lms evaluation by mndg - Цахим Мэдлэг Кампус evaluation by mnd… · mndg learning...

MnDG eLearning Centre LMS Evaluation

By: Mongolia Development Gateway

Contact Person:

Ms. Tsetseg-Ulzii Yadamsuren Executive Director

POB-349, Ulaanbaatar 210646-A, Mongolia Tel/Fax: (+976-11) 319367, Mobile: (+976) 9909-1156

Jan 16, 2007 Ulaanbaatar

MnDG Learning Management System Project Outline

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 4

1.1 MONGOLIA DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY ..................................................................................................... 4

1.2 PROJECT OUTLINE ..................................................................................................................................... 4

2 STATEMENT OF GOALS & OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................... 5

3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 5

3.1 IDENTIFIED CANDIDATES ........................................................................................................................... 5

3.2 DEVELOPED EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR LMS AND CMS ........................................................................ 6

3.2.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................... 6

3.2.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................... 7

3.2.3 CMS ....................................................................................................................................... 7

3.3 REVIEW PROCESS ...................................................................................................................................... 8

4 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................................ 9

4.1 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................................. 9

4.1.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................... 9

4.1.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 10

4.1.3 CMS ..................................................................................................................................... 11

5 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 14

5.1 LMS........................................................................................................................................................ 14

5.2 CMS ....................................................................................................................................................... 16

5.2.1 LMS as a CMS ..................................................................................................................... 16

5.2.2 CMS as a LMS ..................................................................................................................... 17

6 NEXT STEPS........................................................................................................................................ 17

6.1 MNDG ELEARNING CENTRE ................................................................................................................... 17

6.2 MNDG PORTAL....................................................................................................................................... 18

7 ANNEX 1 : EXTENDED REVIEW - LMS ........................................................................................ 19

7.1 MOODLE ................................................................................................................................................. 19

7.1.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................. 19

7.1.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 23

7.2 KEWL .................................................................................................................................................... 24

7.2.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................. 24

7.2.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 28

7.3 SAKAI.................................................................................................................................................... 29

7.3.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................. 29

7.3.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 32

7.4 A-TUTOR ................................................................................................................................................ 32

7.4.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................. 33

7.4.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 36


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7.5 OLAT ..................................................................................................................................................... 38

7.5.1 Critical .................................................................................................................................. 38

7.5.2 Desired ................................................................................................................................. 42

8 ANNEX 2 : EXTENDED REVIEW - CMS ........................................................................................ 43

8.1 DRUPAL .................................................................................................................................................. 43

8.1.1 Content Management System Criteria ................................................................................ 43

8.2 JOOMLA / MAMBO ................................................................................................................................... 44


8.3 TYPO3 ..................................................................................................................................................... 45


9 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................................... 47

10 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 47

MnDG assessment team: o Tsetseg-Ulzii Yadamsuren, Executive Director, [email protected] o Zolzaya Odkhuu, Developer, [email protected] o Luke Miller, Business Development Manager, [email protected]


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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Mongolia Development Gateway

The MnDG is a non-profit organization established in 2002 to harness the use of ICT in sustainable development and poverty reduction activities and to strengthen partnerships for the development of Mongolia. The MnDG closely cooperates with the Development Gateway Foundation and other country gateways. The MnDG has been running the local ThinkQuest partner for three years in Mongolia, while the program has been administered by a local partner since 1990. The main goals of the MnDG:

• To provide development and ICT information of Mongolia • Raise ICT capacity of Individuals and organisations in Mongolia. • To promote and support ICT and e-Development initiatives in Mongolia. • Provide professional ICT and development consulting services.

The primary role of the MnDG would be as the local implementing organisation. The MnDG wishes to enhance capacity building opportunities. For this reason MnDG is running the MnDG portal, which provides a variety of information about development in Mongolia. This information is collected in a collaborative environment, allowing the creation of one the largest free information sources about development in Mongolia. To broaden the service of MnDG, MnDG has initiated the MnDG eLearning Centre, in order to create the first eLearning centre in Mongolia, ensuring all have access to expand their knowledge in the Mongolian language.

1.2 Project Outline

The Learning Management System project is to assess which available software would be best for implementation for the MnDG eLearning Centre. The LMS will be the core platform that will provide eLearning for the MnDG. The LMS will be scalable, easy to use for learners, allow for easy management and administration, provide multiple easy communication mechanism and most importantly make available new learning outcomes for users. The LMS investigation will have two over-arching evaluation criteria. While the LMS must satisfy the eLearning requirements of the MnDG, it must also be assessed in terms of ability to meet the requirements of the MnDG existing portal. The MnDG is aiming to migrate its existing PHPnuke portal to new software in 2007, and as such wishes to investigate the possibility of having the eLearning and portal to work from a single software system. The MnDG portal is a de-centralised content management system, which allows users to submit news articles, resources and news. This is then reviewed by MnDG staff; if appropriate the data is published on the MnDG portal. The MnDG additionally has a number of non-core modules which are elements of the MnDG portal resource, such as Links,


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Interviews, Members’ Area, Downloads, Forums, Surveys, Top 10 and others. A complete list of current MnDG portal functionalities and requirements has been created. From the criteria for the LMS and Portal, a variation of systems will be assessed. The output of the assessment will be three elements; the strongest LMS, the strongest portal software and if there an available system which can adequately satisfy both systems. This will lead to a decision on which software is to be implemented for the LMS and the portal.

2 STATEMENT OF GOALS & OBJECTIVES This project aims to identify an appropriate Learning Management System to be used for the MnDG eLearning Centre. Additionally as the migration of the MnDG portal is imminent, there is an additional objective to identify if the MnDG portal can be run on the same system as the LMS. This means there will be a review of other common portal CMS’s, which may be able to satisfy the needs of both systems. To achieve this goal a number of objectives must be completed:

• Identification of candidates to be reviewed • Identification of system criteria • Identification of evaluation methodology • MnDG to decide on system/s to be used based input from reviews

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Identified candidates

The list of identified candidates were compiled from suggestions from eL partners and MnDG staff, based on their experience researching and working with LMS and CMS in the past.

