Comparative Study of Open-Source E-Learning ... - IEEE Xplore

Comparative Study of Open-source E-learning Management Platform Jing Liu, Hailong Men, Jun Han Department of Educational Technology Capital Normal University Beijing 100048, China e-mail: [email protected] Abstract—As the result of the economy and operability of opensource software, many countries including China, have applied open source software to education. Following is to compare five current mainstream of open-source e-learning management platforms, which are Atutor, Moodle, Sakai, Claroline and Dokeos. Analyzing from the establishment to the application of the platforms in education, and their main advantages and disadvantages will be summed up in different ways. At last, some problems of the whole E-learning Management Platforms will be summarized. The research can provide users who select the appropriate platform for the different needs with a reference value and promote the development of E-learning Management Platform. Keywords-open source; e-learning; network teaching; platform; comparitive study

I. INTRODUCTION In the informational process of education, any teacher, school or institution who wants to carry on the teaching or teaching management through internet needs an E-learning management platform which supports course design and management of teaching activities [1]. However, since the limitation of the two factors in economic and technical support, Open-source E-learning management platform is the first choice. There are many excellent Open-source E-learning management platforms since Open-source software was brought into the field of education, and some were favored by educators in China. How to choice a suitable education management platform for their own teaching based on different teaching targets, course type, teaching methods and educational investment has become a difficult problem which more and more people must to face [2]. All of the E-learning Management Platforms have some similar functions, while some existence of characteristics. Through making a compare and analysis, summarizing the features of them, to discover insufficiency and provide some suggestions for users. It not only helps users to choose suitable teaching platforms, also to promote the development and consummation of Open-source E-learning management platforms.

II. BASIC FUNCTIONS OF E-LEARNING MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

As in-depth development on the information education, the number of Web-based learners has continued to increase, there are also many new situations, new features and new contradictions in education management. Therefore, corresponding e-learning management platform arise spontaneously which takes the curriculum as the center and integrates "education" and "learning" environment on the network. Through analyzing and summarizing predecessor's research, E-learning management platform should be equipped with basic function of educational administration, education resources management, curriculum management, collaborative management, evaluation management and aids tools. Functions of educational administration is the first, managers can use the platform to carry out school management, performance management, timetable management and so on. Educational resource is the basis of information technology education. A variety of information resource increases rapidly with the deep-seated development of education of information technology. Convenient and effective tools for resource management in education are also an important component of the E-learning management platform, such as document management tools, wiki tools, resource library tools and resources search tools [3]. Also, Course management tools are the core of an E-learning management platform, which mainly including creating courses, course bulletin, teach plan, teaching methods, and learning path. Collaborative learning has been widely recognized as an effective approach to learning, to build a network environment which support for collaborative learning is an integral part of an E-learning management platform. At present, the mainly tools supporting network collaboration are station mail, network forum, internet chat rooms and internet voting. How to appraisal E-learning effective and objective is also a problem in web education at present [4]. Teaching evaluation can be divided into diagnostic evaluation, formative evaluation and summary evaluation, mostly basic on statistical tools, tracking tools, homework system and online test currently. Some group tools, assistant tools, task reminder tools, bookmark and calendar are used to meet different goals and different application environment.

978-1-4244-4507-3/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE

III. COMPARISON OF THE CURRENT MAINSTREAM E-LEARNING MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

There are many E-learning management platforms in the world. After thinking over various aspects, Atutor, Moodle, Sakai, Claroline and Dokeos have been chosen with focus on the analysis of their whole function, characteristic function, Multi-language support and other factors. Summing up their respective characteristics and carrying out target-oriented comparative analysis, the paper is to explore reference information and foundation for different kinds of learners and academic environment when choosing from the five Opensource E-learning management platforms. A. Overview and structure of the platforms Different platform based on the different environment construction, also has different application's localization in the education. The difference of above five platforms will be shown in the following [5]. TABLE I.

DETAILED INFORMATION Overview

The latest version

Name ATutor

1.6.2

Moodle

1.9.0

Sakai

2.5.4

Claroline

1.8.11

Dokeos

1.8.5

TABLE II. Name

Official web site or download address

Developers

one school of Canada

www.atutor.ca

Doctor Martin. Dougiamas Australia University of Michigan, Stanford University, Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Leuven, Belgium a company, Belgium

ATutor

PHP

LAMP

Moodle

PHP

LAMP

Sakai

Java

J2EE

Claroline

PHP

LAMP

Dokeos

PHP

LAMP

·System user-friendly

·Whiteboard compatible accessibility, it is improved easily. ·Supporting audio and video by User plane extra. ·Student can examine their tracking information in learning path, conducive to adjust self-learning. b) Major shortcomings ·Atutor is not well in supporting of learning path in other languages, such as in Chinese. ·Tool of analyzing data of platform is s not good, so it is difficult to tackle the data message in platform in auto. · kinds of aids tools are few, function of platform slightly monotonous. 2) Moodle a) Major advantage

sakaiproject.org

·Function of chat is good, users could exchange easily though it.

www.claroline.net www.dokeos.com

function in Education

management system of course content Management system of Curriculum management system of study management system of Study content http://www.dokeos.co m/

B. Comparison base on Network teaching Online teaching is the main function of the platform; also it is primordial element of evaluating and selecting for a suitable E-learning Management Platform. There are lots of features of the five Open-source E-learning management platforms. 1) ATutor a) Major advantage

·Resources can be downloaded in the form of ZIP, convenient for user to gain resources.

