How dotLRN Supports Teaching and Learning at AUBG

Volin Karagiozov

The Department of Computer Science, AUBG

2Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

3Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

4Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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.

5Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Course Management Systems - Products

Source: http://www.edutools.info/Open Source/Free Commercial

6Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Comparing Products Source: http://www.edutools.info/

7Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

http://www.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=4

8Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

9Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Whatever solution we choose,the most important thing is:

Faculty commitment and motivation to use the e-learning system in their classes

10Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

.LRN is a course management system designed to support e-learning, by enhancing the class as an on-line, web-based community.

.LRN Solution

11Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

.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

12Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

13Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

.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

14Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

.LRN Features – Supporting Teaching

15Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

.LRN Features – Supporting Learning

16Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

17Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

18Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Forums:Discussions – questions/answersSubmitting additional information related to

the courseScheduling class presentations, reserving

time slots for projects News – announcements

Examples

19Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

20Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

21Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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.

22Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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/

23Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

24Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

dotLRN screenshots

25Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Manage Memberships

26Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Join a Group or Community

27Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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.

28Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Each course has a portal also.

29Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Each faculty member controls the user management (enrollment) for his courses and can customize its layout.

30Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

You can customize the layout for your course

31Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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.

32Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

33Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Forum Portlet Supports online discussionsMultiple forums per group and per systemPosts can be open, moderated or closed

34Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

35Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

36Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

37Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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

38Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Home Work Drop Box

39Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

Content of the Homework subfolder

40Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008

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.

41Fifth AMICAL Conference "Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria May 25-28, 2008