# System Version Resource Learning Management Systems 1 Moodle 1.7.0

www.moodle.org

2 KEWL.NextGen 1.4.0 kngforge.uwc.ac.za 3 SAKAI 2.3.0

www.sakaiproject.org

4 A-Tutor 1.5.3.3

www.atutor.ca

5 OLAT 5.0.3

www.olat.org

Content Management Systems 6 Joomla / Mambo 1.0.12

www.joomla.org

7 Drupal 4.7.5

www.drupal.org

8 Typo3 4.0.4

www.typo3.org


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3.2 Developed Evaluation Criteria for LMS and CMS

The criteria were decided upon by using InWEnt benchmarking criteria as a basis, and were further supplemented by criteria developed by EduTools, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications and “Evaluation of Open Source LMSs-2005”, Edutech, Swiss Virtual Campus programme. For full references please refer to references on the last page of this document.

3.2.1 Critical

These criteria are fundamental to the use of the platform for the MnDG eLearning Centre. The list contains elements and functionality that have been identified for the MnDG the successfully operate an eLearning centre. Furthermore this is a relative assessment, so the marks are systems are measured against each other. All elements are of equal value that is the ordering has not impact on the importance.

Critical

No. Criteria and description

1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English, Mongolian).

2 Existence of tools for learner-learner communication and learner-tutor communication.

3 Use of the LMS is possible with the following browsers: MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla / Firefox, Safari for Macintosh, or with the freely available extension to one of these products.

4 New course environments can be created easily, using templates.

5 Externally produced web content (e.g., HTML based web based courses, PDF documents, doc, flash, audio, xls, eXeLearning) which does not require server-side processing can be uploaded, saved and run.

6 Access rights corresponding to the roles participant, tutor, course manager, and author can be granted for each environment separately and their access to material.

7 The system checks files when uploading by a virus scanner

8 Passwords are handled safely.

Unencrypted passwords are not stored, not recorded in log files, not sent. Encrypted communication is available. Users are forced to change their first password, and secure minimum requirements on passwords are obeyed.

9 Learning progress indicators: - viewed messages are marked read, - notification of new messages and of new content items is existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

10 The user interface is self-explanatory, no user training required.

A manual or tutorial should be provided – but unnecessary, the necessary usage skills should conform with widespread internet and office tools.

11 The LMS is fully SCORM 2004 compliant, including Import, Creation and Export

12 Complete course can be downloaded for offline use


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Critical


13 Communication tools are manageable by course by a tutor.

3.2.2 Desired

These elements are desired however not mandatory, thus would enhance the All elements are of equal value, that is the ordering has not impact on the importance.

Desired


14 Evaluations can be performed.

The criterion includes a template-based questionnaire tool, anonymous recording of evaluation results, an export interface for the evaluation results

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content

16 Staged authoring process

17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses.

18 The course manager can upload a set of new user data in “batch mode” – through import of a user data file.

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators.

20 The course manager can archive an environment, converting the online-usable environment into an offline-usable resource.

21 A tool for generating reports and statistics on user activity on the platform as a whole and each environment is available.

3.2.3 CMS

Content Management System


22 Online transactions - Shopping cart - Online transactions interface - Multilingual - Ask an expert

23 Additional applications: - Job/volunteer marketplace - SMS interface

24 Site management - Search - Multi-lingual - Automated Site map - User and Content Statistics - Ad rotation - Item tagging, allowing cross advertising of content - Management of sub-portals - Automated site backup - Search engine optimization functionality - Enable creation of new document/content databases.


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25 Editorial management process flow - Topics / sections - Article/news/document submission

3.3 Review process

Steps - High level: A quick high-level review must be undertaken for each package, ensuring all

major areas of criteria are covered by the software. This process is brief and does not go into detail regarding what the exact functionality in fact is, it is based on identifying existence or an element, without investigating how it is implemented. If a software system has insufficient existent elements after the high level investigation the next step two steps are not undertaken during the review.

- Literature review: A review of existing assessment reports that have been undertaken on the candidate software.

- In-depth: An in-depth review is then undertaken for those candidates which most closely reflect the required criteria

Score for each sections - Critical - Desired - Additional CMS Score Scale: Lickert - 0 = Non- existent - 1 = Basic - 2 = Basic implementation with some additional features - 3 = Standard functionality - 4 = Functionality well developed and completed - 5 ==Sophisticated implementation, with advanced functionality Short Description - When giving score, where more unique functionality is available. - From in-depth results, the results must be compared, leading to final evaluation of which

software is most appropriate.

4 RESULTS

4.1 Analysis

4.1.1 Critical

Critical


Moo

dle

KE

WL

SAK

AI

A-T

utor

OL

AT

Joom

la

Dru

pal

Typ

o3

1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English). 5 1 4 4 4 - - -


5 5 5 4 4 - - -


5 2 4 5 4 - - -

4 New course environments can be created easily, using templates. 4 3 5 4 5 - - -


4 4 3 4 2 - - -


4 2 5 3 5 - - -

7 The system checks files when uploading by a virus scanner 3 0 0 0 0 - - -



2 2 4 4 4 - - -


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Critical


Moo

dle

KE

WL

SAK

AI

A-T

utor

OL

AT

Joom

la

Dru

pal

Typ

o3

9 Learning progress indicators: - viewed messages are marked read, - notification of new messages and of new content items is existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

5 1 1 4 4 - - -



4 3 5 4 4 - - -


4 3 3 4 3 - - -

12 Complete course can be downloaded for offline use 4 5 3 5 4 - - -

13 Communication tools are manageable by course by a tutor. 4 5 4 5 5 - - -

TOTAL 53 36 46 50 48 - - -

Percentage in maximum score (13*5=65) 82% 55% 71% 77% 74%

For more details please refer to section 7 ANNEX 1 : Extended review – LMS.

4.1.2 Desired

Desired


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Moo

dle

KE

WL

SAK

AI

A-T

utor

OL

AT

Joom

la

Dru

pal

Typ

o3



3 3 3 4 3 - - -

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 4 5 3 4 4 - - -

16 Staged authoring process 0 1 0 0 1 - - -

17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 4 4 5 4 3 - - -


4 4 4 4 4 - - -

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 3 4 3 3 3 - - -


3 5 4 4 3 - - -


3 1 1 4 3 - - -

TOTAL 24 27 23 27 24 - - -

Percentage in maximum score (8*5=40) 60% 68% 58% 68% 60% For more details please refer to section 7 ANNEX 1 : Extended review – LMS.

