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Education Design Documentation

by Caroline Meeks and Tzu-Mainn Chen

I. Essentials

II. Introduction

This package configures the ACS to meet the needs of an educational community such as a university. It is not a standalone module, but rather a tool for integrating the ACS to solve a particular set of problems. The result is a fully configured ACS installation called the ACES - the ArsDigita Community Education Solution. This is accomplished by creating the following user groups types:
  • Departments
  • Classes
  • Communities (ie clubs, interest groups etc)
The ACES essentially creates an intranet for the university. A brief list of the problems solved include:
  • Management of class student and staff lists
  • Shared group Calendars
  • Document distribution
  • Communication via email (spam), Announcements(news), Bulletin Boards (threaded bboard).
The Education Solution relies heavily on the use of portals to provide user and class centric views and customization. Please also refer to the ASJ article for more details on system capabilities and future design objectives.

III. Historical Considerations

The Education Module was originally written by Randy Graebner and Aileen Tang for their Master's Thesis (June 2000) in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The education module was first release by ArsDigita in ACS 3.2 in March 2000. Over the summer of 2000 ArsDigita collaborated with the Sloan School of Management to create the ArsDigita Community Education Solution (ACES) for use in a pilot to support 8 classes at Sloan in the fall of 2000.

Differences between the Education Module and ACES.

The education module was written using ACS to support the IT needs of a university. Services not provided by the current version of ACS were written and included in the education module, making it one of the largest in ACS 3.2. When work on education was brought in house, ArsDigita was able to improve other modules (such as Calendar and Portals) so that they could provide services to education, thus the education package itself needs to have far less code.

In addition, this specific version of ACES was developed in collaboration with Sloan to meet their specific needs. Emphasis was given to usability and quality control on the features needed for Sloan rather than having the widest range of features. The data model developed by Mr. Graebner and Ms. Tang to meet the needs of a wide range of institutions is still in place but the interface and coding work has concentrated on the specific needs of Sloan. Features that were included in the original module but not implemented in the upgrade should be relatively easy to reimplement in future versions.

IV. Competitive Analysis

The table below provides a high level feature by feature comparison. If a feature is not currently part of ACES the table indicates which ACS module could be integrated and/or enhanced to provide the functionality. The main non-feature related advantages of ACES are:

  • Open-source
  • Basic system is free of charge
  • Proven architecture, easily extendible
  • Robust Dynamic Publishing Systems and Content Management/File Storage
  • Supported by world's top developers
  • No ongoing licensing fees

DEVELOPMENTAL FEATURES

ACS Education Solution

Black Board

WebCT

Content format will allow for simple transfer to/from another vendor's platform

Y

Y

  

Platform uses open data standard so that it can communicate with existing university database applications

Y

Y

  

Content can be authored on PCs running Windows 95/98/NT

Y

Y

Y

Content can be authored on Macs running OS 7.5 or greater

Y

Y

Y

Courses can be taken using a PC running Windows 95/98/NT

Y

Y

Y

Courses can be taken using a Macintosh running OS 7.5 or greater

Y

Y

Y

Platform provider is supportive of implementing IMS standard within product

Y

Y

Y

Platform provider is supportive of implementing AICC standards within product

Y

Y

  

Platform utilizes standard HTML for content creation

Y

Y

Y

Platform is structured so students can view all of their current courses when they log on

Y

Y

Y

Platform's server software will run on DEC Unix

Y

Y

Y

Platform's server software will run on Windows NT

Y

Y

  

Multiple choice questions can be created\scored with platform's authoring software

Survey

Y

Y

True\False questions can be created\scored with platform's authoring software

Survey

Y

Y

Matching questions can be created\scored with platform's authoring software

Survey

Y

Y

Short answer questions can be created\scored with platform's authoring software

Survey

Y

Y

Essay questions can be created\cored with platform's authoring software

Survey

Y

Y

Platform supports question database for management of test questions

Survey

Y

  

