How dotLRN Supports Teaching and Learning at AUBG
Volin Karagiozov
The Department of Computer Science, AUBG
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dotLRN – Yet another Open Source CMS?
How to Choose a Course Management System Solution
Course Management Systems – Comparing Products
The .LRN Solution Supporting teaching Supporting learning
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How to Choose a CMS Solution?
Alternatives and considerations
Buy commercial system, e.g. Blackboard (WebCT) Expensive Quick Locked into developer’s features
Develop in-house system from scratch Cheaper Time consuming Customizable
Use Open Source solution, e.g. .LRN, Sakai, Moodle, ATutor Free Quick Customizable
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Advantages and Disadvantages of an Open Source Solution
There are no license fees associated with using the software
Economic benefit and cost savings to institution Individuals and organizations have freedom to
copy, modify, and use the software without restriction
Software may be tailored and customized to suit institution
Modifications made by any individual or organization are freely available at no cost.
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Course Management Systems - Products
Source: http://www.edutools.info/Open Source/Free Commercial
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Comparing Products Source: http://www.edutools.info/
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http://www.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=4
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True Cost of E-Learning: Overview, Feasibility Study, and Keys to Cost Control by Eric R. Parkshttp://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/6267344B-F4A0-449E-8B43-6DEECF80C71D/ 3090/ParksCostofELrng.pdf
E-learning budget = 1 X hardware 2 X software, and 6 X people and content.
The point: The bulk of your costs will be in employees and content development rather than software and hardware.
Plan on updating every year at least 25 percent to 35 percent of your content, and invest in technology that will help reduce those costs.
Invest in great design—not media. A common mistake is to think that great online learning requires streaming media, extensive animation, and special effects. The simple truth is that you can produce exceptional online learning with PowerPoint and a LCMS that supports it.
Interactivity, creative design, and engaging stories do not require rich media!
ASTD 2004 International Conference & Exposition, May 23-27, 2004 in Washington, DC, USA
American Society for Training and Development
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Whatever solution we choose,the most important thing is:
Faculty commitment and motivation to use the e-learning system in their classes
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.LRN is a course management system designed to support e-learning, by enhancing the class as an on-line, web-based community.
.LRN Solution
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.LRN modules are built on top of OpenACS (Open Architecture Community System), a toolkit for building scalable, community-oriented web applications.
OpenACS incorporates modern instructional standards such as - SCORM - technical standards to enable web-based learning systems to find, import, share, reuse, and export learning content;
- OKI (Open Knowledge Initiative) - open architecture for university learning management systems; and
- IMS (Global Learning Consortium) - best practice specifications in e-learning technology.
OpenACS runs on AOLserver and needs either Oracle or PostgreSQL
.LRN Architecture
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Originated as an MIT Computer Science (MEng) thesis project
.LRN version 2.3.1 – the latest stable version Used by numerous universities and institutions
around the world.
History of .LRN
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.LRN is a full-featured application for rapidly developing web-based learning communities. Out of the box, .LRN comes with the following applications
.LRN Features
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.LRN Features – Supporting Teaching
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.LRN Features – Supporting Learning
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In production use since spring 2005 Started with 20-30 classes (sections) Now ~60%+ of the offered classes (250+
sections each semester) About 30 communities – students clubs,
departmental portals Over 1100 users (students and faculty)
.LRN at AUBG
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Communication tools – Forums, News, email/bulk-mail, schedule/calendar
File storage – Lecture Notes, Handouts, Assignments, Exams,
Evaluation – Assignments, Grade Book On-line submission – papers, take-home tests,
Homework drop box Assessment, surveys
.LRN Components mostly used
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Forums:Discussions – questions/answersSubmitting additional information related to
the courseScheduling class presentations, reserving
time slots for projects News – announcements
Examples
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Surveys:Pre-course questionnairePlanning course offering for the next semesterQuick surveys – SG, dotLRN usage and user
satisfaction, planning/creating dotLRN courses – faculty preferences
Short quizzesStudent feedback about courses during the
semester
Examples
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Surveys:Pre-course questionnairePlanning course offering for the next semesterQuick surveys – SG, dotLRN usage and user
satisfaction, planning/creating dotLRN courses – faculty preferences
Short quizzesStudent feedback about courses during the
semester
Examples
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Ideas about using dotLRN
Delivering/Managing the courses Creating Communities for: R&D projects Faculty and student publications Diploma thesis repository Faculty Assembly University committees University events and Distinguish Lectures Student Government – meetings, discussions Surveys and elections University clubs Departmental meetings and discussions etc.
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References:
.LRN http://dotlrn.org/ EduTools http://www.edutools.info/ Open Source Initiative (OSI)
http://www.opensource.org/ CETIS http://www.cetis.ac.uk/ IMS Global Learning
Consortium, Inc. http://www.imsproject.org/ Advanced Distributed Learning http://www.adlnet.org/ ARIADNE http://www.ariadne-eu.org/ American Society for Training
and Development http://www.astd.org/astd AUBG official .LRN site http://dotlrn.aubg.bg/
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Useful Readings:
True Cost of E-Learning: Overview, Feasibility Study, and Keys to Cost Control by Eric R. Parkshttp://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/6267344B-F4A0-449E-8B43-6DEECF80C71D/ 3090/ParksCostofELrng.pdf
How Much Does eLearning Cost, by Laurie Bassi http://linezine.com/2.1/features/lbhmec.htm
What executives must know about e-learning, by Saul Carliner http://www.potomactechjournal.com/displayarticledetail.asp?art_id=55560
Facing resistance to change: the dark side of your e-learning project, by Brooke Broadbent – http://www.e-learninghub.com/articles/dark-side.html
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dotLRN screenshots
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Manage Memberships
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Join a Group or Community
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Each user of .LRN has a personal portal, which shows a summary of all the information in all of the courses currently followed or taught.
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Each course has a portal also.
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Each faculty member controls the user management (enrollment) for his courses and can customize its layout.
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You can customize the layout for your course
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You are ready to upload your teaching materials
Upload a Syllabus …
or Lecture Notes, Assignments, Handouts, etc.You can use virtually any format:Ms Word, PPT, PDF,Graphics formats, sound, Movies, etc.
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News Portlet
Displays Group AnnouncementsThe announcements stay active for the period specified by the group announcement administrator and cannot be removed or made invisible by anyone else
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Forum Portlet Supports online discussionsMultiple forums per group and per systemPosts can be open, moderated or closed
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Forum Portlet Support online discussions Multiple forums per group and per system Posts can be open, moderated or closed Reply posts can be emailed by user All group forums can be easily accessed through the personal space Users can view all posts sorted by user
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Survey Portlet Used to collect data
from users Survey CVS file that
stores collected data can be exported to Microsoft Excel
Can be archived for later use
Flexible ways to collect data
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Calendar Portlet Instructors can post announcements and events Interconnected within portals Easy to add notifications Repeating notifications Compatible with Microsoft Outlook, can be synchronized Attachments to events can include assigned class reading Subgroups have their own calendars Personal calendars are used solely by the user
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Home Work Drop Box
Portlet that allows students to upload assignments Teachers can comment on home works under the
homework drop box Commented home works will be accessible only to the
homework owner
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Home Work Drop Box
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Content of the Homework subfolder
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Curriculum Portlet
The Curriculum provides a course navigation and user tracking service that offers guidance through curriculums created by teachers. The traversal through the online course is manually controlled by the student herself, but she is presented with a suggested study path and the tracking of visited learning resources is fully automatic.
Your personal learning progress will be tracked; each link you visit gets checked. When you have visited all learning resources the curriculum itself gets checked; you have completed the course.
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