4.1.3 CMS



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Moo

dle

KE

WL

SAK

AI

A-T

utor

OL

AT

Joom

la

Dru

pal

Typ

o3

22 Online transactions - Shopping cart - Online transactions interface - Multilingual - Ask an expert

- - - - - 4 4 4


- - - - - 5 5 3


- - - - - 5 5 4


- - - - - 5 5 4

26 MnDG staff exposure to application

4 1 0

TOTAL

- - - - - 23 20 15


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For more details please refer to section 8 ANNEX 2 : Extended review – CMS.

5 CONCLUSION

5.1 LMS

Analysis of LMSs against selected indicators

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

LMSs

% in

max

imum

sco

re

Critical

Desired

Total

Critical 82% 55% 71% 77% 74%

Desired 60% 68% 58% 68% 60%

Total 73% 60% 66% 73% 69%

Moodle KEWL SAKAI A Tutor OLAT

From the above diagram it can be viewed Moodle and ATutor have the strongest overall results. These two candidate systems could both closely meet the needs of the MnDG eLearning centre, however Moodle had stronger response on the Critical criteria. On this basis Moodle has come out as the strongest candidate system. During the investigation of all candidate systems, although there was set criteria, additional system elements were reviewed. From the literature reviews and other research it became clear which systems we more usable and an expansive user community. The accessibility and volume of user communities is vital in the maintenance and usage of an open source system, this once again showed Moodle as a very strong candidate, some packages has extensive however very closed communities, which were focused on large institutions using the software, rather than smaller organisations with more limited resources. During the review the additional observations were noted, these are general observations that were noted by the reviews regarding the systems that were not directly related to specific criteria. It should be clear that different topics are noted and not all systems have additional observations. Moodle

– Moodle has a pleasant interface, making it easy to understand and get started quickly. One can set up a simple course (content pages, forum, quizzes) relatively quickly, yet Moodle offers other more advanced activities as well (such as Wiki, Assignments, Glossary, Survey, Lesson, etc.). Even with these additional options, the interface remains clean, uncluttered and pleasant to use. The Moodle user community is quite active, as seen in the forums on moodle.org.

– Weaknesses


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– The documentation (Teacher's Manual) gets you started with simple features quickly, but some more advanced features are not quite as well documented and may require a search at moodle.org forums to find information.

KEWL

– Apart from a web platform, the application also has offline authoring, and active dynamic mirroring (ADM) capabilities to allow improved wide-area collaboration activities. Another planned area for KEWL.NextGen is the integration of mobile technology such as SMS and MMS facilities.

ATutor

– Strengths: Good use of glossary, file storage and forums. Simple and effective user interface with useful error messaging.

– Weaknesses: The two different types of content can sometimes make course creation more difficult. Also, course elements cannot be bookmarked. For developers, there is no possibility to easily extend ATutor's functionalities. Only ATutor's internal database can be used for authentication.

– Developers support: ATutor provides an online handbook for administrators, instructors and developers. The developers forum is not very active, since development is done by a small group of people (most developer communications happens outside the forums).

OLAT

– Strengths o Intuitive to use for course authors and students o Any user can create ad-hoc working groups with common file storage,

discussion forum, chat, mail and announcement tools. o Completely frame-free design. o The look-and-feel is CSS controlled, and widely customizable. o Clean and well documented technical architecture. o Professional services are available from the company good solutions GmbH.

– Weaknesses o No tool to search for keywords in course content and discussion forums o Browser bookmarks and browser back button don't work. o Rather small contributing community and just a handful of productive

installations. o Lack of API's or plugin interfaces. To extend the system the original source

code has to be modified. While reviewing the system another important criteria was the cost running such a system would incur, which is commonly called Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

o Licence: All software package are licensed under the GNU GPL, thus are free to download and install. The difference arises with the amount of support available and the costs of that support. KEWL for instance has commercial support arrangements which have a relatively high cost, while having a smaller user community available to provide help with issues. Sakai once again has a free licence however to be a part of the core user community costs $US10,000 per annum, which allows members to direct where the project will go. Moodle, ATutor and OLAT, came out as the front runners in terms of costs licence and support arrangements.


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o Staff: staff skills required for running Moodle and ATutor is high, however more our staff skills and those of the software development pool in Mongolia are aligned with such systems. Both SAKAI and KEWL have more complex architectures and require a high level of understanding to maintain the complex system. The out come of this is that staffing costs would be higher for such systems.

o Hardware: Again Moodle and ATutor, do not have large amounts of hardware requirements, they are systems that can be developed on fairly basic technology and if the need arises be migrated to more powerful systems.

o Maintenance costs: as mention above Moodle in particular has a particularly active user community, from this basis it will allow for lower maintenance cost.

Thus from the above factors it has been decided that Moodle will be used for the MnDG eLearning centre.

5.2 CMS

Through this investigation it has become clear that there are many OS LMS and CMS available, however there is none that a comprehensive in both areas. Where there is cross over it is where a CMS provides some functionality that an LMS require, else it is an integration project. The integration projects are either in their infancy or unable to progress past concept stage. It is clear that there will be at some stage a leader in the field that will provide both CMS and LMS functionality required. With the information and the requirements stated for the MnDG portal, it is the belief that our basic requirements can not be met a this stage through a single software package. Additionally the integration projects are higher in risk and require a great deal development work by the MnDG. The best way forward is to have separate systems for the MnDG eLearning Centre and the MnDG portal.

From the above investigation the following was identified in terms of CMS - Typo3 is strongest in terms of security - Typo3 is ahead in ease of use features - Joomla is strongest for eCommerce facilities - Drupal has the most number of features required as a built in product All products are very close and all applications would be able to support the MnDG requirements. The one outstanding factor is that the MnDG staff have most exposure to Joomla/Mambo and have no exposure to Drupal and Typo3. Due to the closeness of the CMS in functionality, it is best to advise to proceed with the application that has the capacity to fulfil the requirements and which the MnDG staff have the greatest capacity.

5.2.1 LMS as a CMS

All LMS were reviewed at a high level in terms of use as a content Management system. On conducting the initial appraisal was viewed that there was little, and in most cases there was real action towards using the LMS as anything more than an LMS. Although there are a number of communities and organisations involved with developing OSS LMS, this area is still a relatively new area and the focus is still on making and proving the case of the relevant LMS. In the future is likely and possible for these groups to use their LMS as a platform for


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an expanded CMS. This will not take place until there is greater awareness and development of the LMS ‘industry’. Due to the current scenario of LMS ‘industry’ and after conducting an initial appraisal of the LMS as a standard CMS, it was decided that an in-depth analysis would not be tenable. The outcome was clearly to be that none of the LMS would be able to support the requirements of the MnDG portal at this time or in fact in the near future. Thus an in-depth review of the LMS systems against the CMS criteria was not undertaken.