Platforms supports reporting features for test questions

Survey

Y

  

Platform supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x and newer browsers

Y

Y

Y

Platform supports testing stage for courses to debugged before making them live to students

Y

Y

Y

Platform allows author to view course as student without logging out

Y

Y

Y

Platform has built-in threaded discussion list capabilities

Y

Y

Y

Platform has built-in chat capabilities

Y

Y

Y

Platform can be integrated with Real networks video and audio products

  

Y

Y

Platform can be integrated with Macromedia Shockwave products

  

Y

Y

Vendor provides development services

v

v

  

Management component will create reports for tracking student progress

Survey

Y

  

Operates without java script for improved cross browser compatibility and ease of use for visually disabled users.

Y

    

Platform has a feature to import existing test questions in a tab-delimited format

Survey

Y

  

INSTRUCTOR TOOLS

ACS

Black Board

WebCT

Course planning

Y

Y

Y

Course managing

Y

Y

Y

Fast course revising

Y

Y

  

Course monitoring

Y

Y

  

Instructional designing

  

Y

Y

Presenting information

Y

Y

Y

On-line testing

Survey

Y

Y

On-line presentation creation

Wimpy Point

    

On-line grading

Y

Y

Y

Managing records

Y

Y

  

No HTML knowledge required

Y

Y

  

Customization of student curriculum

Y

    

Student tracking

Y

Y

  

Automated grading

Y

Y

  

Level of control over design

Display

Y

  

Instructor can assign specific course material to individual or group of students

Sections

Y

  

Multiple choice self test tutorial questions - (automatic marking)

Survey

Y

  

"Fill in the blank" self test tutorial questions - (automatic marking)

Survey

Y

  

Customized feedback to tutorial questions

Survey

    

Redirect path of tutorial depending on question answers

Survey

    

Timed quizzes (graded with permanent mark retention)

Survey

Y

  

On line marking and grades management of timed quizzes

Survey

Y

  

Generate random set of questions


Survey

Y

  

Allows developer to preview course as a student

Y

Y

  
       

Instructors can manage class membership as well as Tas and additional instructors

Y

    

Instructors control if class has open enrollment

Y

    

Instructors control if class is viewable to non-enrolled community members

Y

    

Separately configurable views of a class based on student type, i.e. distance vs on-campus students, paid vs unpaid etc.

Y

    

Separately configurable guest view of the class to allow for class shopping

Enhanced Portals

    
       

Allows instructor to manage class from single calendar on front page.

Y

    

INSTRUCTIONAL FEATURES

ACS

Black Board

WebCT

Faculty to student asynchronous communication is possible

Y

Y

Y

Faculty to student synchronous communication is possible

Y

Y

Y

Faculty can make their own changes to content

Y

Y

Y

Training is provided for faculty

  

Y

Y

Courses can have consistent interface

Y

Y

Y

Platform includes an internal e-mail client

Webmail

Y

  

Platform has e-mail management capabilities for students

Webmail

Y

  

Platform has e-mail management capabilities for faculty

Webmail

Y

Platform supports multiple instructors for a single course

Y

Y

Y

STUDENT TOOLS

ACS

Black Board

WebCT

Authentication

Y

Y

Y

Bookmark management

Y

    

Multimedia support

  

Y

  

Private e-mail

Webmail

  

Y

File submissions

Y

Y

  

On-line presentation creation

Wimpy Point

    

Threaded discussions

Y

Y

Y

Email alerts from discussions by topic, author or message

Y

    

Digested Email from bboards, daily, weekly or Mon-Thurs

Threaded Bboard Enhancement

    

Ability to respond to an discussion message by email

Y

    

Ability to rate messages by email or on the web

Threaded Bboard Enhancement

    

Course Chat rooms

Y

Y

  

Threaded Chat and automatic posting of formatted chat

Chat Enhancement

    

