E Tqf Open Source Lms

Editor's Notes

• #4: A Learning Management System. (LMS) is software for delivering, tracking and managing training. LMSs range from simple systems for managing training records to software for distributing courses over the Internet and offering features for online collaboration. In many instances, corporate training departments purchase LMSs to automate record-keeping as well as the registration of employees for classroom and online courses. Student self-service (e.g. self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g. user notification, manager approval, waitlist management), the provision of on-line learning (e.g. Computer-Based Training, read & understand), on-line assessment, management of continuous professional education (CPE), collaborative learning (e.g. application sharing, discussion threads), and training resource management (e.g. instructors, facilities, equipment), are some of the additional dimensions to leading Learning Management Systems. Most LMSs are web-based to facilitate "anytime, any place, any pace" access to learning content and administration. LMSs are favoured by regulated industries (e.g. financial services and biopharma) where compliance training is essential. Leading LMS providers seek to include integrated "performance management systems," which encompass such functionality as performance management (i.e. period-based appraisals), competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, and multi-rater assessments (360 degree reviews). For the commercial market, the development path for Learning and Performance Management Systems (LPMS) appears to be towards the inclusion of recruitment and reward functionality. With these enhancements in place, the complete lifecycle of student development, from recruitment to retirement, will be covered. LMSs are based on a variety of development platforms, from Java EE based architectures to Microsoft .NET, and usually employ the use of a robust database back-end. While most systems are commercially developed and frequently have non-free software licences or restrict access to their source code, free and open-source models do exist. Other than the most simple, basic functionality, LMSs cater to, and focus on, different educational, administrative, and deployment requirements. Open source and web-based LMS software solutions are increasingly important.
• #5: You will use the LMS to: access course materials (such as lecture slides and assignment sheets) view announcements (announcements will be posted throughout the semester and will contain important information about the subject, such as reminders about an upcoming assignment due date) perform online tasks (such as submitting an assignment). The course outline, lecture notes, assignments, and other learning resources will all be made available through the LMS. In addition, you will also have access to online tools such as feedback quizzes, interactive courseware, and audio recordings of lectures.
• #8: Open source is a development methodology, which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge). Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. See The Open Source Definition for the exact operational definition and examples of licenses that satisfy, and do not satisfy, those principles. Under Perens' definition, open source describes a broad general type of software license that makes source code available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent copyright restrictions. The principles, as stated, say absolutely nothing about trademark or patent use and require absolutely no cooperation to ensure that any common audit or release regime applies to any derived works. It is an explicit “feature” of open source that it may put no restrictions on the use or distribution by any organization or user. It forbids this, in principle, to guarantee continued access to derived works even by the major original contributors. In contrast to free software or open content licenses, which are often confused with open source but have much more rigorous rules and conventions, open source deliberately errs in favor of allowing any use by any party whatsoever, and offers few or no means or recourses to prevent a free rider problem or deal with proliferation of bad copies that mislead end users. Perhaps because of this flexibility, which facilitates large commercial users and vendors, the most successful applications of open source have been in consortium. These use other means such as trademarks to control bad copies and require specific performance guarantees from consortium members to assure re-integration of improvements. Accordingly they do not need potentially conflicting clauses in licenses. The loose definition has led to a proliferation of licenses that can claim to be open source but which would not satisfy the share alike provision that free software and open content licenses require. A very common license, the Creative Commons CC-by-nc-sa, requires a commercial user to acquire a separate license for-profit use. This is explicitly against the open source principles, as it discriminates against a type of use or user. However, the requirement imposed by free software to reliably redistribute derived works, does not violate these principles. Accordingly, free software and consortium licenses are a type of open source, but open content isn't insofar as it allows such restrictions.
• #50: The Architecture of Participation Some systems are designed to encourage participation. In his paper, The Cornucopia of the Commons , Dan Bricklin noted that there are three ways to build a large database. The first, demonstrated by Yahoo!, is to pay people to do it. The second, inspired by lessons from the open source community, is to get volunteers to perform the same task. The Open Directory Project , an open source Yahoo competitor, is the result. But Napster demonstrated a third way. Because Napster set its defaults to automatically serve any music that was downloaded, every user automatically helped to build the value of the shared database. This same approach has been followed by all other P2P file sharing services. One of the key lessons of the Web 2.0 era is this: Users add value . But only a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application via explicit means. Therefore, Web 2.0 companies set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data and building value as a side-effect of ordinary use of the application . As noted above, they build systems that get better the more people use them. Mitch Kapor once noted that "architecture is politics." Participation is intrinsic to Napster, part of its fundamental architecture. This architectural insight may also be more central to the success of open source software than the more frequently cited appeal to volunteerism. The architecture of the internet, and the World Wide Web, as well as of open source software projects like Linux, Apache, and Perl, is such that users pursuing their own "selfish" interests build collective value as an automatic byproduct. Each of these projects has a small core, well-defined extension mechanisms, and an approach that lets any well-behaved component be added by anyone, growing the outer layers of what Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, refers to as "the onion." In other words, these technologies demonstrate network effects, simply through the way that they have been designed. These projects can be seen to have a natural architecture of participation. But as Amazon demonstrates, by consistent effort (as well as economic incentives such as the Associates program), it is possible to overlay such an architecture on a system that would not normally seem to possess it.