Graham Glass, etc.

EDU 2.0 SCORM, Part 4

After some more thought, we've decided that a SCORM package should be associated with a type of lesson rather than a type of resource. So now, when you try to add a new lesson, you get the choice between a lesson made of HTML sections or a lesson made from a SCORM package. 

 

When you upload the package, we parse it, store it, and then create a lesson whose content is the SCORM package. The default name and description of the lesson are set from the SCORM manifest.

 
When you execute the SCORM content, we dynamically create a SCORM assignment if the SCORM package is one that tracks scores.

Getting the mapping between a SCORM package and the concepts in the current EDU 2.0 system is very important, and I think this shift from thinking of a SCORM package as a resource to thinking of it as a lesson with an optional assignment is a big improvement.

 

EDU 2.0: SCORM, Part 3

Here's an update on our SCORM support; we just made a few more improvements. 

First of all, the SCORM content is now shown in a frameset with a navigation frame at the top (not populated with navigation icons yet). The visible resources are hyperlinked to their server-side URLs.

 

Second, we create an initial javascript implementation of the client-side API. It seemed very straightforward. We used the prototype javascript library to send synchronous Ajax calls and json for the structure of the return values. On the Rails side, we use the "render :json" approach for returning error codes and values to the client side. The entire client-side library, complete with error checking, is about 100 lines of javascript so far. These new features allowed us to execute some simple SCORM materials that only initialize and terminate the LMS. 

Here's a screenshot that shows the debugger on the left:

 

The next step is to start implementing the set/get methods for the various CMI data models that are required by SCORM 1.2. Based on what I understand, that makes up the bulk of the work for true SCORM 1.2 support. With any luck, most of the CMI data model will map onto existing concepts in the EDU 2.0 system.

The stuff I just listed took about 4 hours, so the total time spent so far on SCORM 1.2 support is 12 hours.

 

We are a way the cosmos can know itself.

"We are a way the cosmos can know itself". This phrase is incredibly profound.

Latest Desktop Picture

Here's my latest desktop picture; click the image for the high-resolution version.

EDU 2.0: E-learning marketplace

In January 2010 we're going to add a class catalog feature that will allow schools to create catalogs of classes that they can offer internally and externally. They'll be able to post class catalogs on their school home page that can be accessed by visitors. In addition, we're adding an optional e-commerce option that will handle billing if they want to charge for their classes.

The overall vision here is to make it easier for teachers/schools to make money from their teaching abilities, especially if they want to reach a world-wide audience. For example, a single teacher made over $1m last year teaching English on a Korean education site! They created a set of blended classes (self-paced with teacher support) and were thus able to deliver their expertise to a much larger audience than they would have been able to at a traditional school.

In addition, we're going to create an e-learning marketplace that will be accessible from the EDU 2.0 home page. Anyone will be able to search for classes on a particular topic or request classes if they're not already available. This search will be applied to all the class catalogs that have been explicitly published by any schools hosted on EDU 2.0.

Please note that this will not affect existing EDU 2.0 schools in any way; they don't have to publish class catalogs and they don't have to use the e-commerce option. These additional features are being added simply to support schools who wish to make some of their classes public and/or make money via teaching.

Our hope is that these options will make it easier for, say, retired teachers or entrepreneurial private schools to reach a larger audience than they would have been able to without an e-learning system like EDU 2.0.

Nice German blog post about EDU 2.0

We've been investing in the German translation of EDU 2.0 for a while, so it's nice to see it finally start to pay off. Here's a German blog post all about EDU 2.0; the Google-translated version is here.

 

EDU 2.0: SCORM, Part 2

Here's an update on our SCORM support.

Today we added a new "SCORM Package" resource type, which plugged nicely into our resource framework. So when you click on 'Add resources' anywhere in our system, you get a new SCORM option:

If you select "SCORM Package" from the resource types, you are prompted for the .zip file to upload to the EDU 2.0 system. When you upload it, we automatically unzip the contents and upload them into the Amazon S3 storage system. Then we parse the manifest and display a frame that shows the default SCORM organization. There are options to resize the frame, hide the frame, and also browse the contents of the SCORM package.

Not bad for 4 hours of work, bringing the total time so far to 8 hours!

The next step is to link the items in the organization so that when you click on one, it runs the item in the frame. This will require us to implement a minimal client API as well as server-side support for the APIs. 

EDU 2.0 for iPhone

We just launched an alpha version of EDU2.0 for the iPhone. 

We decided to go with a pure web application for the first version so that we didn't have to deal with the Apple acceptance process. A future version may be a hybrid iPhone application that adds a native bottom bar but still gets most of its content from the main site.

Here are some screen shots; bear in mind it's an alpha so we're going to change the icons, styling, and other mobile-related issues. 

To try it out, enter the URL "http://www.edu20.org?mobile=true" into the iPhone browser.