5.2.2 CMS as a LMS

CMS have made some headway in pursuit of incorporation LMS concepts. This is primarily evident in the larger, more popular systems that have a large development community that are able to explore more areas of functionality including LMS. Many CMS systems would be able to implement LMS functionality at a basic level. This will not be a fully integrated LMS environments of the capacity of the LMS systems we reviewed. If the MnDG had greater development capacity using CMS in this way would be possible, however would not provide a complete environment, conducive to the best learning outcomes of future users. Out of the CMS reviewed, Drupal is by far the most developed in terms of LMS functionality developed by the development community. There a number of examples of Drupal being used as an LMS, across the world. There seems to be a movement to have transform Drupal to be able to also fulfil LMS requirements and or be integrated with a LMS such as Moodle. The majority of the integration projects are not at an advanced stage at the moment. The focus at this stage is getting basic interoperability, for instance working on a common user base, for a public facing web interface and an eLearning environment. Sample projects:

1. Drupal Integration project: OpenAcademic � Moodle Drupal Elgg OpenID MediaWiki

2. Joomla Integration project: ATutor Mambo: 3. Typo3 eLearning investigation project: TYPO3 portal for educational institutions:

edu.typo3.co

6 NEXT STEPS From the above conclusions we wish to outline the next steps that need to be taken in the for both the MnDG eLearning Centre and the MnDG portal.

6.1 MnDG eLearning Centre

Based on this assessment the MnDG has decided to implement a Moodle LMS for the MnDG eLearning Centre. The following are the next steps to be pursued in this project:

1. Identify hosting provider 2. Implement Moodle LMS 3. Translation of LMS 4. Develop operational model for learning centre 5. Initiate course development


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6.2 MnDG Portal

Joomla has been identified as the system which the MnDG wishes to use for the new implementation of the portal. The following are the next steps to be pursued in for the project:

1. Develop proposal for the re-implementation of the MnDG Portal. 2. Work closely with existing and prospective partners to assist with the financing of the

new MnDG Portal. 3. Identify new hosting provider, most probably shared hosting service with LMS. 4. Implement Joomla CMS 5. Translation of LMS 6. Migrate existing system data to new system

7 ANNEX 1 : EXTENDED REVIEW - LMS

7.1 Moodle

Moodle 1.7.0 Released on Nov 7, 2006 www.moodle.org

7.1.1 Critical

Critical

No. Criteria and description Weight Remarks

1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English). 5 The current Moodle interface is available in 65 languages, but not Mongolian. Users can choose their preferred language for the navigation interface.

Moodle also offers the possibility to create multilingual content for resources that are edited within Moodle (text, html). It takes a bit more effort when editing, but is not too complicated to accomplish. (For any multilingual text, one enters the text in both languages, separating them out with special markers.)


5 Forums are a mainstay of Moodle. There are 3 different types of forums: standard open forum, one topic per user forums and single-topic forum (like news). Groups can be formed, yet determine only the visibility for a course or an activity (whether or not one group can view another group's work). Document upload and download is possible. A wiki could be used for collaborative work on a text (as long as the editing were timed well enough to make sure group members didn't write over eachother's contributions).

Private workgroup forums: A group can be designated as invisible to other groups for any activity including forums.

Internal mailing system: No internal email system. You can send messages to other members. If they're not online, they receive an email (to their external email address).

Chat: Yes, have to be enrolled in a course that offers it (possible outside a course with the help of a meta course).

Whiteboard with integr/chat: No white board

Instant Messaging: Yes, messaging and seeing who is online are both possible.

Wiki, announcements (news forum), calendar, glossary, assignments, chat, choice, lesson, quiz,


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Critical


scheduler, workshop, forum, journal, survey. Document repository for course only, limited groupware functions (visibility only)


5 No apparent problems on Windows Firefox 1.0.4.0, Windows Internet Explorer 6.0.2 or Macintosh Safari 1.3.


4 One can set up a simple course (content pages, forum, quizzes) relatively quickly, yet Moodle offers other more advanced activities as well (such as Wiki, Assignments, Glossary, Survey, Lesson, etc.). Even with these additional options, the interface remains clean, uncluttered and pleasant to use.

Moodle offers 3 models of course structure that are quickly recognized: by week, by topic or social. Adapting one or the other model is not complicated. The weekly and topical structures resemble the syllabus approach; the social model is more like a seminar, as it is based solely on discussion as the main structuring element.

Course Templates

• The software provides support for template-based course creation. • The system allows administrators to use an existing course or a pre-defined template as

a basis for a new course.


4 Compatible with standard web content: HTML, CSS, javascript, flash, commonly used media files (avi, etc.).

Quizzes generated from other tools can be uploaded into Moodle (Hot Potatoes, for example).

Upload various file types through web interface only, webdav not yet, no ssh/sftp. Can upload and unzip zip archives.

You can add urls to one part of a course that link to another part. Course entry page can link to all parts of a course.

HTML pages or other files can be uploaded from within Moodle only, or linked from Moodle and displayed either in a pop-up window or in a frame. WebDAV is not yet implemented. Style


21

Critical


sheets are used throughout.


4 Administrator: Administrators can usually do anything on the site, in all courses. Course creator: Course creators can create new courses and teach in them. Teacher: Teachers can do anything within a course, including changing the activities and grading students. Non-editing teacher: Non-editing teachers can teach in courses and grade students, but may not alter activities. Student: Students generally have less privileges within a course. Guest: Guests have minimal privileges and usually can not enter text anywhere.

7 The system checks files when uploading by a virus scanner 3 Moodle 1.5 works together with ClamAV (an open source anti-virus program for Linux) to scan all incoming files (at the time they are uploaded) for known viruses (this includes assignments, attachments, etc etc)

When enabled, clam AV will be used to scan all uploaded files.



2 Email-based authentication Email confirmation is the default authentication method. When the user signs up, choosing their own new username and password, a confirmation email is sent to the user's email address. This email contains a secure link to a page where the user can confirm their account. Future logins just check the username and password against the stored values in the Moodle database (http://demo.opensourcecms.com/moodle/admin/auth.php).

Forgot Password

Simply enter your username and a new password will be sent to you via email.