Logged chat

Chat Enhancement

Y

  

Whiteboard

  

Y

  

Self-assessing

Survey

Y

  

Progress tracking

Survey

Y

Y

Desktop based file management for uploading to server

Y

    

Study skill building

Survey

Y

  

Un-timed quizzes

Survey

Y

  

One question-at-a-time function

Survey

Y

  

Bulletin board/conferencing tools

Y

Y

  

Image database

Y

    

Student access to own grades

Y

Y

  

Access to course grade distribution

Survey

    

Automated glossary tool

Glossary

    

Automated index tool

Site Wide Categories

    

Online assistance

  

Y

  

Search tool for course content

Site Wide Search

Y

  

Student presentations area

Homepage

Y

  

Allows student to view all class events on one consolidated calendar/page once logged in.

Y

    

Sync of class calendar with palm pilot

Palm

    

Ability to view all the contributions of each student in all of their classes

Y

    

Students can sign-up for office hours automatically and the appointment shows up on both the student’s and instructors calendar

Reservations

    

Students can add or drop courses from their home portal

Y

    

Student can make private annotation of material.

Customized General Comments

    

Student Homepage Tool.

HomePage

Y

Y

Personal Address Book

Y

    

Personal Address Book syncs with Palm

Palm

    

ADMINISTRATOR TOOLS

1

2

8

Server

Y

Y

Y

Client/Web interface

Y

Y

Y

Authorization tools

Y

Y

Y

Logout feature

Y

Y

  

Resource monitoring

Y

Y

Y

Remote access tools

Y

Y

  

Crash recovery tools

Y

Y

  

Student support tools

Y

Y

  

Instructor support tools

Y

Y

Y

Administrator support tools

Y

Y

  

Built-in file management tools

Y

    

Ability to export raw data

Y

Y

  

Customization of text messages

Some

Y

  

Resume session function

Survey

    

Security access

Y

Y

  

Variable level of security

Y

Y

  

Online registration

Y

Y

  

Registered markers

  

Y

  

Batch upload to register students

Y

Y

  

Multiple Institutions on the same server

Display and additional customization

    

Guest account creation

Y

Y

  

Student class list hidden from non-registered students

Y

    
       

On-line reservations for rooms and other resources that are integrated with users calendars

Reservations

    

Instructors can create groups of students

Sections

Y

Y

Educational Communities

ACS Education Solution

Black Board

WebCT

Create communities for Clubs, Alumni, interest groups etc.

Y

    

Community resources equal to class resources. Ie Calendar, File Storage, Discussions etc.

Y

    

Can give individual students administrative privileges based on the community.

Y

    

V. Design Tradeoffs

Ease of Use vs. System Flexability

The current implementation has considerable less flexability in the realm of permissions than the previous version. It was observed that users were confused by the permission choices, so these choices were simplified:

  • Professors and TAs both have complete and identical group adminstration ability.
  • Group files are all group readable and adminstrator writable.
As the previous version supported a wider range of options, it would not be difficult to upgrade the permissions system.

