be most intuitive? Where would it be simple to implement?

As far as implementation goes, any ideas on how such data could be stored/retrieved? ie: what should the xml/xquery look like? (lds.org uses MarkLogicand XQuery to store and serve the many magazines, manuals, other documents, and general website stuff) Any XQuery wizards out there want to write some sample code to create a page that pulls in lesson data?

Happy to Help,
Jacob Floyd

PS My views don't necessarily represent the official opinions of the church - by using this site, I agreed to that in the terms and conditions. Just remember that.

I am also interested in how the lesson schedules and the news & information will be migrated from LUWS to the new web site. Another function I am curious about is the missionary section, listing missionaries serving in the ward and missionaries serving from the ward.
Dana

I have not seen anywhere yet where the lesson schedule is posted. Am I missing it somewhere?

jwilles wrote:I have not seen anywhere yet where the lesson schedule is posted. Am I missing it somewhere?

They are not posted yet. I have asked the product manager over that site for a clarification on when that will happen but have not heard back yet. I will follow up and post what I learn.

We are preparing to kick off our first development sprint for the lesson scheduler. As we finish the cleanup for the 2.0 Calendar release, we will have more resources to put toward starting this project.

The whole project has not been scoped yet, so I don't have a guess as to when we'll be ready for a beta release, but know that we are moving forward.

jdcr256 wrote:We are preparing to kick off our first development sprint for the lesson scheduler. As we finish the cleanup for the 2.0 Calendar release, we will have more resources to put toward starting this project.

The whole project has not been scoped yet, so I don't have a guess as to when we'll be ready for a beta release, but know that we are moving forward.

That's good to know.

However, given that the new lesson scheduler can't possibly be completed in time for stakes and wards to enter 2012 lesson schedules when they would like to (that time is now for many stakes), I think the question is when the existing LUWS lesson schedules will be updated for the 2012 curriculum.

aebrown wrote:That's good to know.

However, given that the new lesson scheduler can't possibly be completed in time for stakes and wards to enter 2012 lesson schedules when they would like to (that time is now for many stakes), I think the question is when the existing LUWS lesson schedules will be updated for the 2012 curriculum.

I just had the SS president ask about posting 2012 lesson schedules. Haven't heard yet from stake for RS/Priesthood lessons, but I am sure they are coming. I would like to be able to post something in the old system until the new is ready for 2012

jhowell2000 wrote:I just had the SS president ask about posting 2012 lesson schedules. Haven't heard yet from stake for RS/Priesthood lessons, but I am sure they are coming. I would like to be able to post something in the old system until the new is ready for 2012

The new lesson schedules module will not be available until sometime in early 2012. It's still an open question as to when (or even if) the 2012 lesson schedules will be available on the classic site. The last I heard from the product manager over that area was "I'll see what we can do on this one."

jhowell2000 wrote:I just had the SS president ask about posting 2012 lesson schedules. Haven't heard yet from stake for RS/Priesthood lessons, but I am sure they are coming. I would like to be able to post something in the old system until the new is ready for 2012

I think our stake has decided to post them on the stake calendar as an "all day" event, with the url to the lesson on LDS.org in the event description. Two HUGE DRAWBACKS!
1) Very tedious and time consuming
2) No link ability! BIG, BIG Drawback.....You can paste a url into your event body to the lesson, and ask people to copy and paste the url to their browser line, but I don't see that being done by some users very effectively.

Although that doesn't mean we won't do it....
I could see an import of an ICAL file useful, if we all had the lessons on the same days, but we don't.

kisaac wrote:I think our stake has decided to post them on the stake calendar as an "all day" event, with the url to the lesson on LDS.org in the event description. Two HUGE DRAWBACKS!
1) Very tedious and time consuming
2) No link ability! BIG, BIG Drawback.....You can paste a url into your event body to the lesson, and ask people to copy and paste the url to their browser line, but I don't see that being done by some users very effectively.

Although that doesn't mean we won't do it....
I could see an import of an ICAL file useful, if we all had the lessons on the same days, but we don't.

I've got leaders in our stake wanting to do the same thing -- post lesson schedules in the calendar. I'm still hoping the Church will update the lesson schedule in the classic web site so we can continue to use it until the new version is released. Not looking forward to entering Sunday School and Priesthood/RS lessons in a calendar overlay.

I must say, the roll-out of the “New” LDS.org site was so huge and so well done that I expected the “missing pieces” to arrive relatively soon. Here we are, some 10 months after this thread was started, and we still don’t have the new modules for Lesson Schedules and News & Information. It’s a little difficult to understand why it’s taking so long, given how much was done all-at-once on the "new" church web site. Meanwhile, I’m inclined to find a way to add those things to the calendar because, to the average user, I think the need to log in a second time (to view the “Classic” ward web site) feels like a bug. And I don’t want people in my ward to conclude that the church web site is buggy. So I'll do what I can to keep them from having to go to anything "classic".

mrrad wrote:I must say, the roll-out of the “New” LDS.org site was so huge and so well done that I expected the “missing pieces” to arrive relatively soon. Here we are, some 10 months after this thread was started, and we still don’t have the new modules for Lesson Schedules and News & Information. It’s a little difficult to understand why it’s taking so long, given how much was done all-at-once on the "new" church web site.

The Church doesn't have unlimited development resources. I'm guessing that the fact that it took longer to iron out the bugs in the Calendar than expected has delayed other modules. The fact that so much was done all at once is not inconsistent with this; much of the work that was done all at once was done by designers and content creators, not by web application developers (the primary skill set needed for Directory, Calendar, Lesson Schedules, and News & Information). So I'm not surprised at all.

mrrad wrote: Meanwhile, I’m inclined to find a way to add those things to the calendar because, to the average user, I think the need to log in a second time (to view the “Classic” ward web site) feels like a bug. And I don’t want people in my ward to conclude that the church web site is buggy. So I'll do what I can to keep them from having to go to anything "classic".

