[Account Settings] Course Content Export Feature should be opt-in for teachers instead of opt-out

[caldwell]

In the April 1, 2017 production release, a new feature was introduced that allows students to export course content for offline viewing.

However, once an admin checks the box to "allow students to download course content and view offline," ALL courses have this enabled by default. 

Each teacher has to go to their course settings to disable this feature on a course by course basis.

I believe once this feature is enabled, it should be an "opt-in" feature for courses, rather than an "opt-out" feature.

Occasionally a teacher may unpublish review content so students no longer have access to it. However, the course content export feature allows students to save a "snapshot" of the course to their machine, and view what a teacher may have unpublished.

Courses may also have copyright material that should not be passed around outside of the LMS. Exporting the course content allows people to potentially pass around a folder with much of the course content, outside of the LMS.

It's easier to explain these issues to teachers and then let them make the decision to turn the feature on. Instead, we basically spring it on them and hope they remember to turn it off if necessary.

In my opinion, this feature is needed. It just needs to be "opt in" instead of "opt-out."

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @caldwell 

One clarification - students cannot view unpublished content in ePub downloads.

The guide states,

Depending on the course setup, the ePub may be organized by modules or content type (assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc.). When viewing by module, only items you have access to view in each module will be included in the ePub file. Locked modules list either their prerequisites or the unlock date, as well as the items that are contained within that module (though not the actual content of those items themselves). 

As for copyrighted materials, I agree that further dissemination by the student could potentially constitute a copyright violations, but just the act of downloading it for offline review is not, in itself ,a violation.

All that being said, I tend to prefer opt-in over opt-on in most cases.

Kelley

[victoria-maloy]

Hi  @caldwell ‌,

Thank you for creating this feature idea!  

The default behavior of this feature is keeping us from turning it on for our institution as well.  I can think of many instances when it would be helpful for an instructor to provide course content to students in a downloaded file, but it is important to let instructors turn on the feature as needed for their courses.

Vicky

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Yes, this is a great idea and something that will inhibitmy institution as well from turining this on.Making the feature opt-in instead of opt-out will put the emphasis on a positive reason to use the tool instead of the negative reasons not to let anyone use the tool. A student determined to learn will download pages and files one at a time, so why not make it easier for them.