Open-Source in Education News

From a recent Slashdot entry: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/06/2139207 openeducation writes "I have been researching open source solutions for K-12 education pretty heavily for the past year and have been disappointed to find no real alternatives to the large administrative applications like student information systems, data warehouse, ERP, etc. But recently, I ran across Open Solutions for Education. This group appears to be making a serious effort at creating a stack of open source applications that are alternatives to the large and costly commercial packages. Centre, an open source student information system that has been around for a while, is part of the solution stack. They have a data warehouse and are proposing an open source SIF alternative and an assessment solution. While the proof is in the pudding, these guys have working demos and they look pretty good for a first run. K-12 education is in dire financial straits and solutions like these could help with lower TCO. Plus, education is a collaborative industry already, which makes it a good fit for open source." Click here to find out more!

*ATutor 1.5.4 Released* ATutor 1.5.4 has now been released. Users are encouraged to upgrade their systems to take advantage of the many new features available in this release. Some of these features include: additional test question types, as well as QTI 2.1 test question exporting; batch management of student accounts and a new administrator enrolment manager; and a new DIV based theme (blumin), among many other things. *Downloads* http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/downloads.php *ATutor 1.5.4 Demo* http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/demo.php *New this ATutor Release* ATutor 1.5.4 includes many new features, some of which were made possible by contributions from the following organizations: Royal Danish Defense College Distance Education Centre Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto Special Needs Opportunity Windows (SNOW) Fraser Health Authority Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine *New Test Question Types*: Multiple answer, ordering, matching, and a first for any LMS, Drag-and-Drop matching question. (Sponsored by the Royal Danish Defense College Distance Education Centre) *QTI 2.1 Test Question Export*: Test questions can be exported according to the QTI 2.1 specification. This feature is primarily experimental until other systems support the new standard. *Please suggest a QTI 2.1 compliant test authoring tool if you know of one*. The Import tools will be created when we find one. (Sponsored by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto) *Guest Tests*: If enabled, course guests can now take practice tests. (Sponsored by the Fraser Health Authority) *Guest Access*: Instructors can now give guest access to their private or protected courses via a secret URL. (Sponsored by the Fraser Health Authority) *Forum Post Editing*: Students can now edit their own posts within a specified number of minutes, to correct spelling mistakes etc. (Sponsored by the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine) *Improved User Administration*: Administrators can now batch manage user accounts, greatly improving management of large ATutor installations. (Sponsored by the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine) *Saved Sent Messages*: Sent messages are now saved in the sender's Sent Messages area. Messages can now be exported for archiving. (Sponsored by the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine) *Profile Pictures*: Users can now upload a picture to display with their profile and with forum posts. (Sponsored by the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine) *Administrator Enrollment Manager*: Course enrolment can now be managed by administrators. (Sponsored by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto) *DIV Based Themes*: A new DIV based theme is now available that removes most tables previously used to layout the ATutor interface. Provides additional accessibility for people with disabilities. (Sponsored by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto) *Inherited Release Dates*: All sub pages in a content unit are now automatically set to the same release date as the parent page, rather than having to set them all manually. (Sponsored by the Special Needs Opportunity Windows: SNOW) A complete list of changes can be found through the ATutor Change Log http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/changelog.php

New Features in ATutor 1.5.3

Groups : Assign students to groups, with group specific forums, file storage, blogs, links, and tests (with more group tools to come).

File Storage : Share files and collaborate on document authoring activities. Upload and download files within custom workspaces, and keep a record of development with file revision tracking.

Assignment Drop-Box : Used in combination with the File Storage utility, students can submit assignment files either individually or as a group.

Encrypted Login : If supported by the browser, passwords will be encrypted upon login for added security.

Password Retrieval : Retrieving a lost password no longer sends the password by email, but instead sends a secure link which is then used for resetting the password.

Course Splash Page : Instructors can create a custom splash screen for each of their courses.

Updated Themes : The default themes have been updated and now include a third theme (blumin) ideal for embedding ATutor in other content management systems.

Test Question Reordering : Test questions can now be arranged in any order.

Group Blogs : Groups can now maintain their own blog, as well as view other groups' blogs. Both private and public blog postings are possible.

Administrator Return Link : Administrators can now easily jump between the administrator tools and courses without having to re-login each time.

