Forum .LRN Q&A: Re: LAMS Integration with .LRN ready for testing!

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4: Re: LAMS Integration with .LRN ready for testing! (response to 1)
Posted by Nima Mazloumi on 12/02/05 08:10 AM
Ernie, this looks nice.

What is sad though is that LAMS and .LRN overlap quiet a lot. Both have many things in common:

- forums
- sequencing (lors, lams)
- tests (assessment, q&a)
- annotations (comments, notes)
- voting
- shared resources

Do you see any chance to migrate or merge these features or is this just another good example that reuse is not possible? Of course I know that beeing LMS independant increases the chances of being used in combination with moodle, sakai, .lrn and several other platforms. On the other hand it is a reason for confusion since you have notes but in two systems, you have forum posts but in two systems...which reduces the benefits of a portal. Where can I find information on the architecture of lams (webserver,database,language...).

One little thing on
http://lamsfoundation.org/integration/dotlrn/animations/Adding_a_new_sequence.htm
you talk there about a moodle class but use a dotlrn class :)

A more general problem is how we use names in .LRN. Most of them are misleading or saying nothing at all for students and professors: lors, lorsm, lams, assessment (which is evaluation), evaluation (which is gradebook), ... I know that from the community perspective it is nice to say that we have support for lams but from the users perspective maybe we must call it support for learning activities?

Greetings,
Nima

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7: Re: Re: LAMS Integration with .LRN ready for testing! (response to 4)
Posted by Ernie Ghiglione on 12/03/05 07:44 AM
Hi Nima,

What is sad though is that LAMS and .LRN overlap quiet a
lot.

Well, not quite.

Although LAMS does have similar activities/tools as .LRN have, LAMS activities look slightly different, but most important they behave a bit differently. Since LAMS is all about learning workflow, the LAMS activity have to have a sense of state (completed, attempted, reattempted, finished, locked, etc).

Nevertheless, you can use .LRN/OpenACS tools as part of LAMS sequences. For instance, have a look at this sequence that uses three .LRN and OpenACS tools. In the first activity you can see the classical .LRN forum, followed by a OpenACS Photo Album instance (on a different system) and another FAQ. (NB: I didn't have an instance of LORS running, but it would have been very similar).

You can easily author sequences with .LRN/OpenACS activities using the HTML Noticeboard in LAMS or the Share Resources activity. The good thing is that takes about 2 minutes.

So in principle, you can create learning sequences with .LRN/OpenACS tools. And even better, with both, .LRN & LAMS activity tools. Therefore, you can use LAMS to create the learning design with any activities you want and 'run it' with your students.

In addition, you can still monitor these .LRN activities in LAMS Monitor to see how your students are progressing thru the sequence (although the .LRN tools aren't not part of LAMS).

So I think it's not quite like LAMS and .LRN have the same tools, but how they can be combined to create meaningful and cool learning activities to put on a sequence.

you talk there about a moodle class but use a dotlrn class > :)

Yes. But the example of adding a new sequence from a scratch it basically meant to teach people how to use LAMS authoring to create activities, the fact that it creates a sequence that talks about Moodle is secondary. Nevertheless, point taken. We'll change this accordingly as soon as we have a chance.

say that we have support for lams but from the users
perspective maybe we must call it support for learning
activities?

I agree. It might be better just to call these learning sequences instead of LAMS Sequences as they are called now. The students shouldn't even know that they are using another system to run these activities.

Thanks,

Ernie