I guess I can understand how some people might feel that way, but it doesn't feel like a bug to me. The classic ward/stake web site simply feels a little old. It always required a separate login, so it hasn't changed in that regard. You're just getting spoiled by how slick the single sign on technology is on the new site.

You're welcome to add lessons schedules to the new calendar, but I wouldn't advise it. The lesson schedules module is only a small number of months (2-4) away from beta, and could be release pretty soon after that. I've even heard one suggestion (from someone who works at the Church) that it might be in beta before the end of this year. So you might be doing something that is a lot of work, for a very short term benefit. Although I understand that you don't like the new site, at least the classic lesson schedules module has links to the content. The new Calendar has no ability to provide hyperlinks, so in that regard, anything you do with the new Calendar will be inferior to the classic lesson schedules. But it's certainly your choice.

I intend to add lessons to the calendar only about 6 weeks in advance rather than add the whole year all at once. I already adopted this approach in the "classic" web site because 1) You never know when something will disrupt the schedule and then you have to adjust every lesson after that and 2) You couldn't delete the lessons after they'd already been presented so, as the year went on, the user had to scroll past a lot of clutter to reach the more current lesson on the list. At least if I kept the list as short as possible it would be easier to find the lesson they would need to study that week.

aebrown wrote:The Church doesn't have unlimited development resources. I'm guessing that the fact that it took longer to iron out the bugs in the Calendar than expected has delayed other modules. The fact that so much was done all at once is not inconsistent with this; much of the work that was done all at once was done by designers and content creators, not by web application developers (the primary skill set needed for Directory, Calendar, Lesson Schedules, and News & Information). So I'm not surprised at all.



I guess I can understand how some people might feel that way, but it doesn't feel like a bug to me. The classic ward/stake web site simply feels a little old. It always required a separate login, so it hasn't changed in that regard. You're just getting spoiled by how slick the single sign on technology is on the new site.

You're welcome to add lessons schedules to the new calendar, but I wouldn't advise it. The lesson schedules module is only a small number of months (2-4) away from beta, and could be release pretty soon after that. I've even heard one suggestion (from someone who works at the Church) that it might be in beta before the end of this year. So you might be doing something that is a lot of work, for a very short term benefit. Although I understand that you don't like the new site, at least the classic lesson schedules module has links to the content. The new Calendar has no ability to provide hyperlinks, so in that regard, anything you do with the new Calendar will be inferior to the classic lesson schedules. But it's certainly your choice.

I have our 2012 lesson schedule from the bishopric. Any chance this module will actually be completed before the end of the year?

bschroader wrote:I have our 2012 lesson schedule from the bishopric. Any chance this module will actually be completed before the end of the year?

I'm sure it will done before the end of 2012. But I'm guessing you were hoping for the end of 2011.

No, it won't be done that quick. It's scheduled for beta in Q1 of 2012; I would guess that the release will be sometime in Q2. See here for details.

So it seems that other stakes and wards are doing one of two things:

• Use the Classic Stake and Ward Websites to enter lesson schedules as before (this is easy, and provides links to the G.A. Smith lessons automatically). This is the easiest solution, but some people are not looking at the Classic site much anymore.
• Create a calendar on the new Calendar system on lds.org that has an event each Sunday for the selected lesson. This doesn't allow for links to the lesson content, and is more work to set up, but will probably be more visible to ward and stake members.

Our stake has chosen the first option.

LOL. I did think you were talking about the end of 2011!

Thanks for the update and the suggestions.

aebrown wrote:Use the Classic Stake and Ward Websites to enter lesson schedules as before (this is easy, and provides links to the G.A. Smith lessons automatically). This is the easiest solution, but some people are not looking at the Classic site much anymore.

The problem is that it is hard enough to get members to use one church website, let alone two, and every time they "enhance" the look and feel of the lds.org site, they make it harder to find links to the old content. We have been forced to move to the lds.org site for the calendar and it is much better for ward leadership listings, so that is where we want people to go.

Quite frankly, the new lds.org ward and stake system should never have been made available until it included all of the functionality of the classic LUWS. Doing so was just plain poor management.

rpyne wrote: Quite frankly, the new lds.org ward and stake system should never have been made available until it included all of the functionality of the classic LUWS. Doing so was just plain poor management.

I agree. Rolling out the Directory and Calendar early has caused our
users to completeldy ignore the old site where we still house various
forms in the News/Information section.

Also, if a major change will be happening (building scheduling, for example),
it would be nice to get the info prior to the change. It's a bit unsettling
when users find out about features before administrators do.

rpyne wrote:Quite frankly, the new lds.org ward and stake system should never have been made available until it included all of the functionality of the classic LUWS. Doing so was just plain poor management.

I disagree. Of course, you're welcome to your opinion, but it is only an opinion, even if you state it as fact.

I for one am grateful for all the new capabilities, and appreciate them being rolled out when they are available. When the last module for the new site is completed sometime in 2012, I would be frustrated if I then learned that the new Calendar and Directory could have been available 2 years earlier, but were held back until everything was complete, as you recommend.

There's a link to the classic ward and stake web sites right on the home page of lds.org. I agree that it's been a bit frustrating that the links to those sites have moved, but it's really easy to find. For those who don't see it right off, a bit of education and reminder will help them find the link. And once you are on the ward and stake web sites, there are links to the new calendar and directory from there.

I think what hurt was making the links to the new modules right of the main page. It made it easy to ignore the classic LUWS.