If you have forgotten your username, simply enter your email address and your username(s) will be sent to you via email.

By default forget_password.php does not display any hints that would allow guessing of usernames or email addresses (http://demo.opensourcecms.com/moodle/admin/settings.php?section=sitepolicies).

9 Learning progress indicators: - viewed messages are marked read, - notification of new messages and of new content items is

5 Student Tracking

• Instructors can track the frequency and duration of student access to individual course


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Critical


existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

components. • Instructors can get reports showing the time and date and frequency students as an

aggregated group accessed course content. • Instructors can get reports showing the number of times, time, date, frequency and IP

address of each student who accessed course content, discussion forums, course assessments, and assignments.



4 Generally very easy to use and navigate. Orientation/Help: Students can access context sensitive help for any tool.

The overall look and feel can be changed using what Moodle calls themes. Logos can be added, and style sheets modified to make minor changes easily. Individual courses can have their own themes that differ from the entry page or from site level theme. Styles can be changed at the course element level also, as these use style sheets too. Users can also choose their preferred theme if the site has been configured to allow it.


4 Moodle includes a module for uploading SCORM packages (.zip files) that simplifies the upload/unzip process. The uploaded scorm's structure is displayed next to the content, which is opened in an iframe.

12 Complete course can be downloaded for offline use 4 Course backups

Generally, you will not have to worry about course backups, as the primary Moodle administrator will have set a schedule of site wide backups. However, as a teacher with editing privilages, it is good practice to download a recent backup to your own computer for additional protection.

Users - Whether you want to backup the content concerning all the registered students in your site, only course students or no students at all. Course backups, configured on the backup page, are more expensive in terms of time and CPU usage. The recovery time to have your site running again is longer. Course backups are useful for obtaining "fresh" copies of courses to be re-used or distributed individually, however they should never be used as a primary backup system (unless your hosting doesn't allow the preferred site backups). In order to make scheduled backups, you have to setup CRON to run periodically.


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Critical


By selecting all the options when setting up the backup you can include almost all the data in the course. However you should be aware of the fact that some things are not backed up:

• Quiz questions are only backed up if at least one question from their category has been added to a quiz.

• Scales are only backed up if they are used by at least one activity.

13 Communication tools are manageable by course by a tutor. 4 Teachers can manually build and change groups of students already in the system, admins can use file upload. Groupwork

• Instructors can assign students to groups. • Each group can have its own discussion forum. • Each group can have its own chat or whiteboard. • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities.

Total weight 53

7.1.2 Desired

Desired




3 Can construct evaluation form by using standard testing wizard. This allows use of all varied types of questions


24

Desired


15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 3 Students can search all discussion threads.

16 Staged authoring process 0 The majority had administration creation and display of authoring, thus no integration of stages. The only more advanced options were having a generic publish button available to show the course. This however was available to most user across most systems.

17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 4 Advanced features for testing: Multiple choice, Multiple answer, Matching, Fill-in the blank, Short answer, Essay, Questions can contain other media elements (images, videos, audio)


4 Administrators can add users in batch mode through a text delimited file.

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 3 Students can access context sensitive help for any tool.


3 Archiving is possible, however can only be viewed if placed into another Moodle system. The course can not be viewed outside by another media format.


3 Some reports seem to be available, however they are not overly sophisticated.

TOTAL 24

7.2 KEWL

Version: NextGen 1.4.0 Released on Oct 31, 2006 http://kngforge.uwc.ac.za

7.2.1 Critical

Critical


1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English). 1 The following language packs are available for download: Afrikaans translation (available for download) Xhosa translation (available for download) Portuguese translation (available soon)


25

Critical



5 KEWL provides an interface for students to interact with educational content and resources, allows learners to access content and communicate with their teacher and classmates, and allows teachers to manage class administration and assessment. There are different chat rooms, which users can join and leave. They can also create new chat rooms. Users can post messages for all to read, or may post private messages for a specific user. Discussion Forum

• Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. • Students can receive posts by email as daily digests of subject lines or whole posts. • Students can subscribe to forum RSS feeds.

Discussion forum is fully multimedia enabled. Discussion forum has multiple views, including a mindmap view where posts can be made from within the mindmap. Discussion Management

• Instructors can allow students to create discussion groups. • Instructors can set up moderated discussions where all posts are screened. • Posts may be peer reviewed by other students. • Instructors can view statistical summaries of discussions displaying participation which

can be used to generate grades. Internal Email

• Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. • Students can use a searchable address book. • Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias.

Internal email also act as an interface to an external IMAP or POP mail account(s). Real-time Chat

• The chat tool supports unlimited simultaneous group discussions • Students can create new rooms. • Instructors may moderate chats and suspend students from the chat rooms. • The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms.

Two different chat tools are available, depending on the requirements of the site: HTML chat with Ajax, and IRC chat via an IRC server with a Java client in the web browser.


26

Critical



2 No apparent problems on Mozilla / Firefox. Some menu were not visible on Internet Explorer..


3 There exist a manual for creating a new course.


4 Various types of content (picture, flash, media, doc) can be uploaded, saved.


2 Admin: Course admin, Site admin, Module admin, User admin

Groups: User, Guests, Students

7 The system checks files when uploading by a virus scanner 0 No scan



2 Password is sent by e-mail to user. User can change it when accessing the system.


existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

1 Student Tracking

These features are in fact there, but the morality of their use is questionable.


A manual or tutorial should be provided – but unnecessary,

3 Orientation/Help:

• Students can access context sensitive help for any tool. • The system includes online tutorials for students that help students learn how to use the


27

Critical


the necessary usage skills should conform with widespread internet and office tools.

system.


3 Instructional Standards Compliance

• SCORM 1.2

12 Complete course can be downloaded for offline use 5 Work Offline/Synchronize

• Students can compile and download the content for an entire course into a format that can be printed or stored locally.

• Instructors can publish course content on a CD-ROM that can be linked to dynamically from within the online course or viewed offline.

13 Communication tools are manageable by course by a tutor. 5 Groupwork

• Instructors can assign students to groups. • Each group can have its own discussion forum. • Each group can have its own chat or whiteboard. • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities.

KEWL provides an interface for students to interact with educational content and resources, allows learners to access content and communicate with their teacher and classmates, and allows teachers to manage class administration and assessment.

Course administration allows lecturers to manage courses as well as the users within these courses.

