Prior to beginning any alignment or tagging project, your assets need to be in the system. An asset is a single item of a particular kind of content known as the Asset Type. The first step in preparing for alignment, is to create Asset Types. You may also edit the Asset Types.
Opening the Manage Assets Page
To edit existing Asset Types or create a new one, from the Assets menu, select Manage Assets. The Manage Assets screen lists the Asset Types that have been entered into the account already, if there are any. The image below shows some examples of Asset Types, such as Activity and Assessment.
Note: You can also click the Asset Manager link next to an Asset Type to search for and view the assets in that Asset Type.
Editing an Asset Type
If you click the edit link to the right of an Asset Type, the Manage Asset Type page appears.
You can change the properties that describe the asset in the system. This includes what metadata is associated with the assets in that Asset Type, as well as how that metadata is used. There are also options for changing how you align that Asset Type. Refer to the descriptions in "Creating a New Asset Type" (below) for more details.
Click Update Asset Type when you are finished making changes.
Creating a New Asset Type
To create a new Asset Type:
- Click the New Asset Type link from the Manage Assets page. On the Manage AAED Asset Type page, you can name the Asset Type and define the asset properties.
- Follow the five steps involved in setting up a new Asset Type:
Step 1: Give your Asset Type a familiar name/description. This is the name that appears under Asset Type on the Manage Assets screen.
Step 2: Set up the Properties for your Asset Type. In this section, you can change the sequence, customize the description, and specify how the Asset Type will appear on the interface.
Seq - This determines the sequence of the properties as they will appear in various parts of the the application. A good practice is to have them in order, but number them as multiples of 10. This leaves numbers in between available if you want to stick a new asset type between others.
Label - This is the name of the property as it will appear throughout the application. It also helps to generate the API Attribute Name.
Interface - This captures whether the asset property will be Searchable, Enterable, Viewable, or Reportable; and/or is API Accessible. Searchable means that you can search in the system for this property when searching for assets. Enterable means that you can enter or change data in this property in various places. Viewable means that the property type will be displayed on pages (such as on the Align Assets By Concept screen). Reportable means that the property type can appear in reports. Note that Extended Text fields cannot be "Reportable" due to their size. API Accessible means this property can be manipulated by developers using an API call.
Enforce - If you align an asset using the version 2 prediction engine (v2): Choose Filter if you want this property strictly filtered on. Choose Preference if this property is only preferred when filtering. (Note that these options become available after you save the asset type.)
Additional Properties - You can also select properties such as Grade, Subject, Course, etc. To add a property, click the + sign next to the property as it is listed on the right side of the page. This specifies what fields you would like that type of asset to display when adding a new Asset Type into the system.
Descriptions of each property are provided on the page. You may find additional details on the property called Connect Connection in the article, Content Connection.
Each asset in the system will have a Unique ID, an identifier that describes it and it alone, within an Asset Type. You can rename the Unique ID field and the Title field to reflect the type of material (Objective ID, Lesson ID, etc). However, these fields will always appear in the API as client_id and title.
Step 3: If you will use version 2 of the prediction engine (v2) when aligning an asset: Determine which confirmation types to use in the alignment of this Asset Type. The typical set up is shown below using Key, Topic, Relevant, and Condone (in that order).
Step 4 (optional): If you use version 2 of the prediction engine (v2) when aligning an asset: Set up the alignment prediction algorithm of the new Asset Type. This section is used to determine how to calibrate the Asset Type to the standards. Do you want to align to standards that are exact matches, or align to those which loosely match the asset? There are a number of possibilities for setting up the alignment management for your assets.
Step 5: After all selections have been made, click Create New Asset Type.
There are a number of possibilities for defining your asset properties. If you have any questions, please contact Support.
