You can reinstall an experiment if the installed version has been removed or damaged,
or if an experiment requires updating. You can do this regardless of the experiment
state, and even while students are in the lab using the existing version of the
experiment. The following method is recommended when replacing an existing
experiment with an updated version, but should ideally be done at the end of a course
or semester:
- Open the existing experiment in LabAuthor and make necessary changes
- Select Edit > Experiment properties
- Increase the version number (ie. 2.0 to 2.1) but leave the experiment title
unchanged - Save the experiment
- Save experiment Installer and quit LabAuthor
- Navigate to the LabTutor Server Admin pages, click on the Experiments tab
and select Upload an Experiment - Select Browse... and locate the experiment installer and select Open
- Because an earlier version of this experiment exists in courses, LabTutor
detects this and displays an option to replace existing versions in course lists,
with this version. - Check this box and click Install
The updated experiment will now become Available in all student courses which possessed the original
version. Any students with In Progress or Submitted statuses of the
original experiment, will have these experiments retained intact in their course page,
however the updated version is also added to Available. Experiment changes are unable
to be simply merged with an existing experiment version as there is no way of LabTutor knowing to what extent the experiment has been modified, thus jeopardizing
the integrity of student data already obtained.
Because an updated version appears as a duplicate experiment, ensure that it is effectively communicated to students who had
started the original version that the Available version is in fact the most up-to-date.
This information is valid for LabTutor v4.0 and later.