Total weight 36


28

7.2.2 Desired

Desired




3 Evaluation can be conducted through standard testing services. This will provide basis for data, however there must then be further manipulation of results.

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 5 Students can search all course content. Students can search all discussion threads.

16 Staged authoring process 1 Administration creation and display of authoring, thus no integration of stages. The only more advanced options were having a generic publish button available to show the course. This however was available to most user across most systems.

17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 4 Standard testing functionality has a number of advanced tools incorporated.


4 User data can be uploaded through a comma delimited file.

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 4 Assistance text is relevant access context, as well as training on how to use help text. Can easily be altered by staff.


5 Students can compile and download the content for an entire course into a format that can be printed or stored locally. Instructors can publish course content on a CD-ROM that can be linked to dynamically from within the online course or viewed offline.


1 Basic tracking in place, however of little value.

TOTAL 27


29

7.3 SAKAI

SAKAI 2.3.0 Released on Nov 3, 2006 www.sakaiproject.org 7.3.1 Critical

Critical


1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English).

4 Available languages: Catalan (Spain), Chinese, Dutch, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish


5 Discussion Forum

• Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. • Students can receive posts by email as daily digests of subject lines or whole posts. • A spell-checker is available for student and instructor responses.

There are three discussion forum tools that adopters of Sakai can choose to deploy:

1. Discussion (U of Michigan); 2. JForum Discussion & Private Messaging (Foothill College); or, 3. Message Center (Indiana University)

Internal Email

• Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. • Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias.

Real-time Chat

• The chat tool supports a limited number of simultaneous rooms. • The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms.


4 No apparent problems on Windows Firefox, Windows Internet Explorer.


5 Course Templates

• The software provides support for template-based course creation.


30

Critical


• Course content may be uploaded through WebDAV. • The system allows administrators to use an existing course or a pre-defined template as a basis

for a new course.


3 Any types of content (text, html, weblink, downloads) can be uploaded, but run not all of them. Course content is uploaded in HTML format.


5 Author defines the access rights to course materials.


0 No virus scan.



4 Reset Password is a simple RSF tool which allows users to request that a new password be emailed to them by entering their email address. Its primary use case is to allow guest users to change their password if they no longer know what their current password is (http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/RPASS/Home).

9 Learning progress indicators: - viewed messages are marked read, - notification of new messages and of new

content items is existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

1 Student Tracking

A Site Statistics tool is being developed for Sakai by Universidade Fernando Pessoa (UFP), Portugal. It is currently in pilot at several universities. The Site Statistics tool collects and displays statistical data about the class as a whole or on each student - where they've gone and what they've accessed.


5 Orientation/Help

• Students can access context sensitive help for any tool. • The system includes online tutorials for students that help students learn how to use the system.


31

Critical



• The Help Tool includes context sensitive help the core tools of the Sakai bundle. Help is accessible by all users (students, instructors, Teaching Assistants, etc.) of the system via a question mark at the right corner of each tool's container.


3 Instructional Standards Compliance

• IMS Content Packaging 1.1.4 • IMS QTI 1.2.1 • SCORM 1.2


• Instructors can download the content of lessons into a format that can be printed, stored, or edited locally using a web publishing tool.

• Instructors can download assignments with attachments in one simple click for off-line grading. A folder is created on the instructor's desktop with sub-folders for each student and their attachment submissions.


4 Groupwork

• Instructors can assign students to groups. • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities. • Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups.

A number of tools are group and section-aware: Schedule, Assignments, and Resources, and to some extend, Tests & Quizzes. Groups are also supported in the JForum Discussion tool, though its functionality is managed from Jforum rather than Sakai groups. Sakai supports the ability to allow students and instructors to create project sites, enabling users to have a private site with a full set of site tools (email archive, forums, chat, resources, etc.) for group work and collaboration.

Total weight 46


32

7.3.2 Desired

Desired




3 Evaluation can be performed through standing testing modules

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 3 Basic text search available.


17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 5 There very sophisticated faclilities for testing students and manipulating results.

Multiple choice, Multiple answer, Matching, Calculated, Fill-in the blank, Short answer, Survey questions, Essay, Questions can contain other media elements (images, videos, audio)


4 Batch mode can be used to upload user data, through text delimited files.

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 3 Standard help text available


4 Instructors can download the content of lessons (Melete Lesson Builder) into a format that can be printed, stored, or edited locally using a web publishing tool.


1 A useful tool is not currently available.

TOTAL 23

7.4 A-Tutor

Version: 1.5.3.3 Released on Nov 30, 2006 www.atutor.ca


33

7.4.1 Critical

Critical


1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English). 4 The primary interface for ATutor is English. Instructors can set a default language for their course, and students can override it with their own preference. The current version has 6 completed languages, with about 62 others under translation, but not Mongolian.


4 ATutor provides standard communication tools : forums, chat. Instructors can also send regular emails to students from within the platform. Participants can subscribe to forums to get notified by email of new postings. There is no search function in forums. Discussion Forum

• Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. Discussion Management

• Instructors can allow students to create discussion groups. • Posts may be peer reviewed by other students. • Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit.

Internal Email

• Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. • Students can use a searchable address book. • Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias. • Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address.

Real-time Chat

• The chat tool supports a limited number of simultaneous rooms. • The chat tool supports unlimited simultaneous group discussions • Students can create new rooms. • Instructors may moderate chats and suspend students from the chat rooms. • The chat tool supports a structured way for students to ask questions and instructors to

provide answers. • The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms.

Forums, glossary (with links from content documents), chat, links, tests & surveys, polls, wiki,


34

Critical


announcement, search for external packages, directory.


5 No problem on Windows Firefox 1.0.4.0, Windows Internet Explorer 6.0.2 or Macintosh Safari 2.0. ATutor also functions with text based browsers, such as lynx, which may be used by blind users, or those on low bandwith connections.


4 A course can be created quickly with most standard features of a course platform. The system allows administrators to use an existing course or a pre-defined template as a basis for a new course. There is however one problem, due to the fact that there are two different kinds of content : "internal" pages, which are edited directly in ATutor, and files uploaded with the File Manager. Uploaded files can only be linked from internal pages, and are not considered when searching. This might be confusing for course designers. Flexible Development Framework: ATutor provides no way to extend the standard functionality of the system. Architecture is not extensible.