· Tracking behavior of students more mature and perfect [6],teachers can make adjustments timely .

Structure Architecture model

·Function of searching resources is outstanding, then users can quickly find the resources needed.

moodle.org

ARCHITECTURE MODEL AND FUNCTION IN EDUCATION Development language

·Uploading forms of user in bulk is convenient, so, it easy to use existing date source of students.

·Tool of RSS is perfect, easy to subscript resources out of the platform. ·Supporting more languages. ·Promoted good in world, there are many countries use it in education. b) Major shortcomings · Visiting different courses needs different account numbers by one person, it is not User-friendly. ·The curriculum resources are not rich. · Filename of link must be English, causing inconvenience for users in other languages. ·Teacher's function is not displayed very well [7]. ·Uploading forms of user in bulk is hard [8]. 3) Sakai a) Major advantage ·Community on net is perfect, users could exchange easily in it. · It is very convenient to transplant one existence database to the new platform [9], it saves the massive time.

· Tool of archiving e-mail can create and update course group auto, convenient users to transmission e-mail by group.

·Tools of statistics and tracks are good, teachers could discover the problems in platforms and improve it by analyzing these information.

·It is easy to join to other systems, and to set up a more powerful platform.

·It can show personal head photo when talking in chat, so it increase the emotion exchange.

·Having more tools and can be used nimble.

·It has special assistant tool, convent to manage the students.

· It places great emphasis on learning concept of cooperation and interaction [10], so it is suitable to be used in education. b) Major shortcomings

·It can warn of changes in task, to reminder user to complete new task. b) Major shortcomings

·Architecture of system is complexity, and it needs specialists to set up a platform.

· It is not well to support more languages, always appears errors when browsed.

·Interface of system is confusion, it is hard to operate.

·Tools for students are less.

·It is difficult to build a Management platform has personalization. 4) Claroline a) Major advantage ·It is easy to create a learning path, strengthening the degree of controlling the teaching process by teachers. Templates of creating course are very well; it is easy to create a course by user who has less experience [11]. ·It is convenient to manage achievement of students, supervising the students to study. ·Group tool is perfect; it is easy to carry on group learning. ·It can scan out some mistakes in system, such as someone registers to the system by abnormal status. ·It is suitable for educational training. For instance, many schools used it to have training for teachers. b) Major shortcomings ·Function of chat is simple and crude; users are not willing to use it. ·Tools attachment for students is few. 5) Dokeos a) Major advantage · It is easy to create a learning path for teacher, strengthening the degree of controlling the teaching process by teachers. ·Function of supporting video is stronger. ·It supports teaching online Real-time [12], such as teaching through following courseware or video of teaching. ·Test online is perfect, it provides many kinds of test type

IV. CHOICE OF OPEN-SOURCE E-LEARNING MANAGEMENT PLATFORM E-learning management platform supports Material basis for web education and accelerates flowing of information. Open-source E-learning management platforms are still new products in education though there are many kinds of platform in the world. Before choosing a platform, one should consider more about the teaching object, teaching environment and course content. Choosing a suitable teaching platform is still a difficult problem which numerous teachers must to face. Some suggestions may help them. People should consider more about management of curriculum and evaluation when choosing a suitable platform, because the two parts are cores of an E-learning management platform. They can consider the tools more about management of curriculum basics on special goal and environment, such as learning path, templates of creating course, group tool and so on. Meanwhile, how to appraisal the study is also determining factor of choosing one suitable teaching platforms. For example, if more care of process assessment, can choose Moodle, and if care more of summary assessment, Sakai is a good choice. Also the community of Sakai is perfect, if needs more about exchange, it is a good one. Certainly, considering these two parts is not enough, the other four parts are important also. For example, if want to use a database which already existed, best to choose the platform that can upload forms of user in bulk conveniently. And if the user is a new teacher who has little experience of teaching, he can choose Caroline, which can help him to create a course by the template easily. Also, if the course needs more function of video, Dokeos is the best choose. Besides the four parts above, there are some platforms which have clear direction, such as TCExam, iTalc, Mediabird, Omnitux, EduCloud, also there are some platforms for specific disciplines. Users can choose an appropriate one or integrate some of them to explore a new platform. Users have many kinds of combination choices. V.