VI. Data Model Discussion

The current version was produced with minimal data model changes from the original thesis version. We plan to rewrite the data model significantly when we port to ACS 4.0. A class is offered in a certain term. 'No Term' is automatically entered as an option. 
create table edu_terms (
     term_id         integer not null primary key,
     term_name       varchar(100) not null,
     short_name	     varchar(100) unique,
     start_date      date not null,
     end_date        date not null
);
Departments are created as a user group to support large institutions. The current version does not have a great deal of support for departments. Future version of education will move away from storing this sort of infomation in _info tables and use the on_what_table/on_which_id paradigm used in such modules as the address book. 
create table edu_department_info (
	group_id 		integer primary key references user_groups,
	-- for schools like MIT where each department has a number
	department_number	varchar(100),
	-- we'll generate a home page for them but if they have one already
	-- we can provide a link
	external_homepage_url	varchar(200),
	mailing_address		varchar(200),
	phone_number		varchar(20),
	fax_number		varchar(20),
	inquiry_email		varchar(50),
	description		clob,
	mission_statement	clob,
	last_modified          	date default sysdate not null,
        last_modifying_user    	references users,
        modified_ip_address    	varchar(20)
);
Subjects are placed within departments; administrators can then define a class as an instance of a subject - this is a common area of confusion for adminstrators. Eventually, we will implement the ability to copy a class from one term to another, copying the course material as well. This may cause us to rethink how edu_subject is used. 
create table edu_subjects (
	subject_id		integer primary key,
	subject_name		varchar(100) not null,
	description		varchar(4000),
	-- at MIT this will be a string like "3-0-9"
	credit_hours		varchar(50),	
	long_description	clob,
	long_description_html_p	char(1) default 'f' 
                                constraint edu_sub_lg_des_html_p_ck 
                                check(long_description_html_p in ('t','f')),
	prerequisites		varchar(4000),
	professors_in_charge	varchar(200),
	last_modified          	date default sysdate not null,
        last_modifying_user    	not null references users,
        modified_ip_address    	varchar(20) not null
);
A subject can be offered in more than one department. 
create table edu_subject_department_map (
	department_id		integer references user_groups,
	subject_id		integer references edu_subjects,
	-- this would be the full '6.014' or 'CS 101'
	subject_number		varchar(20),
        grad_p                  char(1) default 'f' check(grad_p in ('t','f')),
	primary key ( department_id, subject_id )
);
The user group view edu_classes is a primary feature of the Education Solution. This table holds pointers to specially named folders in file storage which is the key to most of the customization of document storage. The current data model has columns for several features that are not currently implemented, such as exams and teams. 
create table edu_class_info (
	group_id		integer not null primary key references user_groups,
	term_id			integer references edu_terms,
	subject_id		integer references edu_subjects,
	-- if the class doesn't start or end on the usual term boundary, fill these in
	start_date		date,
	end_date		date,
	description 		varchar(4000),
	-- at MIT, something like 'Room 4-231, TR 1-2:30'
	where_and_when		varchar(4000),
	-- I still don't agree with this column.  I think we should use
	-- the file system to hold this and just keep a pointer to the 
	-- syllabus.  That way we would have versioning which we do not 
	-- have now (randyg@arsdigita.com, November, 1999)
	syllabus_id		integer references fs_files,
	-- we keep references to the class folders so that we can link to them directly
	-- from various different parts of the system.
	root_folder_id			references fs_files,
	assignments_folder_id		references fs_files,
	projects_folder_id		references fs_files,
	lecture_notes_folder_id		references fs_files,
	handouts_folder_id		references fs_files,
	exams_folder_id			references fs_files,
	-- will the class web page and the documents on it be open to the public?
	public_p			char(1) default 'f' check(public_p in ('t','f')),
	-- do students receive grades?
	grades_p  		        char(1) default 'f' check(grades_p in ('t','f')),
	-- not used in the current version
	-- will the class be divided into teams?
	teams_p			 	char(1) default 'f' check(teams_p in ('t','f')),
	-- teams are not implemented in the current version
	exams_p                  	char(1) default 'f' check (exams_p in ('t', 'f')),
	-- exams are not implemented in the current version
	-- does the class have a final exam?
	final_exam_p                	char(1) default 'f' check (final_exam_p in ('t','f')),
	last_modified           	date default sysdate not null,
        last_modifying_user     	references users,
        modified_ip_address     	varchar(20)
);
There are several views defined for convenience, such as edu_classes and edu_current_classes.

User groups for edu_sections and edu_teams are defined by the data model, but not yet reflected in the implementation. edu_textbooks and edu_grades are also not currently in use, but may be useful for future customization.

