Creating a Form

Preliminary Steps

Before creating a form, follow these steps:

  1. Review existing global forms on your CLE instance. You may find a form that suits your purposes, in which case you do not need to create a new one.
  2. Plan the content carefully. Keep the following points mind:
    • Field names are displayed to the left of the text fields to which they apply.
    • Field names wrap somewhat unpredictably.
    • Long field names are difficult for participants to read.
  3. Consider creating the new form in a test CLE instance in order to view and change it as needed before including it in your production CLE instance.

Creating the Form

To create a form, access the Forms tool and follow these steps:

  1. If you do not see the Forms menu bar, click the Reset button.
  2. Click Add on the menu bar. Sakai displays the Add Form screen.
  3. In the Name box, enter a meaningful name for the form.

    Choose the name carefully: Be sure to choose a name that indicates the specific use of this form. After the form has been added to the site or published globally, its name will be visible in Resources to all site participants (or if published globally, to all participants of all sites in this CLE instance). Therefore, if the form is tailored to a particular matrix cell or wizard page, a generic name such as Reflection is misleading and makes the form seem appropriate for general use when, in fact, it is not. Use a generic name for a form only if the fields, field names, and instructions in it make the form suitable for use in a wide variety of situations.

  4. Click Select Schema File. Sakai displays the Select Item screen.
  5. Follow the instructions for selecting an item. After you click Finish, Sakai displays the Add Form screen again. The name of the file you selected is shown in the Schema File (.xsd) box.
  6. In the Instruction box, enter appropriate instructions for filling out the form. Use the icons and pulldown menus to format the text as appropriate.
  7. To add the form to this site, click Add Form. Sakai creates the form and redisplays the Forms home page. The new form has been added to the list in an unpublished state. Or, to return to the home page without adding this form, click Cancel.