4 Individual files, zip archives, ATutor/SCORM/IMS Content packages can be uploaded. No ftp or WebDAV access.

Hypertext linking: Links between files uploaded in the file manager work. Links to other tools don't always work, since ATutor uses sessions to store the current course.

Documents (HTML, images) created with other programs can be imported in the file manager and also into content pages using the Content Editor.

Compatible with standard web content: HTML, CSS, javascript, flash, commonly used media files. XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2 compliant.

Many quiz types are available from within Moodle. You can create questions with the built-in quiz editor. Questions can be read from a text file, in several different formats (including questions created from WebCT and Blackboard), plus a module for importing HotPotatoes Quizzes is available.


3 User Account Status:

- Disabled - Student - Instructor


35

Critical


Access

Public: Available to all users with or without an ATutor System Account. Login not required. Enrollment is optional.

Protected: Available only to users with an ATutor System Account. Login required. Enrollment is optional.

Private: Available only to users with an ATutor System Account, and Instructor approved enrollment. Login required. Enrollment is required.

7 The system checks files when uploading by a virus scanner 0 No

(http://www.atutor.ca/view/12/9525/1.html )



4 In order for a user to login to the ATutor system, a unique system account needs to be created. Use the Register link in the main navigation to access the registration form. Enter all the required fields, and optional data if desired (including the option to keep your email private or not), then use the Submit button. If email-confirmation has been enabled by the system administrator, a message will be sent to the email address registered, containing a link that must be followed to confirm the new account. Once this has been done, the login name or email address, and the password entered during registration can now be used on the Login screen.

Note that if a system administrator has specified users to be checked against a Master List of allowed Student IDs and PINs (for example), this information must also be entered during registration.

If you have forgotten your password, select the 'Forgot your password?' link on the Login screen. Enter the email address associated with your account and use the Submit button. The login name will be mailed to you, along with a link you must follow to change your password.


existing, - lessons completed

4 Student Tracking

• Instructors can track the frequency and duration of student access to individual course components.

• Instructors can get reports showing the time and date and frequency students as an aggregated group accessed course content.


36

Critical


- assignment submission • Instructors can review the navigation record of each student. • Usage statistics can be aggregated across courses or across the institution.



4 Has a pleasant interface, navigation is easy. Students can access context sensitive help for any tool.


4 Able to import/export SCORM/IMS content packages.



• Students can download course content and discussion group content with a PDA.

13 Communication tools are manageable by course by a tutor. 5 Groupwork

• Instructors can assign students to groups. • The system can randomly create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups. • Each group can have its own discussion forum. • Each group can have its own chat or whiteboard. • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities. • Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups.

Total weight 50

7.4.2 Desired

Desired



37

Desired




4 Template or anonymous

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 4 Standard text search in place


17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 4 There is advanced testing facilities available.


4 Administrators can batch add students to the system using a delimited text file.

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 3 Basic help text in place, that can be changed by tutors and administrators.


4 Can export in html format that can be easily used in an offline environment. Additionally courses can be backed up into a zip format.


4 Advanced features for accessing reports and statistics on users, including for content usage on a course by course basis

TOTAL 27


38

7.5 OLAT

OLAT 5.0.3 Released on Dec 19, 2006 Online Learning and Training www.olat.org

7.5.1 Critical

Critical


1 The LMS is designed for multilingual use (at least: English).

4 Multilingual (for now in German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Greek, Polish, Czech, Danish, Chinese (simplified), Lithuanian, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese (Brasilian), Russian)

It is up to the students to configure their preferred language in the personal settings. Help files are not available in all languages.


4 The most important communication tools are available. Discussion Forum

• Students can receive posts by email as daily digests of subject lines or whole posts. • Students can subscribe to forum RSS feeds.

Internal Email

• Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups. • Students can use a searchable address book. • Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias. • Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address.

Real-time Chat

• The chat tool supports a limited number of simultaneous rooms. • The chat tool supports unlimited simultaneous group discussions • Students can create new rooms. • Instructors may moderate chats and suspend students from the chat rooms. • The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms.

Self-organized learning / collaborative work via project groups: every user can create a group and work together with peers.


39

Critical


Students can create their own ad-hoc working groups (buddygroups), and decide who can be a member (by invitation). Tools in a buddygroup: announcements, send e-mail to members, shared document folder, discussion forum, text chat. Shared document folders are available on a course or group level. Students can subscribe to a folder to be notified of changes. Files can be hierarchically organized, moved, copied, up-/downloaded, zipped and unzipped. Files can be accessed through web up/download or through WebDAV.

• Private document folders are available. • Other available tools: student annotations, surveys, assignments, selective release of

content. Announcements, buddygroups, private/shareable document repositories, student annotations, surveys, assignments, selective release of content


4 Olat has been designed to work with all important web browsers running on any operating system (Firefox 1, IE 6, Safari). During the test, no severe browser incompatibilities or style sheet issues were observed.

Back and reload buttons don't work. Browser bookmarks don't work.


5 Designing a course and adding content is relatively easy. There's a built-in JavaScript based HTML editor, that allows to create and edit simple HTML pages. Pre-existing HTML pages can be uploaded and reused without modifications.

Linking to any content page or tool in a course is possible, even from external websites.

Can define course structure: yes Unlimited number of user accounts, courses and groups.


2 While the course structure and the learning process is defined through the course editor, the actual learning content is usually not created in OLAT. Even though there does exist a WYSIWYG-editor for HTML pages, this editor is suited for simple pages, such as syllabi or overviews only. For full lecture notes it is advisable to use an external editor, for instance, DreamWeaver, GoLive, Frontpage or even Word. Other possibilities are external Content Management Systems (CMS) or XML formats (ELML, Docbook etc.).


40

Critical


Traditional learning content that consists of text and figures only and does not include Flash or Java Script can be presented to students as PDF files.


5 OLAT is a system based on rights with several hierarchical levels. The user has at all times exactly those functions available which he or she has a right to use in a given context. In OLAT the following system groups are distinguished: • Guests: they are anonymous users with restricted rights on functions. Guests can neither adjust their interface nor complete tests or participate in forums. • Users: OLAT users may configure their interface according to their preferences and start a course as participant. • Authors: In addition to the rights of an OLAT user, authors can add, create and manage learning resources. • Group Administrator: In addition to the rights of an OLAT user, members of this system group have the right to manage course overlapping study groups or rights groups. • Administrators: they are authorized to perform administrative tasks in the entire OLAT system. Members of the administrator’s group may register or import one or several persons via the administration menu and assign them to OLAT system groups. Furthermore, administrators are entitled to edit user data including passwords. Access have: The following user groups get access to this learning resource: «Only owners of this learning resource»: Only owners can see this learning resource and get access to it. «Owners and other OLAT authors»: In addition to owners all other authors in OLAT will get access to that learning resource as well. «All registered OLAT users»: All registered users can see this resource and get access to it. «Registered OLAT users and guests»: This setting enables all users to get access, even non-registered guests.


