Add support for alternate editions of linked Mobile Ed resources
A recurring problem is that a linked resource may no longer available after a course has been published.
Recent examples of this are when a newer edition is replacing an older edition, or when a resource was pulled due to plagiarism.
Downsides to updating a course involve time and money, as well as forcing the user to buy a newer edition for an older work they may already own.
The downside to not updating the course means that portion of the course can't be viewed. Depending on how often a resource is linked, that might account for a significant portion of the content.
Something needs to be done to avoid the unpleasant situation of buying a course which you discover can't be completed:
- The easiest solution to work around this problem would be to automatically unlock the older content for people who own both the course and the newer resource. This wouldn't require any update to the course (although the user wouldn't be reading from the most recent edition).
- A more complex solution would be to add some sort of dynamic linking, to show the original content when the user owns an earlier edition, and the newer content when the user owns a later edition.
Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!
Comments
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There is an existing user voice suggestion to request linking to multiple versions of a resource.
Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!
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PetahChristian said:
The easiest solution to work around this problem would be to automatically unlock the older content for people who own both the course and the newer resource. This wouldn't require any update to the course (although the user wouldn't be reading from the most recent edition).
Easiest solution for us but not necessarily practical. We can't walk into a book store and say to the shop assistant I own the second edition of that book so you should give me the first edition free because I need that particular edition for a course I'm doing, so I dont' expect Logos to do this either. After all Logos would still have to pay the publisher.
PetahChristian said:forcing the user to buy a newer edition for an older work they may already own.
A purchase is never forced, it is a choice and if you already own the older edition, not always, but often you can open it up a quick browse of the table of contents or a basic search can help you identify the relevant portion of the text to read. I have done this more than once without too much trouble.
And there have been other occasions where I've gone to google books or even amazon and been able to read the relevant section from a resource preview when I don't own the book in Logos and not in a position to buy it at that point in time.
But on other occasions I've just had to move on to the next reading or do my own research in the resources I do have available. Not ideal but sometimes life works out that way.
PetahChristian said:A recurring problem is that a linked resource may no longer available after a course has been published.
All that said I totally agree with you this is a problem that as yet has not be addressed adequately at this point in time.
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Mobile ed course links to resources with multiple versions need to allow AT LEAST access to new versions of the resource. I own Mobile ed courses with links to older versions of resources of which I own a newer LOGOS version (DJG, for example), but the Mobile ed link only works for the older version of DJG (I have a physical copy of this, but I'm not going to pay to have two versions of the same resource).
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Yes. This could be simply fixed by having multiple links within the resource - if the resource originally linked to the 1st edition, and then later a 2nd edition comes out, then simply have links to the same section in both the 1st and the 2nd edition - and then if you own one of them, that one will show up as unlocked (and if you owned both, then both will show as unlocked and you can pick whichever you like).
In cases where a resource is no longer available (example, the beginner Hebrew course has one of the Eisenbraun books as the textbook. I own it, but it's not currently available for sale in Logos), then the course either needs to be updated to reflect this.
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The amount of effort required to (a) insure that the new edition text says the same thing as the text was chosen for rather than updated information (b) verify the correct location in the new text and (c ) code for cases where text has been omitted or split into pieces makes this a request that has been rejected as a immediate project several times.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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