Course Delivery Methods

• An old-time Trinidadian Carnival character
  • Represents the beast of burden freed to frolic in the fields
• Learners/Teachers are often "beasts of burden"
  • Collecting and developing good learning resources is a chore
• Burrokeet (the project) is creating an environment for creating Learning Objects
  • Goal is to free the educator from the burden of content creation so they can focus on content quality

• by providing a set of tools for the creation and discovery of learning objects Burrokeet aims to:
  • free the Learner and the Teacher to frolic in the fields of knowledge

We need your input, some rhetorical questions...

• what do you need in such a system?
• can you make use of Burrokeet?
• can you assist in the project?

We'll revisit this slide in a while...

• Collection of learning/teaching materials
• Provides content for learning a particular topic
• Shareable Learning Objects (SLO) are sharable across different delivery platforms
• SLO can be inserted into any delivery tool, such as WebCT, Blackboard, ATutor and Moodle

• Three major components:
  • Learning Content Management System
    • Create and manage a Learning Object Repository
  • Content Delivery Tool
    • Package Learning Objects for delivery in multiple formats
  • Content
    • Learning Objects for various subject areas

• Sharable Learning Object repository
• SLO license management (re-use without changes, re-use with local changes, change original source etc.)
• Standards compliant (IMS Content Packaging, IMS Meta-Data, and ADL SCORM Editing)
• Plug-in Schema-awareness - use the latest IMS Schema - plug it in and go!
• Integrated Meta-Data editor
• Integrated content editor
• Package aggregation and disaggregation

• Multiple input formats (MS Office, Open Office, Docbook, (X)HTML, etc.)
• Multiple output formats (HTML, WML, RTF, PDF, XML, Speech, etc.)
• ADL SCORM compliant
• Embedded Multi User Web Server - one installation for a whole lab

• CS20A - Data Structures
• CS21E - Computer Architectures
• CS34M - Internet Technologies I
• CS34N - Internet Technologies II
• CS35A - Database Management Systems
• CS55A - Database Systems
• CS63A - ECommerce

• Existing work on various aspects of Learning Content Management Systems
• Most are incomplete
  • learning object structure editors
  • learning object content editors
  • metadata editors
  • repositories
  • delivery tools
• Most are web based
  • assume that both the content creator and the content consumer have Internet connectivity

• Burrokeets unique features are (* will be):
  • All in one solution *
  • multiple input formats
    • leverage existing tools and content
  • optimised output formats
    • from high bandwidth to no bandwidth
  • accessibility (voiceXML interaction) *
  • Full system is Free Software (free to do what you want)
  • Provides free (for non-profit) content repository
• Open Source model means you can help with its development
  • if you need a feature or some content you can add it

• will provide a full content management and publishing framework (online or offline)
  • reduce the cost of publishing and distributing educational materials
  • reduce business training costs
  • create a commercial publishing opportunity (not directly a Burrokeet objective)
    • identified by the UN as one of the major ECommerce opportunities for developing countries)

• will provide the start of a Caribbean focused learning object repository
  • reduce the cost of sourcing educational materials
  • provide a means for disseminating research information
• enhance existing distance and continuing education operations

• Content for six courses written
  • need packaging as learning objects
• Delivery system in Alpha Testing
  • this presentation is being delivered within it
  • supports text, XML, HTML, XHTML, Docbook and Open Office input formats
  • supports PDF, SCORM, XHTML, XML output formats
• Learning Content Management System is underway

• Project Lead: Mr Ross Gardler
• Project staff:
  • Mr Rajendra Singh (PhD Student)
  • Mr Anil Ramnanan (full time software developer)
  • Ms Aba-Yomi King (part time Research Assistant)
• Other resources:
  • E-Learning research Group (DMCS, UWI)
    • Prof. Christian Posthoff
    • Dr. Margaret Bernard
    • various PhD, MPhil, MSc students
• Funding: funded until Dec 2004 by IBM (continuation funding being sought)

• we need your input
• what do you need in such a system?
• can you make us of Burrokeet?

Any questions/comments at this stage?

• Use Burrokeet and provide Testing and Evaluation feedback
  • software
  • course materials
• Software development
  • Open Source software under the MIT license ("do what you want")
  • Individual development time
  • BSc/MSc/MPhil/PhD projects (we can help with supervision/guidance)

• Course Content
  • Enhance existing content
    • Existing content under a Creative Commons license ("free for non-commercial use")
• Develop new content
  • your license choice
    • we encourage creative commons - lets create a Caribbean focused content repository
  • testing and evaluation feedback

• Project website: http://burrokeet.sourceforge.net
• Project Management: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/burrokeet
• Mailing list: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/burrokeet-development
• My EMail: rgardler@apache.org

• Don't be shy, there is little documentation in this early stage project, we'll help you get started

you'll be helping by asking us questions of us!