Forum .LRN Q&A: FYI: New Paper about Open Source and eLearning
OpenUSS team has released an integration version of OpenUSS
and FSL. We also publish a new paper about eLearning and
Open Source.
Best regards,
Lofi Dewanto.
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Title:
Developing, Deploying, Using and Evaluating an Open Source
Learning Management System
Authors:
Heinz Lothar Grob, Frank Bensberg, Blasius Lofi Dewanto
Abstract:
Every modern institution involved in higher education needs a Learning
Management System (LMS) to handle learning and teaching processes.
It is necessary to offer e. g. electronic lecture materials
to the students for download via the internet. In some educational
contexts, it is also necessary to offer internet tutorials to be
able to give the students more personal support and accompany them
through the whole lecture period. Many organisations have introduced
commercial LMS and gained the experience that monolithic solutions do
not fulfil the dynamic requirements of complex educational institutions
and are very cost-intensive. Therefore, many universities face the
decision to stick to their commercial LMS or to switch to a potentially
more cost-effective and flexible solution, for instance by adopting
available Open Source LMS. Since we have made profound experience in
developing and operating an Open Source LMS, this contribution
enlightens the main characteristics of this alternative.
This paper describes a use case dealing with a full product lifecycle
(development, deployment, use and evaluation) of an Open Source LMS at
the University of Muenster (Germany). It identifies relevant instruments
and aspects of system design which software architects in practical
application domains should pay attention to.
Download:
http://www.campussource.de/aktuelles/docs/Bensberg_Paper_ITI04_1.pdf
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First Integrated Release of OpenUSS and FSL!
LMS: OpenUSS - Open University Support System
LCS: FSL - Freestyle Learning
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*******
OpenUSS
*******
OpenUSS is a J2EE- and GPL-based Learning Management System (LMS).
If you need to have an online eLearning platform to manage your
lectures, build communities, OpenUSS will be the best investment
for your institution!
Like
-> Apache for web server,
-> JOnAS and JBoss for EJB server,
-> Tomcat and Enhydra for servlet server,
OpenUSS is targeted to take over the market for Learning Management
Systems (LMS). At least we believe that, LMS are also general-purpose,
commoditized, horizontal infrastructure software.
-> OpenUSS for LMS!
***
FSL
***
FSL is a J2SE and GPL-based Learning Content System (LCS).
If you need to build and execute multimedia contents, FSL will be the
best choice!
Like
-> OpenOffice for office contents creation and execution.
FSL has the purpose to let you create and execute your
multimedia contents,
-> Macromedia Flash for animations,
-> FSL for LCS!
OpenUSS and FSL are infrastructure software for every organizations,
institutions, which have a need to build an eLearning platform
and communities:
- universities,
- schools,
- communities,
- training companies and
- companies in general, which offer direct training to their workers.
For an introduction please read the followÃng article:
"Learning Java Programming Language with Open Source Products and Technologies."
http://edu.netbeans.org/support/oss.html
Screenshots:
FSL:
http://www.javalobby.org/servlet/JiveServlet/download/61-12578-91798136-671/fsl.jpg
Have a lot of fun!
BTW. We are really happy if you want to join us! You can
just build your own components and we can integrate them
into OpenUSS and FSL.
Have a lot of fun!
Lofi Dewanto.
OpenUSS Homepage
http://openuss.sourceforge.net
FSL Homepage
http://www.freestyle-learning.de
OpenUSS and FSL at SourceForge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openuss
Reference Implementation
http://www.openuss.org
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OpenUSS Team and Workgroups for version 1.4 and FSL version 3.2
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Prof. Dr. Heinz Lothar Grob (http://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/aw)
Dr. Frank Bensberg
Dr. Jan vom Brocke
FSL architect, main development:
Mirko Wahn (mailto:awmiwa@wi.uni-muenster.de)
OpenUSS architect, main development:
Lofi Dewanto (mailto:dewanto@uni-muenster.de)
OpenUSS main development, components development,
spanish translation, skins development, documentation:
Arturo Morales (mailto:et@linux.ajusco.upn.mx)
Ricardo Beltran (mailto:pks@linux.ajusco.upn.mx)
OpenUSS new look&feel and CSS design, support, German
language resources:
Philipp Heltewig (mailto:openuss@heltewig.de)
Formula editor for OpenUSS - OpenFormula:
Prof. Dr. Herbert Kuchen (http://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/pi)
Jan Kirchhoff (mailto:jkirchhoff@gmx.de)
French translation:
Thierry.Nodenot (mailto:Thierry.Nodenot@iutbayonne.univ-pau.fr)
OpenUSS marketing and user support:
Alexander Ludi (mailto:openuss@yahoo.com)
EJOSA Template, architect, main development:
Lofi Dewanto (mailto:dewanto@uni-muenster.de)
Again, I would like to thank to all the people above, who have done a great job to help OpenUSS and FSL reach this maturity level by now!
Also many thanks to all others, who already support us!
OpenUSS Members: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openuss
Cologne, 4th. June 2004,
Thank you!
Lofi Dewanto.
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OpenUSS Version 1.4 and FSL 3.2
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*** For users ***
- New design! OpenUSS looks pretty nice now. We use CSS and all the
skins are now based on CSS as well. It is very easy to make your
own skin!
- OpenUSS and FSL use the same concept: "Multi-Perspectives Concept".
In OpenUSS you will find an enrollment of lecture with many
perspectives (lecture materials, discussion, mailinglist, etc.).
In FSL you will also find a learning unit with many perspectives
(intro, text study, etc.). All these perspectives are easy to extend
thanks to the component architecture of OpenUSS and FSL.
If you work with Eclipse, you will see that this concept is
just similar to Eclipse perspectives concept, which for example
shows many perspectives (code, resource, cvs, etc.) for each project.
- OpenFormula integration. The discussion forum supports formula
editor based on Java applet, to let you write your formulas easily.
- Profile for students and assistants are included.
- New perspective: FSL Installation/Download. Within this perspective
you can install FSL automatically from the network.
- From within FSL you can now directly register as an OpenUSS user.
- A lot of new functionalities!
*** For developers ***
- OpenUSS 1.4 is still based on EJOSA Template 1.3.5.
The use of EJOSA Template Revolutions 2.0 should be done
in the next version of OpenUSS 2.0 Revolutions.
More information about EJOSA
EJOSA = Enterprise Java Open Source Architecture
EJOSA = Enhydra and JOnAS Application
http://ejosa.sourceforge.net
New Release of EJOSA 2.0 Revolutions:
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=25957
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OpenUSS 2.0 To Do
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Next steps and coming features:
- Update to EJOSA Revolutions 2.0 with MDA (Model Driven Architecture).
- Integration of OpenFjord (http://openfjord.sourceforge.net).
- Integration of OpenCPMS (Controlling of LMS OpenUSS).
- Integration of OpenGroup (Groups building component).
- Integration of Seminars Allocation System - Savus
(http://savus.sourceforge.net).
- Integration of lportal EJB components as perspectives in OpenUSS
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/lportal).
If you want to help us, please do not hesitate contacting us at
our developer mailinglist at SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openuss
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