How to Start an Online Educational Technology Open Source Project
These days, educational establishments have scuttled to place their academic services and resources on the Internet, bringing the universal community onto a widespread platform and stirring the investors' interest. In spite of the constant technical disputes, online education proves to be an excellent promise. Various open source software provides a method to dealing with the technical issues in supplying the best possible deliverance of online education.
This article will teach you how to start an online educational technology open source project. But first, what is open source? Open source is the practice and the concept of making a program source code publicly available. Developers and users have the access to core design functionalities which allow them to add or modify features to the program source code and then redistribute it. Wide-ranging circulation and collaboration are essential to the open source concept.
Do you want to know how to start an online educational technology open source project? One factor that has a great effect on the educational open source movement is the use of rapid open source LMS (learning management system) tools, as well as other education applications. These LMS tools are utilized mostly to manage and create educational content on the Internet. The following are some examples of resources that provide LMS tools:
* Moodle incorporates the educational features that are absent in several LMS tools, permitting instructors to create online customizable courses or present a wide selection of course units on a versatile platform. You may download Moodle to any computer and use it to prop up a student system of thousands or a single instructor website. A lot of plug-ins can be obtained in order to boost its features on hand. The Postgre SQL and My SQL databases may be utilized with Moodle, while developers are still working on making the system usable with Microsoft SQL Servers, Oracle, as well as other databases.
Moodle focuses on making students a causative factor in education as its features lure active involvement from students. An increasing community of more than 200,000 users in over 175 countries uses Moodle. In several forums, developers from anywhere in the globe contribute to the overall development of the software.
* Bodington is a Java-based virtual educational environment that was created by United Kingdom's University of Leeds. Bodington seeks to provide a durable and flexible learning atmosphere for huge and complex schools with several departments. It permits rapid management and upload of educational content. It has been applied at academic schools such as the University of Oxford and University of Leeds.
* Claroline is created under free technologies like My SQL and PHP. It tackles the pedagogical needs of learners and teachers, focusing on well-built online courses and training technologies. The developers of Claroline concentrate on boosting their current tools in order to provide both its students and teachers an advanced learning atmosphere.
Claroline is backed up by a large contributor and user community that continually enhances the software. Founded in 2007, the Claroline group is committed to promoting and enhancing the software.
* Dokeos is an Internet-based application built on free technologies like My SQL and PHP. It is designed to ease course management and online education while offering a user-friendly, flexible platform. Dokeos was created with the aid of worldwide contributions from individual programmers, organizations, and universities. Its forum eases the exchange of thoughts and ideas among users and programmers all over the world.
* Sakai is considered a great academic atmosphere and collaboration. Its main software includes standard collaboration tools that are intended for certain applications like portfolio tools and teaching. Sakai is listed under a reliable Educational Community License.
Educational Technology Online Projects
- CRAYON: CReAte Your Own Newspaper
- Live from the Estuary
- Passport To Knowledge
- Rivers of Life Project
- Sites Alive
- The Odyssey