VII. Legal Transactions

The legal transactions for the education-specific portion of ACES are discussed in: /arsdigita/doc/overviews/education.html. Other legal transactions are module specific, and should be investigated in their respective module documentation.

VIII. API

The major APIs in ACES deal with providing the appropriate views into other ACS modules. These views are contained in education-procs.tcl; one good example is edu_display_attachments_in_table, which displays a table of documents, scoped by group, and limitable to certain types of documents.

A full list of such APIs is impractical, since the APIs for other modules are often sufficient for ACES. However, if differnt views are necessary, the ACES makes it easy for programmers to create such views themselves.

IX. Future Improvements/Areas of Likely Change

ACES represents an integration of the ACS, rather than a stand-alone module. In many cases, all that is required to implement a new feature is to simply integrate an existing ACS module into the portals framework, and to have it interact with the user groups created by the education package. In other cases, the existing module may require some custom code in order to operate within standard ACS scoping protocols or to create easier default permissions.

ArsDigita envisions that the following features will likely be added to ACES either in collaboration with the open source community or through our work with specific clients.

Module

Features

Education

Creation and support for additional subdivision of students into teams, sections etc. using user_groups. Each of these groups will have the same community and collaboration features as the Classes and Community groups now have.

Support for copying class content from one semester to the next.

Survey (Online Testing and Polling)

Integration of the ACS survey module to allow testing and grade reporting on a wide variety of test and answer formats. The ACS survey module includes branched surveys that can be used to form the basis of individualized tutorials.

The same basic module and data model can be used for polls, including the ability to have in class polls for wired classrooms with results immediately displayed on the web site for discussion.

Ecommerce

Integration with the ACS ecomerce module to allow institutions to require payment by credit card before access is given to course material.

Student Homepages

Integration of the ACS home page module to allow students to create their own web pages.

Bboards

The look and feel of the threaded bboard used by ACES is easily customizable. Future work on the functionality of this bboard system will include daily digested versions and the ability to rank/recommend postings both on the web and through email.

Display and graphics flexibility

Currently, colors on portals can be set by group type (ie user, class, community). Future enhancements will allow each user group (ie each class) to have their own colors and graphics.

Calendar

Future enhancements to the ACS Calendar module will include scheduling online appointments with instructors and room reservations, as well as the ability to sync with the palm pilot.

WebMail

The ACS webmail module can be used to provide hotmail like accounts for community members.

Search

Integration with the ACS and Oracle Intermedia search to allow search over all class content while maintaining permissions on read access to each specific document materials.

Chat

ACS has a chat module which is used. Future upgrades to the chat module will include: Ability to automatically post and email chat transcripts to the class. Ability to respond to a specific comment and thereby create a threaded chat that is easier to follow and can be formatted logically for posting.

ACS 4.0

Port to ACS 4.0 and use of the ACS 4.0 content management system for posting and maintaining class materials. The ACS 4.0 work flow module can be used to facility both instructor collaboration in creation of education materials and students turning in and getting feedback on their work online.

ACS 4.0 will also have tools for internationalization that can be used to provide educational materials in different languages.

ACS 4.0 will also be used to develop Reusable Learning Objects to create structured XML compatible schema for lessons and classes. These will be reusable and could be sold/traded between institutions.

X. Authors

The current education solution represents the collaboration of many people, both at ArsDigita and Sloan. Caroline Meeks should be contacted for any questions on using ACS in an educational setting or producing other solutions similar to this one. Other ArsDigitans who are significant authors and can be helpful with technical questions are Tzu-Mainn Chen, Tarik Alatovic, Crag Wolfe, Scott Meeks, and Randy Graebner. Thanks also go out to Basel Y Al-Naffouri and Eric J. Cholankeril, who contributed significantly during their summer internship at ArsDigita.

On the Sloan team, thanks goes to Alfred Essa, Executive Director, Information Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management; Glen Johnson, Senior Project Manager; Deirdre M. Kane; and Julie Bergfeld.
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