Extended Content Importing : ATutor now preserves scripting and stylesheet information contained in the head of imported content pages and content packages, preserving display and functionality contained there. Import eXe content with all its styles and scripted utilities intact.

Course Email Upgrade : Send bulk email to users with different course roles, or send email to group members.

Reading List : Gather a detailed list of course resources, and assemble them into a Reading List.

Course Release Date : Set the date at which a course becomes available to students.

Translatable Handbook : The ATutor Handbook can now be translated and browsed in multiple languages.

Language Manager Search : It is now easier to find and edit existing language by searching for words or phrases.

Administrator User Search : Administrators can now easily search through student accounts to find a particular student, or a range of students.

Scheduling (Cron) Utility : Setup scripts to run automatically at specified intervals. Useful for sending auto reminders, sending emails stored in the mail queue, or running system backup scripts for example.

Public Level Modules : Modules can now add sections to the public and My Start Page areas.

Full List of ATutor Features http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/index.php

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New Modules

Marratech :
Marratech is a collaborative Web conferencing environment. It includes real-time video with voice, plus an interactive whiteboard. With the free version of Marratech Manager up to five people can meet, talk, see each other, share documents or pictures, and make notes. See the Marratech web site ( http://marratech.com ) to find licensing details for groups larger than 5 people.

Elluminate :
Elluminate is a provider of live Web conferencing and eLearning solutions. Elluminate adds VoIP communications over any connection speed, offers cross-platform support, and includes advanced yet easy-to-use moderator tools for managing live online meetings. See the Elluminate web site ( http://elluminate.com ) for licensing details.

Userplane WebChat
This module links the Userplane Web Chat into an ATutor installation. Users can communicate with others via text chat, or by audio and/or video conferencing. This module includes a sidemenu box for quick access to Userplane from anywhere within a course, or it can be made available as a student tool. Visit the Userplane Web site ( http://www.userplane.com ) to register an account for your ATutor installation, or use the ATutor community account listed with the module.

Student Tools :
The Student Tools module is a simple module that allows instructors to move the Student Tool icons off the course home page, and on to their own Student Tools page.


ATutor Modules Site
http://atutor.ca/atutor/modules.php

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ATutor 1.5.3 Translation

Translation of ATutor 1.5.3 is now underway. With the addition of a variety of new tools, there are about 230 new words and phrases to be translated for this release. Also in this release, the ATutor Handbook can be translated, so multiple versions of the Handbook can be maintained with each ATutor installation. Translators are encouraged to continue translating ATutor 1.5.3 now.

Those who had previously completed a translation for the early release of ATutor 1.5.3, should review the language once more and translate the few adjustments that were made.

For further details see the Translator Documentation, and login to MyATutor to find the translation tools.

*Things you Should Know Before Translating*
http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/docs/translate.php

*MyATutor Login*
http://www.atutor.ca/my/sign_in.php

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Major Contributors to this Version

Special thanks goes to the following organizations for their contributions to this version of ATutor:
Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NCT, http://www.telemed.no/)
Fraser Health Authority (FHA, http://www.fraserhealth.ca/)

Download eXe @ exelearning.org

A summary of the new eXe features is available in the latest newsletter

A little fun with social software - If you've downloaded or used eXe, mark your patch on our Frappr Map

On a more serious note, we're taking stock of the features eXe users would like to see in the future. Please feel free to add your requirements to the list on the project wiki (A successful bid for further further from the Tertiary Education Commission looks very promising - The idea is to convert the wish list on the wiki into an online priority survey so that the international community can direct how the eXe development team spend their time ).

We've been a little thin on the ground this month with two of our developers attending the Open Source for Education in Europe conference in Heerlen. Nonetheless we've still made reasonable progress :

• a new Flash Video idevice that makes it easy for authors to include video snippets in their eXe packages;
• the ability to include a hide/show feedback button in the iDevice editor;
• our first Mac OS build for eXe - it's still experimental, so expect a few teething problems;
• new localisations for Dutch and Icelandic; and
• an Ubuntu (linux for human beings) build for eXe
;
• the ability to register for future releases of eXe on eXeLearning.org from the help menu in the package

We welcome feedback from the community, so if you have a few minutes please complete the survey form. We need your feedback and ideas to improve on the technology.

...web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup...