41

Critical



0 No virus scan.

8 Passwords are handled safely. 4 Users send their e-mail and receive a link where he/she access to and enter password.

9 Learning progress indicators: - viewed messages are marked read, - notification of new messages and of new

content items is existing, - lessons completed - assignment submission

4 Student Tracking

• Instructors can track the frequency and duration of student access to individual course components.

• Instructors can get reports showing the time and date and frequency students as an aggregated group accessed course content.

• Instructors can get reports showing the number of times, time, date, frequency and IP address of each student who accessed course content, discussion forums, course assessments, and assignments.



4 The student's environment is intuitive, nice looking and easy to use. Drawbacks: Some very common browser functionalities (back-button, browser bookmarks) don't work. Orientation/Help

• Students can access context sensitive help for any tool. • The system includes online tutorials for students that help students learn how to use

the system.


3 Up/download of resources and content: HTTP-Upload and WebDAV supported

Release of OLAT 5 (OpenSource LMS with full SCORM Support) on: 11/01/2006.



• Students can download course content and discussion group content with a PDA.


5 Groupwork

• Instructors can assign students to groups. • Students can self-select groups.


42

Critical


• Each group can have its own discussion forum. • Each group can have its own chat or whiteboard. • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities. • Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups.

Total weight 48

7.5.2 Desired

Desired




3 Evaluation can be performed by use of testing mechanism

15 Participants can perform a full-text search in content 4 Integrated full text search

16 Staged authoring process 1 Administration creation and display of authoring, thus no integration of stages. The only more advanced options were having a generic publish button available to show the course. This however was available to most user across most systems

17 Exercises and tests can be easily integrated into courses. 3 Standard test mechanism in place


4 User data set can be uploaded through a comma delimited file

19 Help texts are customizable by tutors and administrators. 3 Integrated context sensitive help system and comprehensive manual.

20 The course manager can archive an environment, converting 3 Export and import is possible, ready for offline usage and backup.


43

Desired


the online-usable environment into an offline-usable resource.


3 Basic usage statistics can be generated.

TOTAL 24

8 ANNEX 2 : EXTENDED REVIEW - CMS

8.1 Drupal

Version: 4.7.5 05/01/2007 www.drupal.org

8.1.1 Content Management System Criteria



22 Online transactions - Shopping cart - Online transactions interface - Ask an expert

4 Many shopping carts available, with standard online transactions interfaces.

Would need to develop and ask an expert module.


5 Many additional modules and applications available, there is currently an SMS interface available.

The is a usable job board available.

24 Site management - Search - Multi-lingual - Automated Site map - User and Content Statistics - Ad rotation

5 All functionality available, however there is limited cross story tagging and automated backup process. Generally there is an active development community producing a large number of additional functionality.


44



- Item tagging, allowing cross advertising of content - Management of sub-portals - Automated site backup - Search engine optimization functionality - Enable creation of new document/content databases.


5 Can alter the editorial management process flow from basic to sophisticated.

Can NOT control access to site on a page by page basis


1 MnDG staff have a small amount of exposure to the Drupal system.

TOTAL

20

8.2 Joomla / Mambo

Version: 1.0.12 25/12/2006 http://www.joomla.org/





4 Many shopping carts available, with standard online transactions interfaces.



5 Many additional modules and applications available, there is currently an SMS interface available.

There is a usable job board available.

24 Site management - Search - Multi-lingual

5 All functionality available, however there is limited cross story tagging and automated backup process. Generally there is an active development community producing a large number of


45



- Automated Site map - User and Content Statistics - Ad rotation - Item tagging, allowing cross advertising of content - Management of sub-portals - Automated site backup - Search engine optimization functionality - Enable creation of new document/content databases.

additional functionality.


5 Can alter the editorial management process flow from basic to sophisticated.

Can NOT control access to site on a page by page basis. That is does not have a low level of security granularity.


4 MnDG staff have conducted training for Joomla / Mambo training

TOTAL

23

8.3 Typo3

Version: 4.0.4 01/12/2006 www.typo3.org





4 Many shopping carts available, with standard online transactions interface.



3 Many additional modules and applications available, there is currently not an SMS interface.

There is a basic job board available. A more sophisticated application would have to be


46



developed.


4 All functionality available, however there is limited cross story tagging and automated backup process. Generally there is an active development community producing a large number of additional functionality.


4 Comprehensive editorial management process flow.

Can control access to site on a page by page basis.

Also contains ‘sandbox’ which allows a test area for managers to test content ideas.


0 MnDG staff have no exposure to Typo3 system

TOTAL

15

9 GLOSSARY

Term Definition

MnDG Mongolia Development Gateway InWEnt Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung (Capacity Building

International, Germany) gGmbH ICT Information and Communication Technology NGO Non-Government Organisation, otherwise known as a Non-Profit

Organisation. LMS Learning Management System CMS Content Management System

10 REFERENCES 1. Benchmarking criteria, InWEnt - Capacity Building International, Germany, 2006

www.inwent.org 2. Course Management Systems, EduTools, the Western Cooperative for Educational

Telecommunications, 2007 http://www.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=4 3. “Evaluation of Open Source LMSs-2005”, Edutech, Swiss Virtual Campus programme,

hosted at Centre NTE, University of Fribourg, 2005 http://www.edutech.ch/lms/ev3/ 4. “How to evaluate a CMS”, James Robertson, Step Two Designs Pty.Ltd, 2005 5. “LMS Focus Group Report”, Instructional Technology Resource Center

Idaho State University, 2006 6. “Shortlisting of LMS software”, Open Source e-Learning Environment and Community

Platform Project, 2004 7. Websites of LMSs: www.moodle.org, http://kngforge.uwc.ac.za, www.sakaiproject.org,

www.atutor.ca, www.olat.org 8. Websites of CMSs: www.joomla.org, www.drupal.org, www.typo3.org,

http://www.cmsmatrix.org, www.opensourcecms.com