FUTURE OF OPEN SOURCE E-LEARNING MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

Open-source E-learning Management Platform will continue to develop. And developers should actively probe into

the existing problems, which is a prerequisite for the future development. To synthesize the comparative study of five mainstream Open-source E-learning Management Platforms, finding some problems still existing in the current Open-source E-learning Management Platform, which are mainly manifested in the following four aspects: A. Teacher’s function could not been embodied well As the teaching activity carries on with the aid of network, there is distance between teacher and student in the space and time. It is hard to carry on effective exchange in emotion; meanwhile teacher is hard to control student’s learning activity. Though there are some tools as learning path, tracking device and online test, it can not achieve the degree of teaching in traditional classroom. So, the developer of Open-source Elearning management platforms should do more effort on this area to enhance the effect of network study. B. Diagnostic assessment is shortage Teaching assessment should be divided into diagnostic assessment, process assessment and summary assessment based on function. Each part has different importance in teaching. However, the existing E-learning management platforms almost neglect of the diagnostic assessment of teaching. It dose not forecast of students before teaching, and dose not test the learner’s ability which already have. Maybe the students do not have enough ability to accept the new course content. Carry on diagnostic assessment can coordinate the learner, learning environment and learning activity, to promote development of teaching smoothly. So developers can explore in this area to improve the effectiveness of network teaching. C. Lacking in evaluation-centric and student-centric Expert of J.D. Bransford divided virtual community of network teaching as three models, Knowledge-centric, evaluation-centric and student-centric. Every model has unique superiority. However, most of existing open source E-learning management platforms can only support knowledge-centric learning [13]. It is still a way of teaching in Knowledge-centric, as in the traditional classroom instruction. With the development of teaching of evaluation-centric and studentcentric, E-learning management platforms must care more of those areas. Enhancing student’s independency and validity of appraisal is needed, to improve the validity of study. As a result, there is still much to explore in the other two models. D. Personalized service is insufficient Open-source E-learning management platforms still appear as universal service platforms or service-oriented platforms, rather than personalized service. With the teaching cares more and more about student, platforms in this pattern are not suitable. When student has a platform of personalized, he is willing to study by it, to improve student’s enthusiasm of study. Also, students are easy to exchange by the platform of personalized service. Then the contents of course will be easy to accept, and the effect of teaching will be improved. Therefore, there are broad prospects for developing more functions in personalized service.

VI.

CONCLUSION

Through making a compare and analysis of the most popular five open-source E-learning Management Platforms, the features of these systems are summarize from six different aspects which are logistic managements, educational resource managements, curriculum managements, cooperative managements, value managements and assistant tools. The idiographic project of choosing these systems is also proposed, especially for the concrete goal and environment, such as more attention on course management and value managements. At the end of paper, there is a sum-up of these systems, which suggest the short-comings of these systems, such as the lack of diagnostic assessment, the simplex of Knowledge-oriented, and the deletion of personalized functions. There should be more improvements in those four aspects, to make Open-source Elearning management platforms more and more perfect. Open-source E-learning Management Platforms have played a vital role in the teaching on net, though there are still many insufficient. The development of open-source E-learning Management Platform is a continually explore and improve process, and we trust that with the improvement of the theoretical and the development of technology, it will bring us more surprises [14]. REFERENCES [1]

[2] [3]

[4] [5]

[6]

[7] [8]

[9] [10]

[11]

[12] [13]

[14]

J. H. Li and Y. Zhao, “On the Course Management System(CMS),” Modern Educational Technology(chinese), vol. 9, pp. 64–71, September 2008. J. Zhai, “Reseach on the Comparison of Sakai with Moodle,” Software Guide(chinese), vol. 9, pp. 33–34, Septembe 2008. R. J. Mu, “The Modularized Design for Networking Educational Management Platform,” China Education Info(chinese), vol. 9, pp.20– 21, September 2002. R. Carrier and K. Lisa, “Moodle Teaching Techniques,” English Teacher, vol. 4, pp.75–76, April 2008. H. R. Wang and B. L. Liu, “A Comparison of Moodle and Sakai: Implications for Public Service Teaching Platforms,” Distance Education in China(chinese), vol. 6, pp.67–69, June 2008. B. H. Li, “Commentary on virtual learing environments system: Moodle,” Journal of Shaoguan Universit(chinese), vol. 6, pp.39–41, June 2006. K. McCall, “Technology Tips - It''s OK to Moodle at School,” Principal Leadership - High School Edition, vol. 5, pp.62–63,May 2009. M. Blas, “Teresa and Serrano-Fernández, The role of new technologies in the learning process: Moodle as a teaching tool in Physics,” Ana Computers and Education, vol. 3, pp.35–44, March 2009. R. Wang, “Free and open Sakai,” China Education Network(chinese), vol. 6, pp.63–64, June 2007. Z. J. Tan, X. H. Shi and Y. Jiang, “Construction of Learning Management System Based on Sakai,” Journal of XuChang University(chinese), vol. 2, pp.91–94, February 2008. J. Papastergiou, “Use of a Course Management System Based on Claroline to Support a Social Constructivist Inspired Course: A Greek case study,” Marina Educational Media International, vo44. 1, pp.43–60, January 2007. G. Leurs and J. Roland, “Dokeos,” Linux Magazine - Haarlem, vol. 1, pp.56–78, January 2009. K. Robinson and C. Kathleen, “Encouraging Presence and a Sense of Community in a Virtual Residential School,” Open Learning, vo24. 2, pp.127–140, February 2009. K. Chen and D. X. Teng, “The Exploration of Network Platform Based on Open Source LCMS,” XuZhou Institute of Technology（chinese）, vol. 4, pp.18–20, April 2007.