For folk who are partial to using Ubuntu, you can try our Ubuntu build. You will need to change your sources list by adding: "deb ftp://ftp.eduforge.org/pub/exe/ubuntu current main" and then executing the "apt-get update" and "apt-get install python2.4-exe" from the terminal window.

Feel free to post your comments and ideas on the Eduforge forums for the eXe project.

This release has seen the team overcome some significant technical difficulties. Of note in this release are the removal of the Firefox menu bar, the replacement of FCK editor with TinyMCE which includes increased WYSIWYG functionality, the addition of an experimental Cloze iDevice as well as the External Web Site iDevice and an experimental SCORM Quiz iDevice, the ability to change languages has been added (English, German, Chinese, Greek, Spanish are currently available, and the inclusion of a new style. Along with a range of bug fixes this is the strongest release we've had yet and brings some renewed vigour to the project. Expect significant improvements and additions in the following months.

Download eXe @ : http://exelearning.org/

Two of the developers of eXe, Brent Simpson and David Moore, will be attending the Open Source for Education in Europe 2005 and presenting a workshop entitled, "Using eXe for creating eLearning content". Please drop by if you're interested in learning more about the project.

If you are using eXe let us know where you are by visiting our Frappr map: http://www.frappr.com/exe

The SIGOSSEE seminar in Sweden last week was brilliant.

Entitled Content for education in Europe: processes, platforms and standards, the seminar was organised by Peter Becker form the Interactive Institute and held at the impressive water side headquarters of the Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions who sponsored the event.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss open content, platforms and standards for Education in order to formulate a set of focus points for a continued national and European development work.

Technorati Tags: Open content, Open source

The eLearning XHTML editor project has just released version 0.8 to coincide with Software Freedom Day. You can download the latest version from the eXe project web site.

The eXe project is developing an off-line authoring environment to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. You can export content as self-contained web sites or as IMS/SCORM content packages for delivery in your preferred learning management system.

Release 0.8 of the eXe software includes the following improvements:

• a new default stylesheet;
• an improved iDevice editor that enables you to create your own iDevices and assign icons for individual iDevices;
• an image gallery iDevice which you can use to create a gallery of thumbnails and captions. When published users can view the full-size image;
• a Flash iDevice that enables users to embed flash object in their e-content, however we still have some work to improve the usability of this iDevice so please let us know about our suggested improvements.

...web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup...

You can download the eXe project brochure, which summarises the project. There are currently versions in English, Spanish, French and Chinese. In the near future we hope to have brochures in Greek, Dutch, Romanian and Vietnamese with thanks to the eXe community. If you are able to assist with the translation of the brochure in other languages, please contact the project lead: w.mackintosh "at" auckland.ac.nz.

The eXe is still a young project and while there may still be a few bugs and much room for improvement, we welcome your feedback. Over the next 6 months we are working towards the production release (Version 1.0) and we are inviting feedback from the community to improve the software.

So feel free to post your comments and ideas on the Eduforge forums for the eXe project.

Some other links:

• eXe on del.icio.us
• eXe screenshots
• Software Freedom Day

Eduforge was founded in early 2004 as part of the New Zealand Open Source Virtual Learning Environment (NZOSVLE) project (https://eduforge.org/projects/nzvle/). The NZOSVLE is a major collaborative education project funded by the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission, an arm of the NZ Government. The project’s goals are to adopt and contribute to open source solutions for education. The consortium is composed of polytechnics, universities, and a private training organisations. Part of the vision for Eduforge is to create an environment that is robust enough to support large scale collaborative software development, but friendly enough to be used by non-programmers who want to collaborate on a range of projects. Projects may include learning materials design, application testing, and research as well as contributing documentation, tutorials, and help files to software development projects. In addition to reducing the economic and organisational barriers associated with large scale distributed collaboration, Eduforge is envisioned to reduce the technology usability barrier often confronted by non-ICT professionals. We've recently added Planet Eduforge, a blog aggregator at http://planet.eduforge.org, and integrated a fully featured blogging tool. Eduforge is developed using FOSS - GForge, Serendipity, and PHPWiki. While this started with somewhat of a NZ flavour due to the projects on it, the intent has always been a global shared resource. Recently we shifted the hosting to the US to improve latency for many of the interantional users. We would very much welcome participation - either in using the resources or in helping us develop the reources available on Eduforge. Or simply feedback, we're committed to continuous improvements. regards Richard Wyles