LOGIN:

 

MAIN:

 

TEACH PAGE (the table will be re-styled and some of the columns will be removed. We're also going to change the way that options are displayed):

 

EDU 2.0: The Name

One of the hardest things during the forming of my online education companies was coming up with a good name. Almost anything I could think of already had its domain name taken, and I didn't want to pay thousands of dollars to purchase one. In addition, I needed something that could be international (i.e. using a small of letters and would be understandable by most countries).

Some of the candidate names were "Curious Minds", "Geniatus" (a spell that Harry Potter might use to make someone a genius) and "Teach me". 

In the end, I remember thinking that I wanted something similar to "web 2.0" that would denote "next generation education", and to my surprise found that the edu20.* family of URLs was available. I immediately reserved the entire set of domains, including .org, .com, .net, .co.uk, .info, .us, .biz, .us and .tv.

The name has turned out quite well so far, even though some people call it "EDU Twenty" instead of "EDU 2.0". This is understandable, since domain names cannot contain a "." except before the extension.

Since then, there are many educators who think about next-generation education as being "EDU 2.0", and I see lots of tweets with the tag "EDU2.0" and "EDU20".

Another nice thing about having all the domain names for "EDU20" is that I was able to associate "EDU 2.0 for School" with edu20.org and "EDU 2.0 for Business" with edu20.com. I will launch "EDU 2.0 Technology" on edu20.net in Q1 2010.

Last but certainly not least is the payoff in search rankings. 

Here are the rankings when Googling "edu2.0" - edu20.org and edu20.com are the #1 and #2 entries:

 

Here are the rankings when Googling "edu 2.0" - edu20.org is the #1 entry.

  

EDU 2.0: Adding SCORM

We're currently adding SCORM support to EDU 2.0 and I thought it might be fun to blog our progress.

To begin with we're going to focus on SCORM 1.2, which is the most widely adopted version of the specification. We're going to start with the ability to import and "play" SCORM 1.2 packages, then perhaps add the ability to export EDU 2.0 lessons as SCORM packages.

Generally speaking, I dread industry specifications after my experiences implementing CORBA for Voyager, SOAP for GLUE, WSDL, UDDI, and the REXML XML parser. It will be interesting what implementing SCORM is like!

I found the JCA solutions site very useful for a good overview of SCORM, and Cooking up a SCORM for  technical information about the client side of things.

I picked Nokogiri for the XML parser and then wrote a simple recursive decent parser to parse a SCORM package into its various components. It's taken about 4 hours from cracking open a SCORM specification to getting a full and easy-to-manipulate Ruby representation of a SCORM package into memory.

The next step is to get the server to display the default package organization graphically and allow the user to launch a basic resource from the browser.

New theory on Consciousness

This book documents a promising new theory of consciousness; I just ordered it and will blog about it soon.

November: another good month for EDU 2.0

EDU 2.0 for School experienced good growth in November, adding another 14,000 members and passing the 114,000 member mark. We have a ton of really cool features that will be coming out over the next 3 months that should help keep the growth improving!

Here's the latest graph of membership:

 

Super-cute Kitten Video

EDU 2.0 for School and Business: Philippines

While I'm in the Philippines I'm going to be giving several presentations about EDU 2.0. If you're interested in learning more, one such free event is going to be 8:00 - noon on Dec 3, Room 209 Asia Pacific College, Makati City. If you live in the Philippines and want to learn more, you're very welcome to attend!

Here's the poster:

 

TEDxManila

I'm looking forward to presenting my ideas about "The Future of Education" at TEDxManila, which is an independently organized event that's part of the TED brand.

The presentations are recorded for posterity, so I'll post my video as soon as it's available.

 

New Desktop Background

My latest desktop background was taken from Atlantis. Click on the picture for the high-resolution version, which is located here.

 

EDU 2.0 for Business has launched

We just launched EDU 2.0 for Business!

EDU 2.0 for business is an easy-to-use, low-cost way for businesses to deliver online training to their employees and customers. It supports instructor-led and self-paced classes, and includes all the features that have made EDU 2.0 for school a runaway success.

EDU 2.0 for business is free for signup and setup; you only need to pay when you enroll students. The base price is about $1/student enrollment, which decreases as you enroll more students. 10% of all revenues from EDU 2.0 for business will be donated to EDU 2.0 for school, thereby helping teachers and students around the world.

We expect that the growth curve of EDU 2.0 for business will mirror that of EDU 2.0 for school, which is doubling in size every 6 months and already has over 100,000 members. 

Here's a screenshot of the new site (click for a full-size version):

Beautiful story of a Dog/Orangutan friendship

Symphony of Science

This video is about as inspirational as it gets!

Imogen Heap: Official First Train Home Video

I'm going to see Imogen Heap in concert at the Fillmore tomorrow. This video is in anticipation of a great event!